It’s 9:00. a.m. Saturday morning time to get up. We’re working on Kenny Wayne Shepherd today. 

Kenny Wayne Shepherd is a blues rock guitar player who was discovered as a child prodigy. He started playing at age seven, and was discovered at age thirteen. He took seven singles into the Top 10, and holds the record for the longest-running album on the Billboard Blues Charts with Trouble Is… He is one of my favorite players to listen to, so I’m glad to get a chance to work with him, his band and crew.

So far the day is going well. Hunter his Monitor engineer and Mike his Front of House engineer have been pleasant to work with. Even one of Kenny’s 15 year old sons is working on the road crew. And doing a great job. It’s nice to see a young man learning stagecraft, and making his father proud. The day is pretty easy. The band is self contained, having their own gear, but is using our PA and monitor wedges and amps. “Racks and stacks,” as we say.

This is the beginning of a long weekend for me. As soon as the show is out the door, I will be heading to LAX to catch a plane to Atlanta, Georgia. I wish I were traveling for pleasure but that’s not the case, as I am headed for a friend’s funeral service. A celebration of his life. That’s how I’m thinking about it.

More about that later.

Right now the band is on stage playing. They sound great, just as I thought they would. There’s a full house, filled with audience members screaming as loud as they can while the band burns through the set list. I’m gonna enjoy the music, it’s always lucky when a band I actually like plays on my stage. So I’ll write more later. Cya.

It’s 11:00 p.m. The show’s over. We’re loading the trailers. Twenty minutes later everything’s out the door. I’m signing out and heading to the airport.

It’s 12:52 a.m., and I’m at LAX. Sitting on the ground in a corner outside of the TSA checkpoint, because, I’m told, the terminals are all closed until 3:00 am. What the fuck? I can’t go through the TSA checkpoint at night? America. Not the greatest country on earth. Can’t even keep an airport in one of the world’s largest, richest cities.

open at night!

Anyhow, let’s get back to the reason I’m traveling this evening after a long day of work.

The celebration of life for my friend, Peabo Bryson.

I knew Peabo for somewheres around thirty years. We met on stage. I am a stagehand and he was a vocalist, a really good one. And famous. But that’s not why I became friends with him. He returned to our venue every year. Year after year. Not just to make a living, but he loved our venue, and particularly the people who worked within it. And when he visited, unlike most performers, he spent lots of time talking with us and enjoying our company – as we did him. Eventually we exchanged phone numbers and would occasionally talk on the phone when we weren’t working. I’d spend hours enjoying long conversations with Peabo, talking about all kinds of subjects from racism to religion and science. And then about writing. When I started writing my memoir, he was one of the people who gave me much encouragement. He even told me a personal story which I put in my book. A piece of music and personal history which I may have been the only person he had ever told it to. Offered up as advice to me about a situation I was going through. Peabo always gave good advice. Then later he told me he had started to write too. When I saw him at Christmas time for his concerts, or when we chatted on the phone, he read me some of his brilliant writing. He was so intelligent, and kind. I will always be grateful that we became friends. So when I heard he had a stroke I contacted his wife, who he had introduced me to a few years ago (and his son). But the day after that, I heard he had passed away. I was incredibly upset.

Soon after, his family contacted me and invited me to Atlanta to attend his service. Being poor, and having not worked much in the proceeding weeks, I debated whether I could afford to go. I started quickly looking into the cost of travel, and if I could even find a flight that I could bend my schedule around. I just couldn’t say no to the invitation, though, and finally as I was talking to my coworker, Tony, he said, “Don’t worry about the money or anything else, just go. He was your friend.” Peabo himself would have told me to go too, to make an adventure out of the opportunity to travel, to live life. So here I am, on my way. On the way to honor the memory of a friend who embraced me as his family. Who advised me in hard times, and who took the time to care. I will miss him.

Okay, I’ll write again about the adventure when I get to Atlanta.

I arrived in Atlanta and traversed the airport, it’s huge. Then I took the MARTA (light rail train) to within a block of my hotel. A great deal at $2.50. Just tap any ATM or credit card. I received a text from Jon, my FOH engineer at work right before we pulled into 5 points station on an empty train. “Apparently there is a FIFA fanfest going on right now in Atlanta by the wheel.” He said. And when the doors opened, so many soccer fans got on the train that there was barely room to stand.

But I made it to the hotel, where Kia at the front desk had saved my whole trip the day before due to a Priceline SNAFU!, And when I asked for her she gave me my room key without even having  to look at my ID. “ I know EXACTLY who you are!” She said upon our meeting. So now, a shower and a nap are in order. Then dinner, which I’m greatly looking forward to, as Atlanta has great Southern cooking. I’m hitting Mary Mac’s Tea Room, it’s an institution!

It’s Monday morning and I’m waiting for the number 2 bus, which will take me to Peabo’s celebration of life service. After a short trip I arrived early and met up with friends from Peabo’s band. I ended up sitting with Regina Troupe, one of Peabo’s backup singers and her friends who I knew from work. I met plenty of people who he had befriended over the years. People who had traveled from all over the world to be here. The services were moving. I cried a little. Everyone’s stories bore similarities to my own and stories of Peabo, and the stories I tell about our friendship. It’s truly amazing how many people’s lives he touched. Many people spoke about how  Peabo enriched their lives. In between speaking there were musical breaks. It’s a Baptist church so the music and choir were great. Be Be Winans sang a song as did Ruben Studdard (who I hoped to talk to, but for such a big guy he disappeared quickly) and then Regina Belle definitely gave Peabo a fitting send off to heaven, singing Can’t Nobody. Her rendition gave everyone a joyful moment, which we all needed.

It was nice to meet so many good people, knowing they cared for my friend and theirs.

Sorry I don’t have photos from you, but I hope you understand.

There was plenty of media  coverage though so I am going to leave links here.

A short news article about the service: https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/livestream-peabo-bryson-services/85-305c882e-ca46-4181-a360-411aa4b264e8

Here is an interview with Regina, who I spent the service with:

And a live feed of the whole service, if you are interested:

Anyhow it’s time for another good meal! After the service I changed clothes and grabbed my camera. I walked the streets downtown shooting video for my stock collection until well after midnight. While I was at it I did a little pub crawl, stopping at places with good craft beer and drinking. Near the end of the night I ended up at a place in a basement called American Dive Bar. I spent some time listening to a cover band and drinking with a crowd of IBEW electricians, who were in Atlanta for a big convention.

Here’s some photos of my wanderings around the Midtown area of Atlanta.

I also had a nice conversation with Jimmy the audio engineer. Then I walked and shot more videos until I was able to stumble back to the hotel. Now it’s noon and I’m getting up with a hangover to seek out another good meal. I’m thinking fried eggs, sausage and of course I’ve gotta have grits!

I’ve been wandering around Georgia tech campus. The university is amazing. I just wandered into a building in the manufacturing related disciplines for mechanical engineering and material science and engineering Department. They had an incredible machine shop which I shot a lot of video in. The people are very friendly here.

Out for my last dinner at a place called Max Lagers, they brew beer. I’m ordering a BBQ Creole shrimp dish, and a flight of beer. I’m not drinking any more tonight!

After my meal I continued to shoot video until I couldn’t walk anymore and now I’m going to sleep. I have to get up early for my flight home tomorrow. Now I’m posting this from the airport, sorry if there’s spelling errors etc. All in all, my trip to Atlanta, Georgia was not what I expected. This is a beautiful city with great eats, awesome bike infrastructure, ( I wish I had time to ride) and friendly people. I always wondered what kept Peabo living in Atlanta. We spoke many times about racism, and his personal experiences with it. He was always fighting for peoples rights, the right for people to vote, civil rights, and made every effort to educate people who thought narrowly. When he first arrived in Atlanta it was a different place from what it is now. And I think his efforts had much to do with that. I’m not saying that racism and prejudice is completely gone, but while I was here I saw many rainbow flags, and people of all races getting along and living peacefully together in a beautiful city. So Peabo’s efforts were not lost. He was a great person who I will never forget. He befriended many people like me, and spread his love widely. Rest in Peace Peabo!

The post Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Honoring the Life of Peabo Bryson in Atlanta. appeared first on Dangerd.

During the last week we hosted an event for the changing of the Mayor. Basically a special city council meeting. So our job was to recreate the city council meeting chamber on our stage complete with audio, video and lighting in order to webcast the meeting out to the city TV station.

This is a gig which we have done on quite a few occasions (and at different venues).

Since the theater is in the middle of changing all the mid level management and operations personnel, for various reasons which I will not opine upon here, there was absolutely no plan for the day from above. And that meant that I was left to plan and work out the complete wiring of the event (as far as all video was concerned).

Luckily I have done this gig enough to have a good idea of how to get the thing done in my head. I consulted the city’s video guy (who works at the council chambers) in order to make sure my plan would work for his purposes (which it mostly did with just some minor adjustments).

So I proceed to lay out the cabling and network cables needed to make it all work.

Below are photos and information about the build of the event.

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My primary job on this show is as the house V1 (video engineer). But I am also doubling up as an A2, which has also kept me pretty busy working to fulfill the needs of Ian Smith the company’s Sound Designer. Mostly my A2 skills are being used just in case things go sideways! I will take care of everything in the orchestra pit, while my friend and coworker, John, the primary A2 for this show is handling things like getting lav mics on to the actors. He and Genna wired the microphones in the orchestra pit earlier. John doesn’t work as an A2 very often, and this is a big job for anyone.

As the V1 I am responsible for making sure that any video related needs of the visiting company are met. I’m working with Greg Mitchel, the company’s Projection Designer to do so. And there’s a lot! The company is doing some complex image mapping using a pair of different ultra wide lenses. Last week, in preparation for this opera I changed the lamps in our two 14K Christie Roadsters and discovered that one of the lamp driver boards went bad! So that threw a monkey wrench in things. The rental projector came late on the first day that the opera company was in the room and we had to take down our projectors again (We flew them after I changed the lamps for a show the evening before the opera showed up.) Then we rigged up the rental projector and hung both projectors back up with the company’s lenses, after testing. One of the lenses the opera rented had a bad motor. I had to disengage the focus motor, then zoom and focus to the approximate dimensions we needed. Then there were two 150 ft cables which we ran from the fourth floor balcony that went bad and had to be replaced for the supertitle projector.

Every day something new has been added to the gear in the orchestra pit, not unusual for a show that’s just being teched for the first time (being put together)- but a little annoying. We will move all the gear off the tech tables and relocate it a few hours before showtime on the day of the first performance. So there will be that to deal with. Hopefully all goes well. 

At least the show looks and sounds great! And the company’s technicians and cast have been really friendly and cooperative. Although the work has been hard and the days have been busy, I hope that they will return for another event.

I’m working seven really long days in a row, and everyday more hours get added for me to come in to work early, or leave late. That’s fine with me, I love making the overtime hours!

I also had to act as a medic one day when one of the actors, Vitor, a Brazilian ballet dancer, choreographer and actor scratched up his arm on stage. It was a pretty minor injury, and I fixed him up in no time. He’ll need a surgeon for the horns, though!

I’ve been writing this over a few days. We got the show up and running with only minutes to spare. Everything during the two show runs went great, and the show was a hit with the audience!

The post Assyrian Arts Institute, Gilgamesh: The Opera   appeared first on Dangerd.

Shane Henry and Maggie McClure, a husband and wife duo, first started out without even having a band name. They wanted a name with boldness, adventure, and big dreams. Shane finally came up with a name and logo, which came to him in his dreams.

As it’s kind of hard to become a musical star in Oklahoma, the couple headed for Los Angeles. Now they have a couple of albums released. Their music is full of gritty blues-rock riffs, mesmerizing vocal harmonies, driving pop-rock tunes, heartfelt singer-songwriter ballads, delicious guitar tones, and dazzling solos. They’re really good. I actually enjoyed listening to them from the wings.

The band included Ryan Miller on Bass https://www.instagram.com/slapmillerokc/

And Jordan Oliver, on the drums. https://www.facebook.com/SoulBubble

Everyone in the band was super easy to work with and as friendly as could be.

We were all impressed with Shane’s guitar pedal board and the great sounds which he could produce with it. He explained that he and his father in law had a business building guitar pedals, Westerlund Audio. Shane described the Westerlund ONE pedal as his desert island pedal and the Swiss Army knife of pedals. For more information visit www.westerlundaudio.com.

Check their website at https://www.imaginariesband.com/ for more information about this great band, their history, touring schedule and merch!

Some more band links:

https://www.instagram.com/imaginariesband/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/imaginariesband

https://www.youtube.com/theimaginaries

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We semi-recently did two shows with Rob Kapilow and his series, What Makes it Great? I’ll write here about the show titled, Beethoven’s First Symphony, the other show was about the Beatles, as I have no photos of that one!

Kapilow performed at The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts 

https://ccpa.cerritos.gov

Rob has been returning to the Cerritos Center for thirty something years, three or four times a year. So it’s easy to say that he has been here more than any other performer in our history. And that’s great because he is a pleasure to work with, and is also a very talented musician, conductor, author and performer.

From Rob’s website https://robkapilow.com/

“Rob Kapilow “gets audiences in tune with Classical music at a deeper and more immediate level than many of them thought possible,” hails the Los Angeles Times. In a three-part format. Kapilow dissects a musical composition. The pieces are performed, and a lively Q&A concludes the evening. “You hang on to every word and note,” says The New York Times.”

Essentially he takes a piece of music, breaks it down, explaining each part of the composition in language that anyone can understand and tells the audience what makes it great. He also gives the audience background about the composer/ musicians who wrote the piece so that the audience gets a good idea about when, where and why the music came into the world. His show is always fascinating and I never fail to learn something about the history of music.

The Beethoven’s First Symphony show was of course interesting, informative and something to hear. Rob played along with the Fullerton College Symphony.

https://music.fullcoll.edu/index.php

The Fullerton College Musicians often accompany Rob, and they are extremely talented. The school has, over the years provided many musicians for this endeavor and all the many generations of students have been exceptional musicians.

Some quick video from rehearsal.

The other show we did with Rob Kapilow was about the Beatles. I didn’t really have time to write about this show as I was busy preparing for a corporate event which followed the morning after. So sorry!

Here you can find his books through this search link: Rob Kapilow’s Books.

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Next up was British Rock Royalty with Brody Dolyniuk. This is only one of Brody’s many shows and includes the music of The Who, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Queen and Led Zeppelin. Brody has been at our venue many times, and his production value is high as Brody cares a lot about every little aspect of the show and is involved in everything. He is a perfectionist. There’s always a good light and laser show. Brody and his band are great musicians, and they play the songs of all these bands better than anyone else you’re likely to see in concert other than the actual bands themselves. So if you see his name on an advertisement anywhere- go see the show. You are guaranteed not to be disappointed.

The last show of the weekend was a matinee with Frankie Avalon. Frankie is another performer who has visited many times. He is a great guy. His band includes two of his sons, Jr. who plays drums and Tony who this time played bass, but also sometimes plays guitar. The sound check went late due to the band members getting stuck in bad traffic here in Los Angeles. Frankie was not even able to check with the band, and then, only sound checked alone fifteen minutes before the doors opened! But Frankie was easy on us as usual and only took about three minutes to get done.

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With a swinging rhythm section (Bass and Drums), and full complement of a horn section, and two fun frontmen. (Plus a great guitar player and keyboardist) And if that’s not enough there’s the added bonus of beat box to liven things up! If you want to see a great energetic and highly entertaining band, Phat Cat Swinger is one for you. They are off to do some shows in Las Vegas next, where I’m sure they will be greeted with enthusiasm.

After their set, and a quick four minute change over of the stage Jay Leno came out without announcement and made the crowd laugh until they cried. He has been here a few times, and I wrote about him in my book, Stagehand: A Backstage Pass to my Life Stories.

Jay is always friendly and happy. When he arrived he came to our crew break room to say hello to everyone. Afterwards I presented him with a copy of my book. When I stopped by his dressing room he was skimming through the pages. He commented on the chapter about Art Garfunkel. Apparently Art is well known as the guy I wrote about in the first part of the chapter about him. I’m glad to have yet another chance to work with Jay. He is one of the most down to earth entertainers who I know.

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But today I want to talk about the heart of what makes a theater: its crew—and specifically, some of the new young people.

If you’ve read my book, you may remember a chapter about a new kid I called Ducky. That was eight years ago—and wow, has he become an important part of our organization since then. Right now, he is technically my supervisor. Crazy.

As amazing as his rise has been—from a new person with almost no knowledge of the business to where he is today—it isn’t unique, just highly unusual.

We now have a new batch of “kids” (they’re really in their twenties, but they’re kids to me). Some are outstanding.

Let’s talk about two of them.

First, there’s Jason.

Jason is a bright young guy who wants to work as an audio engineer, and as you can see, he’s already moving toward that goal. As it turns out, he’s also one of the more gifted new hires—although he doesn’t know it, even if you were to tell him.

I’ve also taught him how to run our video rig, which he learned faster than anyone else I’ve trained. He’ll need to work on his confidence, but he absolutely has the potential to thrive in this line of work.

Right now, my top pick to skyrocket to success is a young woman named Sarah. She is, without question, the brightest, most organized, and most driven new technician I’ve seen since Ducky showed up on our doorstep.

I keep thinking she’s been here longer, but she says it’s only been about nine months.

She excels at nearly every task we give her—and then some. Ducky had even started teaching her the art of mixing monitors until our Executive Director put the kibosh on that effort. Which brings me to the “troubles” section of this post.

One of the reasons we need to teach a “new kid” how to run the monitor board— one of the most technical and responsible jobs in a venue, is because we no longer have anyone doing that job in-house. We are currently relying on contractors.

Our monitor engineer/audio assistant, Kerry, stepped down from mixing. He simply didn’t need the stress anymore. The place burned him out. After mixing hundreds—literally hundreds, possibly thousands—of shows, along with many other duties, he’d had enough. I empathize completely, as I stepped away from mixing myself years ago. Not gonna mix again.

We were all hoping Ducky would step into that role, since he had been mixing frequently as the second monitor engineer and had become extremely good at it.

Good luck keeping track of this story!

Last year my ex-roomie Jack retired. He was our front of house engineer. (Main sound guy for the civilians out there.)  He was replaced by everyone’s first choice: Jon, an incredibly talented and knowledgeable engineer.

Then my longtime friend, business partner, and other ex-roommate Tom—our Operations Manager and Technical Director—also retired. After almost a year, he was finally replaced by Steve, one of our smartest and best technicians, who had been working in the city’s IT department. (Steve had also been a monitor engineer here before leaving to IT.) He was fired without cause after only a few months.

Then Paula—our Stage Crew Supervisor and my favorite boss ever (and everyone else’s too)—was promoted to the front office. A big step up in pay and prestige. While this was a huge loss for the backstage crew, we were genuinely happy for her. (The smart move would have been to keep her backstage and pay her executive wages.)

After a loooooong time, Paula was replaced by Brenda, a valued tech, especially on the lighting crew. Brenda lasted only a few months before being let go in the middle of a workday.

Meanwhile, Rogan—our Master Carpenter/Rigger and union president—finally retired after years of talking about it. His assistant, Alma, had already left more than a year earlier and was never replaced. Her position remains open.

Ducky, realizing the audio assistant job was unlikely to open anytime soon (based on the painfully long delays in filling other positions), applied for assistant to the Operations Coordinator. Both Ducky and a wonderful, talented young technician named Tori were hired. Everyone was happy—both are incredible people and excellent techs.

Then our Operations Coordinator, James, decided he’d had enough of the bad management above him and quit. His job was integral to our operation, especially since he had already been covering the duties of the Stage Crew Supervisor, including scheduling the crew.

Which meant Ducky and Tori were suddenly doing all the work of the Operations Coordinator, the Stage Crew Supervisor, and their assistants.

So now they’re my supervisors.

Circling back to Sarah: our Executive Director has now decided that since Ducky holds a coordinator position, he can’t touch the soundboard (because union blah blah blah). Which means he can’t teach Sarah—or Jason—how to run monitors.

P.S. Ducky is also on the union board. Bet you didn’t see that coming.

Simple, right?

The Titanic has hit the iceberg, and our Executive Director is trying to turn the ship around for another pass.

What’s holding this place together now is a handful of longtime crew members and the courage and dedication of a few young technicians who have stepped up to enormous challenges under chaotic and deeply flawed management.

So kudos to the “kids.”

My hope is to work another couple of years, helping these young crew members carry this place forward for decades to come and live the dream—just as my friends and I did for so many years.

Fingers crossed.

The post Pam Tillis, Lorrie Morgan, New Kids and Work Troubles appeared first on Dangerd.

I think when I retire, it will be safe to say that this will be the act with which I have worked longer and more days in my career. 

I’ll leave you now with a short video which I shot backstage as the mariachi bands played in the green room together after they arrived and before soundcheck. And some photos from tonight and the past.

Above mariachi bands Sol de Mexico and Mariachi Reyna De Los Angeles rehearse backstage.

And below,

And a memory from the past. One night working the MerryAchi Christmas show I had to clear some mics and cable for the dancers, but they went on too fast! I call this video The Mariachi Stomp. 

That guy getting stomped on by the dancers would be me. I had to run out and clear a cable and mic stand! Don’t get in their way!

Photos and video from past shows below.

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Guitarist Terry Sylvester of The Hollies told me the story of how it accidentally became their biggest hit during sound check tonight.

“A DJ in Germany was playing the A side of the record we recorded, it was late and he was feeling lazy- so instead of getting up out of his chair to grab the next record to play, he just flipped over the record on the turntable and played its B side. And the song on the B side was “Long Cool Woman.””

“Long Cool Woman” wasn’t like our other songs, it didn’t have the three part harmonies we were known for. We figured that our fans wouldn’t be interested in it. So we used it as a B side song, nobody expected anyone to pay any attention to it at all. But as soon as that first guitar part started playing, the red lights on the DJ’s telephone switchboard started lighting up! People started calling in like crazy, and the next thing you know we were on a world tour with a number one hit song.”

Also, tonight The Lovin’ Spoonful played. Rob Bonfiglio, the guitar player (also, Carnie Wilson’s husband), has been here many times with various bands. Rob last played here with Al Jardine and the Pet Shop Band, who I wrote about in a previous post.

I was glad to get to see Carnie, who I missed at the Al Jardine show because I was so busy. But she has always been a sweet person who is always friendly to me. So I quickly ran backstage to say hello, and had a short chat before going back to work on stage.

Talking to Jeff Allen Ross, the keyboard player (and vocalist) of the Hollies and Lovin’ Spoonful, we found out that we are practically neighbors. So we talked, naturally, about our shared home turf.

Closing the evening was Gary Lewis and the Playboys.

So all in all a good day on the stage. Filled with interesting conversations and talented musicians. Pretty much why I decided to dedicate most of my life to this business in the first place.

Photos and video below.

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