Gutter, Justice, and the Fooooo

So I have myself a couple days off which is nice thing to have at the moment although the weather outside is a lil rainy. What can you do?

The last 6 days have found me working shows everyday with at least 1 of those days "double dipping" (2 shows) and another day a very intense work load.

The next day after the Jose Gonzalez show the Guttertwins played the Cabaret in which I worked as well. I had never heard the Guttertwins before but knew it was Greg Dulli from Afghan Whigs and Mark Lanegan from Screaming Tree's.
The load in for this show wasn't anything too too crazy and ran fairly pretty smoothly with their crew who were nice fellows. The show did okay but wasn't sold out as it was the night before for Jose. I had also been hired by the band too sell their merch so I did end up watching the whole show. The opening band was named Great Northern and for some reason I swear that I had seen them before but can't pin point where. The Guttertwins were god but definitely weird as well. About half way through the set Greg Dulli told his band over his mic "I want this too sound like it did at soundcheck. Do what you have to do to make it that way and I don't want to say this again"...!!??...Wow! Way to harsh the mellow. I completely understand there are times where the sound is messed up, or a band member drops the ball here and there but my opinion is YOU DO NOT bring this into the show and expose the audience too this. It's just respectful. For me personally it definitely bummed me out. Then you have Mark Lanegan whom I have never met but the whole show the dude didn't say one word excepts the words he was singing. I know man I know that you have this certain persona/ image but come on......Say hello, or thanx, or rock on, or something....Just standing in the middle of the stage, with your eyes closed holding onto the mic stand is a lil funny. Let Loooooose!!!
After this show was over my little bum sped home too try and catch at last an hour or 2 of sleep before rising at 4:45am to go work another show.- I ended up only getting about 1 hr of sleep.

We had Justice in town who is from France and has a very Daft Punk vibe to them and are fairly big.
They were playing Cepsum which is a 5000 capacity hockey arena in the University of Montreal. This day started so early because we were building the whole show from the beginning too the end. The first thing that we did was unload a semi truck which was carrying all the staging, and all the barricades. I had never been part of a production as such from that level. Yes I have worked many shows, have been to many shows, but I have never built a stage before so I was looking forward to it. There was about 10 of us and we had the 38 ft by 38 ft stage up in about an hour. It was definitely manual work but nothing that we couldn't do...obviously because we did it.
After the stage was set up we then unloaded the Solotech truck (another semi) which was carrying all the sound gear, all the lighting gear, and all the tressels to hang everything on. At this time Solotech also brought in their crew so there was definitely around 30 people there unloading the truck, building tressels, and getting things organized on the floor too make it easier for everyone.
By the time we were done all of this most of the dudes I was working with were let go for the day while a couple others including myself waited around for Myspace too show up.
This tour was a Myspace sponsored tour (geeks!!). Once they arrived we went and helped them unload their gear before being cut for the day to go home.

I came back to the venue around 9:30 because I wanted to check Justice out and see the whole operation in action. The only time I have really heard Justice is here at home when Yannick has his music on. So I was familiar with both of the real big hits which was nice and I actually liked them as well.I do have a soft spot for real controlled electronic music.
Their show was definitely fun too watch and people were loosing their minds mostly I would say because most were probably on some really crazy drugs. I walked up top too the stands to look down at the floor and seeing a about 4000 people loosing it wit some holding crazy glow in the dark toys was crazy too see plus with the lights from the production of the show added a lil extra. Justice had on each side of the stage of them had 9 marshall cabinets (18 total) that were obviously dead and then center stage they had this huge wall/ dashboard of electronics also dead too.
After the show was over we waited for the venue too clear and began the next 5 hours of work.
First we helped get the band gear off the stage and then started actually doing our work by breaking down the sound gear, lights, and finally the stage. After everything was done we loaded the trucks around 2:00AM and a couple others plus myself were then asked to head too the Bell Center with the truck to unload all the staging, and barricades. My ass was definitely tired but also I am stoked to be doing what I am doing and will do what it takes to get shit done.
I ended up getting home at 4 in the morning almost 24 hours after the beginning of the adventure and CRASHED OUT!!!!

March 19th, 2008

The next day I yet another show up the street from my house at a venue named Sala Rosa which is owned by one of the fellows in the MOntreal band known as God Speed You Black Emperor. This show was only a load in/ load out which was nice because at the Bell Center the Foo Fighters were playing with Against Me! which I was pumped about. Both bands I am definitely a fan of and the AM! dudes are friends from touring etc etc so I was a guest of theirs.

AM! played a good set and there were definitely kids into them but over all it was for sure a Foo Fighters crowd.
After the AM!'s played the Foo's then came on and lit up the house. For the first section of their set they had the 4 band members plus Pat Smear and also a keyboard player, violin payer, and percussion player.
I watched about 45 mins of their set and then had too head back to the venue I was working at for load out there which was fine.
The band that was playing at Sala was named A Fine Frenzy but I didn't really watch them so I have no clue what they were about. Their load out took about 15 mins which was nice so I headed across the street to Casa which is Sala's sister bar/ venue. I had 2 friends from California staying with me who were there so I cruised over to have a beer with them.
We stayed there for awhile hanging out, listening to the DJ spin tunes before we headed down too my hood.
Before actually heading home we stopped off at Bif Tek for one last beer which ended up turning into a couple more.
It turns out the Foo's and the AM!'s were at this bar which meant alot of people. As you could imagine people were freaking over Dave Grohl and the others. Yes it was cool too see everyone in the bar but honestly it's no big thing to me personally because I've been around some of these peeps before and I am not someone too really loose their shit over it.
So I was sitting there for awhile with different friends when my friend Dustin came up too me and said I want to introduce you too Dave.
-Dustin is a photpgrapher from Toronto who I have met with the (International) Noise Conspiracy. Dustin also has taken alot of photos of the INC, the Foo's and may many others.....DustinRabinPhotography-
Anyhoo my first reaction was "Why?" and "It's okay man. I am just chilling". Things like this are always a little weird but I rolled with it. Dustin said something in his ear after introducing him too me and so I asked Dave "What did he say?".
Turns out Dustin mentioned I tour with the (I)NC so Dave and I started talking about them as a band etc etc.
I asked him if he was a fan and he mentioned he wasn't that much but kind of used to be. He then started talking about Dennis and Refused etc etc and I said "INC is way better then Refused man". He was like "Being in Refused is kind of like being in Nirvana....there is nothing that is comparable" I am not sure if I agree but it was definitely neat having the drummer of Nirvana say something as such to me....Kind of cool. It was a nice little chat we had all intiatted by his drunk ass. I even kind of grabbed a beer someone had bought and was offering to him out of his hands.....At first I thought it was empty and the dude was passing it over to put on the bar...Wrong. The dude was buying it for Dave but I grabbed it so Dave was already completely hammered and said "no you take it, ive had way too much" which was funny. The dude is a good dude and I have always thought he was real punk which is always nice. I still think that after a real encounter which is always nice.
Keep on