I never thought I would get such a reaction from everyone when I stopped updating this thing. I never really realized just how popular this thing really was. So, with that said, Im going to start fresh with 2009 and revamp this blog.

Wrapping up tour for the year…

The Compromising of… Tour was probably the most fun I’ve had all year. Headlining a national tour across the country in fairly large venues is what most people only dream of doing. I got to not only experience it, but I got to do it with what I now consider my family. Tours have a lot of ups and downs, but not this one. It was a big high the whole time. Night after night, show after show, the crowds stayed strong and the band kept rocking. Our tour blew away every other tour in this genre of music. Not only in ticket sales, but quality too. The bill was perfect, featuring all of the “buzz” bands of 2008. The fans couldn’t have asked for much more from this tour.

I was very happy with the overall tour. The venues were all decent, and I got to hit every House Of Blues in the USA. And yes, you guessed it, House of Blues are still my favorite all around venues. Though, there are a couple of others that come close too. I only had a few scary audio nights on this past tour. Most of the nights I had good rooms, and good PA’s. Matter of fact, I can only think of 3 bad sounding shows the whole tour. Otherwise, every other venue sounded pretty good. If I had to pick a top 5 for best sounding on the tour, it would be:

-The Norva:
You just cant beat a nice v-dosc rig in an acoustically treated room. 4 boxes a side with 2 dV-dosc downfills a side will really surprise you. I came out of the gate at 108dBA at this show and the rig wasnt even breaking a sweat. It just sounded great. Even with all the new boxes coming out these days, V-Dosc still is my favorite all around top box.

-9:30 Club:
Wow. This club was good before, but now with it’s d&b system, it’s really taken itself to a new level. 3 d&b B2’s a side and 8 J8’s a side makes for quite the slammin’ system. Top it off with a Digidesign Profile out front, and you’ve got all the toys you could ever want in one room. I just wish they had a few more subs to really fill out the bottom end. It’s there, but when you really lay into the rig, the low end just runs out of gas and starts sounding strained. Otherwise, it’s a great rig!

-Soma:
A movie theatre gone rock and roll. This is a big room, with a BIG PA. It has a 36 box EV X-array system in this room. Plenty of PA, for even the loudest of mixers. This room just rocks.

-House of Blues Cleveland:
While it’s a smaller HOB, it’s slowly growing on me. The XLC system in the room just sounds top notch and is plenty loud for the room.

-House of Blues Orlando:
It’s a house of blues. What more do I need to say? These rooms always sound good.

2008 was a great year all around. Co-Headlining the AP Tour in the spring, Six Flags in the summer and then ending the year off with a big Headlining tour. I met a lot of great people over the year, and formed many new connections. I went from a small town nobody to a national touring engineer in a matter of months. None of this would be possible if I didn’t know ATL back in the day. Every day I think about just how lucky I am to have gotten this opportunity.

2009 holds a lot of potential as well. A new album in the works, A big support tour in the spring, a summer headlining tour and then hopefully a big big big fall headlining tour. Ill have more on the spring tour soon. Stay tuned…

However, I must say that I am currently enjoying my time off. After a year of touring, 3 months vacation is really nice. Waking up in my own bed never felt so good. I enjoyed being home with my family for the holidays, and starting the new year off at home. It’s nice to just sit back and relax every now and then. Im getting back in touch with the local music scene and my local production company.

Of course, Im sure everyone is asking: Where are the pictures!? Well, Im currently uploading about 100 of them to a server where you’ll be able to access them all. Ill be posting a link with my next update shortly.

Back to the world of rock and roll…