Hollis

Another Day Another Field

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Jul 172011

Starting to really like the little iphone camera

From 2011 Warped

Nice work, phone

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Good name

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And suddenly, Viola! I have an analog console

From 2011 Warped

Hmm, which band is postering the water sellers?

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Now that is rockstar parking, some luck sound guys get their bus right next to the stage

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FOH… aprox 15ft, I mean 5 meters, (were in canada) from the doors

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Inside FOH

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Sharks!

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The mic-that-cannot-get-unplugged

From 2011 Warped

(shortly thereafter was completely disassembled by a stagehand. Lived about two weeks. The pink tape is for artists who want to look cool by cupping the mic. Cupping the mic sounds bad so I put bright pink tape on the body, indorder to not show it, the artist has to keep their hands where they belong, if they stray too far well, pinks not everyones favorite color.

Tornado Rider

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Jul 092011

Yeah, that happened

From 2011 Warped

Vegas, Illinois, Detroit, Chicago

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Jul 092011

Ah, the Beautifull Sights of Amarillo

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Apparently Panda Express is somewhere around the Grand Canyon.

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And then, good morning Indiana

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Showed up a bit too early in Detroit

From 2011 Warped

my stage wasnt even set yet.

Catering had to set up on the sidewalk

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The floodgates release!

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What do you do with a dancing guy with a wireless cello and an elf hat?

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Apparently… jump into the crowd

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The day’s lineup, pretty typical

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Its not quite mayhem, but pieces of cymbals are indeed flying around

From 2011 Warped

Windsor Drive was great. Mom, you’d like them.

From 2011 Warped

and the view from the stage

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Now thats a big theater

From 2011 Warped

LA, SF Bay, Ventura

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Jul 032011

Shade is at a premium out in pomona

From 2011 Warped

Shoreline

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Early early in the morning

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Somehow there is a car parked in FOH. Dear car please GTFO.

From 2011 Warped

And New Year’s day polish’s off their set by spraying the crowd with fake blood

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And finally Lord Byron

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New Mexico, Vegas

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Jun 302011

My view when theres no band on

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Lets play whats wrong with this photo…

From 2011 Warped

Yes, the crowd is, in fact, on the wrong side of the barricade

From 2011 Warped

How did this happen? I blame the Exploited.

Heres how fancy my stage looks when folded up in Vegas

From 2011 Warped

In case you’re wondering how to set a kickdrum mic for a metal band

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Vegas in the morning

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And lastly, Sharks

From 2011 Warped

On the road to vegas

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Jun 302011

Something happens to the generator and we lose power.

Babbyfood walks onto the bus “hey, why are there no lights?”

Response “how many soundguys does it take to fix a lightbulb?”

And some shows

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Jun 282011

This time I’m working the Kevin Says stage. Now this stage is unusual for several reasons. One, its solar. Its got an array of panels on the roof and giant batteries underneath. Two, we dont get a truck. So all my gear and all the backline have to ride on the stage from show to show. So far the pack is this:

From 2011 Warped

Very interesting with fitting it into the space that is left behind after the stage folds up. Stage manager Stu has it down.

And what do you know, it folds out too

From 2011 Warped

Yes that band is called what you think it says

From 2011 Warped

and after three hard days, let the hotel lounging commence

From 2011 Warped

Staying in the high desert of New Mexico now. Its over a hundred during the day and very windy at night. Theres a stillness here too that you only get in the desert. Looking out my window now theres people in the hottub, which I cannot begin to fathom.

The Country Throwdown crew arrived today at the same hotel, so its an unusual meeting of tours passing in the night. Lets see if we can get all the rats together for some quenching of thirst.

From 2011 Warped

Day 0: Preproduction

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Jun 242011

Dallas, TX

A little bit warm (95deg) and taking full enjoyment of the sun. By that I mean 70spf sunscreen and hiding whenever possible. The usual scene as I leave the bus, “Where the he** is my stage?” Pick a direction and start wandering. Find a truck that might be it then follow it around till I learn that all my PA is in the mainstage truck. Go hang with the mainstage guys till they get to my gear in the nose, then borrow most of their hands to push it all the way to the other side of the venue (parking lot). Send the guys back and watch as my stage unfolds. Once the stage is set its time for some gear. Roll my gear up and get to work. First issue of the day, my power comes from a wing distro with needs to plug into a big power source with cams. What do you know, the solar stage doesnt have cams, what does it have you might ask? Just a two pairs of quadboxes. Interesting. One phone call later and I’m opening up all the racks (by that I mean the one and only rack I have) and rewiring their power cords into two power strips and two 5ft extension cords. Why not all on one power strip? Well these are giant amps which draw a lot of power, the most common max you can get from a household outlet is 20amps, but the max you can get from a household powerstrip is 15amps. I need all the power I can get hence running the subs amp straight to the wall, and splitting up the amps for the high frequency drivers amongst the powerstrips. This got everything running but then appears the second issue of the day: not enough returns for the monitors! Only three returns were left open on the drive snake for four monitor channels. A quick consult with the crew chief Tommy and mainstage FOH Babbyfood and it was decided that means two channels of something needs to share. Originally, combining monitor mixes was considered, but ultimately thrown out for running the 15″ lows in mono. With rat traps (as mains) there are 4 different sizes of drivers, add subs and that gives you a 5 way system. Subs are almost always run in mono since human hearing cant tell which direction low frequencies come from. Since the subs are 18″ drivers and the lows are 15″ I dont lose much of anything by running them in mono too. Just unplug the second drive line and switch the amp over to parallel. Made some loud noises then loomed some cables. On tour theres no time to set up cables one by one, or time to troubleshoot and backtrack one end of a cable to another. The solution is to tape everything together into big bunches. That and yelling at any stagehands with knives at loadout and youre good to go. As the sun gets low its time to throw some tarps over everything and call it a night. Time to back to the hotel for hotel shenanigans.