Well, somehow the planets all lined up, or maybe it was the ducks in a row. Whatever. I got the green light to hang with the guys from Joe’s tour.
So early on the morning of August 29th, I picked up Chris at Detroit Metro. He was flying in from Philly after doing sound for some shows with Five Times August.The rest of Joe’s band and crew were to arrive in Fremont, OH on the tour bus later that morning. After a quick stop at home to say hi to the family (and pets), Chris and I headed for Fremont.
Due to some heavy rains the day before, the dirt track where that evening’s show was to be held, was a muddy mess. So muddy, in fact, that the equipment trailer had to be unhooked from the bus and hauled by tractor to the stage area, to avoid getting the bus stuck in the mud.
In addition to battling the mud, the crew’s progress was also hampered by a group of listless local stagehands, who were either drunk or high, or both. Despite all these hindrances, the stage got set up, and soundcheck began. Since the bulk of the sound system is provided and set up by a local contractor, it’s often a crapshoot when firing up the first sounds. But today, as Steely Dan’s “What a Shame” wafted from the JBL Vertec rig, Chris seemed pleased. He normally runs through about a half-dozen sonically challenging recordings (including Vince Gill, 311, and of course, Steely Dan) to “tune” the PA – or balance the frequency ranges, to get a more consistent sound. Once this is dialed in, the band takes the stage and begins the sound check.
Since the front-of-house mixing console is all digital, most of the settings for the show can be stored and recalled, saving a huge amount of time getting a mix at each venue. Once the band’s sound is tweaked in, Joe will occasionally join them on stage to go over a few tunes. On this day, he did – sporting gym shorts and an Arkansas Razorbacks t-shirt.
Sound check was wrapped up by around 3:15, so Chris, Josh (monitor engineer) and I headed back to our house for dinner, and some relaxing. After some fine Cottage Inn pizza, and a run-in with some angry bees on the deck, we headed back to the venue (Sandusky County Fair), this time with my wife and daughter. They would be driving our car back home after the show, since I would be heading back to Nashville on the bus.
The show went well, and everyone seemed to have a great time. I shot about 360 images that day, most of them during the show. I avoided the ‘pit’ (area between audience barricade and stage) because of large, muddy ruts and clumps of clay. So I ended up shooting most everything from stage right, near Josh, in monitor world.
After the show, I shot some meet ‘n greet images of Joe with fans, as well as some of the load-out. Then it was off to the bus to hang with the guys, while preparing to depart. Once the trailer was hooked back up to the bus, and Taylor had settled up the merch numbers with the promoter, we made a quick stop at a nearby McD’s and then rolled on to Nashvegas.
(Link to Part 3 below)