Today was map day, the upcomming Young the Giant Summer-Fall 2017 North America Home of the Strange tour. Clair is providing PA for the tour, will be my first time on their new Cohesion boxes, and will also be my first time on the new Avid S6L 24D. Brave new gear for the brave new world. Will be happy to be able to use Transient Designer and mpressor again, along with the Sony Oxford live plugins. Trying to figure out the best way to lay things out on 24 faders – custom layouts, spills, bank safes, venue mode, inputs/outputs/VCA’s, lions, tigers and bears oh my! Might end up letting smpte do all the hard work, we shall see. Still going to have an Digigrid MGB along for the ride, I’m told AVB will not do what I need. Looking forward to the adventures ahead!

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals
Mehr! Theater am Großmarkt – Hamburg, Germany
September 24, 2016

And this would be aproximatley show number five-hundred for me and Ben Harper. I started august of 2007, and 9 years latter, along comes show 500.

A small few of the memorable moments over the years…..

• Getting a call on the clear-com, with someone asking me when might be a good time to set off the fireworks…..  and then starting the fireworks show at the begining of Mozos guitar solo on “Serve Your Soul” at the Montreal, Jazz Fest.
• Loosing power on stage in the middle of “Keep It Together” at the Montreaux Jazz Fest in Stravisky Hall, impromptu drum solo, power restored, and right into the ending chorus. You gotta keep it together.
• Paradiso, me barely keeping it together as Ben plays “Lifeline”.
• Paris, Folies Bergeres, love is in the air, barely keeping it together as a string quartet plays Adagio for Strings, and then that same quartet on Please Bleed, in that venue…
• Red Rocks, home.
• Paying Radio City Music Hall thousands of dollars to spray magic fire proofing liquid on our carpets.
• Paying Carnegie Hall thousands of dollars for a recording of the show on a CD, that doesnt play.
• But seriously, we played Radio City and Carnagee Hall, so right on.
• Aspen, with the first time I saw a mixing desk tell me it was too cold.
• 4 nights at Sydney Opera House, night 3, “hey, why dont you do that song you do with just one mic?” turning into, how about we do the first half of the set with just one mic….
• Abbey Road Studios (and a coffee mug to remember it by.)
• Kennys Castaways, NYC
• Byron Bay Bluesfest, and the Lord Byron Resort
• 4 nights at the fillmore, and 2 days to rehearse there before hand, a sort of reunion to the neighborhood I had spent a long portion of my life in, in a most excellent way.
• “Welcome to the Cruel World” – so appropriate the day after my backpack was stolen, but on the flip side,  one of those rare moments when “there, I’ve done it, that sounds perfect”. – Tivoli – Utrecht, Netherlands
• Beacon theater with Charlie Musselwhite and the gospell choir.
• Fez
• Brasil
• BHIC / Relentless 7 / Ringo Star / Charlie Musselwhite / The solo shows / Childhood Home

Thank you Ben.

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals On Tour With DiGiCo – ProSoundWed

Full article at

DiGiCo and Rat Sound Help Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals Lose Weight On The Road

“And the acoustics in Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier – rarely at much more than a C-plus level – were as good as I’ve ever known them to be. While the volume was aggressive at points, it never precluded clarity in the mix or inflicted physical pain. (You see? It can be done! Kudos to whoever got it right.)”

http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2014/06/29/montreal-international-jazz-festival-2014-ben-harper-and-charlie-musselwhite-at-salle-wilfrid-pelletier-of-place-des-arts-june-28-2014/

A good friend has convinced me to move to the other side of the snake! This February and some of March I’ll be hitting the road mixing monitors for Gary Clark Jr. supporting Kings of Leon in arenas, with some headlining club shows thrown in here and there. And looks like I’ll be on the Midas XL-8, which sounds great, and luckily I don’t need scenes for this show, as managing them on the Midas consoles can give you a bit of headache when your used to other stuff out there. Should be great though, fantastic sounding desk, and our input list is small enough I can fit it all on the surface with out having anything hidden. Check out the schedule in “Upcoming Shows“.

I’ve also noticed that WordPress.com may now put adds on to my blog and its posts. They do let me use it to create this blog at no cost to me, so I can’t complain, but please know I have not put any adds on this blog, and any adds that do appear are not endorsed by my personally.

No ones or zeros today, was a pleasure to mix on the classic XL-4 and not have to hit a “select” button or change banks. 🙂