Mercury Rev returns to the US, and after a break through April, we head out on a US tour, supporting the Doves around the US, but first we head out to the west coast to play the Coachella festival. We are the second to last band on the second stage, and out at FOH there is a Midas Heritage 3000, that I can set up pre set before our show, good deal. Thing is, the power supply is not liking the voltage its getting from the genny supplied power, and was shutting down during the day. So it just sat there and collected dust while everyone mixed on the new PM5000 that didn’t seem to mind the power.

And how about the PM5000? Well, it’s mic pre’s seem to sound really nice, though the eq’s still don’t do anything for me. Slightly better color scheme. Tons of doo dads and features, but didn’t do much for me, not that I’m complaining.

I bought an ishuffle, and I find it incredible amusing at the moment, this stick of gum type thing that cranks out tunes, and it sounds pretty good to. This is actually my second one, as the first one went through the washer/dryer in a pair of pants. It came out nice and clean, but would not play any music. Though it still works just fine as a USB memory stick, so now I have one for music, and one for all those fancy digital desk show files.

Right before we started this tour, the Doves had to pull out of the first couple of west coast shows due to some overworked vocal cords, so we continued on as headliners, in some smaller venues at last minute. After LA our first stop is San Francisco where we play at the Independent, a short walk from home, which was nice. You can see info on the Independent here. The show goes well, though Oliver is not happy with the Soundcraft 500 at monitors (and I don’t blame him!)

We head up north to Seattle, for a show at the Showbox. While the XL-3 that is in there now is nice, with a sidecar for support acts, I really liked when they had the Gamble in here. I find a blown driver in the Nexo rig. No big deal, not great attendance, so the boxes that worked covered things just fine.

Then on to Portland for a show at the Aladdin, and one of those Crust Crest desks, I like this place though, nice little theater.

And then we find ourselves with some time off, I think there was a vancouver show in the mix, but without the Doves it gets pulled, so we have some time to make it out to Colorado for the next show, so we decide to head for…

Yellowstone National Park. We make our way out to the park, bus, trailer, and all. We figure that the park can handle it as some RV with a car in tow are as big as we are.

We stop up in the near by town the night before and rest up before driving through the park the next day. It’s pretty quiet in town, as we learn the the road that goes all the way through the park only just opens the day we want to drive through it. What luck, a little earlier and we would have been sadly disappointed. But it looks like the roads are clear, and we stock up on food for some picnic action, eh boo boo?

So the next day we head through, and it lives up to all its expectations. Beautiful scenery, wildlife, natural wonders, it’s all there. We saw herds of bison walking right next to the bus, we saw wolves, elk, a bear, old faithful, waterfalls, and bubbling pools of mud.

We make our way in the west end, and out the east. The road was dirt in some small sections, but well maintained, and was no problem with the bus and trailer. Once out the other end we found a picnic grounds with some out door bbq’s we could make use of, and made our selves some grub.

A long drive through Wyoming, and then through Colorado to Boulder, and we arrive with an afternoon off in Boulder where I grew up as a kid. Great to be in Colorado again, and cool to spend some time and walk around town through some of my old haunts. Lots of really cool neighborhoods here right on the foothills, too bad it’s all silly expensive now, I’ll have to wait until I win the lottery.

Our show was at the Fox theatre, my first time in there, and dig the classic Soundcraft Series IV they have in there. Once a great desk (and a beast of a thing), and for a time, in the 90’s it was a great classic, but now it would probably be best to just retire the thing to a museum. I don’t know if it’s dried up capacitors or what, but the 20+ old Soundcraft desk just don’t sound like they use to, and the eq’s just stop doing anything useful. It was sort of fun to mix on that old beast though, all antique and whatnot.

After our show in Boulder we have yet more travel days as we head out to Minneapolis for a radio recording that goes well, and then on to Chicago to finally join up with the Doves at the Vic theatre. But first, on the way, more sight seeing. We head for Mount Rushmore, but sadly it’s a bit, how shall we say…, foggy…

Bad weather aside, we take a trip though the badlands. Definitely worth the detour as we brave the rain. I’d love to return here sometime when the weather is a bit better.

We join the Doves for the rest of the tour, and I get to take the Digico for a test drive. Paul with the Doves treats us well, and gives me all sorts of tip on working with the desk. When all was said and done I liked it. It sounds good, the eq’s are useful, the compressors aren’t too bad, it’s easy enough to get around on, though the touch screens can be a git finicky, seemed to work better if you used the other side of your finger, tapping it with your nail. The rope lighting seems to do a so so job of lighting up the surface, bit I just can’t help that but think it looks a bit 70’s disco.

It got a bit freaky towards the end of the tour, as Paul would get the local PA sounding as good as it could, and I had all the songs saved as scenes. I’d hit recall and there it was, just like yesterday, and the day before. Things got so easy it was a bit freaky, but I got used to it. 😉