Martha Wainwright Day 7, New York, NY

So, like I mentioned, today is a little different. Martha is singing Piaf songs in at the Spiegeltent down at the Seaport. I picked them up and we headed in for soundcheck. We allowed extra time today because we knew it would be a bit of a funny set up.

After playing with a couple of stage configurations, we found one that worked and stuck with it. It wasn't too painless. And then, to top it off, they let me leave the van behind the stage! That changed the outlook of the entire day for me. To not have to worry about parking a large vehicle in the tiny old streets of Lower Manhattan is priceless.

The show was a little light on ticket sales originally, but there was a great walkup crowd and we ended up having to remove all the seats and make the venue standing-room only. It was pretty wild. The show was really interesting, really different, but lots of fun. Guests included Kate and Anna McGarrigle, her mom and aunt, and her brother Rufus. She could absolutely do a tour of this music if she wanted to, and the crowd loved it. It was a little weird for me because the sound console was in an area where I couldn't hear, but I made it work and got lots of compliments later in the evening.

After the show we had a little reception at a private bar on site and said our temporary goodbyes. The band is heading around Europe and Australia for the next 2 months, while I toil around North America. We'll likely all see each other again in December.

And with that, another string of shows is over, and I have no time off yet again. Tomorrow is financial reports day, followed by prep work for The Stills. We start in 48hrs...

Martha Wainwright Day 6, Brooklyn, NY

I didn't have to wake up early today, but guess what happened anyways... I've been conditioned and it blows. Then there was the construction, the school buses across the street, the honking, the general noise... I didn't stand a chance, so I gave up and started the espresso machine.

I didn't really have to do run around today, but it's my catch-up day for paperwork, etc... With all the driving after the shows, I haven't had the chance to do as much office-work as I'd like, which I would usually do in the hotel after the show. On top of that, I had meetings with one of the Chromeo guys for our October run, and The Stills for our stuff that starts later this week, so the day flew by.

Despite all this, I still had lots to sort out for the Martha show tomorrow at Spiegelworld, which is a little different as she's performing songs of Edith Piaf with a different configuration of musicians, and there's lots of stuff that's only getting sorted out today. Also, if any of you are familiar with the actual Spiegeltent where the show is, at the South St. Seaport in Lower Manhattan, you'll understand when I say I had some really weird feelings about it... I figured the only way to figure this show out was to go down in person and case the joint, so I did.

After dinner, and sacrificing my Monday Night Football plans, I took a train in to the city and tried to find the venue, and a place to park a van, and I'm really happy I did. It took a little while for me to find the actual entrance and where to pull in, and it took even longer to find lots where I could park a van. Turned out to be time well spent. And I even made it back for the 2nd half of the football game. Barely made it through the whole thing before I passed out...

Martha Wainwright Day 5, Northampton, MA

I slept for a little while last night. It was good, but as usual, 8am wakeup call for yours truly. We have a 4 hr drive to Northampton, MA, today, and once you factor in my pickup schedule and driving through Brooklyn...

It was a relatively painless trip I suppose. Highlights include homemade guacamole courtesy of the guitarist. Nice. We even ended up getting in a little early, so we got set up fast and everyone went to explore the neighbourhood, freeing me up to do some work.

Tonight was another one of those dinner-type shows. The Iron Horse is a well-known signer-songwriter type venue, tables and chairs everywhere, and an audience that's happy to be there. It made for a really good show, but again, no time to hang out afterwards. We had to make the drive back to NYC. Ouch.

I didn't even notice what time it was when I got home, but it was close to 3 am for sure. As tonight was the last full band show, everyone took their gear with them, so I didn't have to worry about secure parking, but it took me about an hour to find street parking near my place. When you're within striking distance of your front door, that really hurts...

Martha Wainwright Day 4, New London, CT

Today sounds simple, but that's usually not the case now, is it? Tonight is a solo show at the I AM Festival in New London, CT, so it's just me and Martha, my car and a 2.5 hr drive. Or not.

My day started early as usual. I had to go in to Manhattan and pick up the van with all the gear and bring it back to Brooklyn for the night. I need it near me for tomorrow morning so I can avoid an extra 2hrs of travel then. The thing about being where I am is that every time you need to do something that involves Manhattan, you have to allow one hour. Pick up the van: 1 hr. Bring van to Brooklyn: 1 hr. Get car, gas: 1 hr. Guitars from van to car: 1 hr. So, just like that, a quick drive up the 95 has turned in to a 4 hr NYC marathon before we even left. I was only picking up Martha at 2pm, so I left my place at 8am...

So it all worked out. We made it to the festival, and it was wild. It was kind of like a hardcore/punk/emo festival. It was kind of small too. They had a hot dog vendor though, so the boss treated me. Nice.

The show was short and sweet. A few solo songs, the kids liked it, we sold some cd's by the side of the stage after and we headed out. We actually got back to Brooklyn around 11pm, which is by a longshot the earliest night I've had in weeks. It was awesome. Tonight, I sleep.

Martha Wainwright Day 3, New York, NY

So I dragged my exhausted, and mostly unconscious, body out of bed and on to the train for the 45 min ride in to Manhattan. I had to go pick up the van with all the gear and get to Radio City Music Hall by 9am to load in. Then I had to wait at the venue til 4pm. Amazing.

I only got there about 20 mins late, which is kind of a miracle in New York traffic, loaded in, parked and headed inside. It's kind of spectacular to walk in to a venue like that. It's one of those places that you only ever see on tv, so to actually be working there is pretty incredible.

I was hoping that once I had the gear inside I could crash in the dressing room for a while, but that hope faded fast. I ended up getting drowned in phone calls and extra paperwork and sleep has evaded me yet again. I did escape at one point to get coffee, but it was so disappointing... Oh well...

Eventually the band showed up and we waited to soundcheck, and our check ended up being pretty quick. The headliner went a little late and we were confronted with union rules, so everything had to be done at a certain time to guarantee a dinner break for everyone. We got through, but just barely.

We only had a 40 min set tonight, which was a pretty big change from the usual 120 mins, but it was alot of fun. The band played well, Martha's mom came out for a song, it sounded great, and it was really fun to mix in such a classic venue. I can now say that I've made it to Radio City Music Hall.

After the show everyone scattered pretty quickly to go for dinner together, but I got stuck waiting to get paid and to load out, which we were only allowed to do once the entire show was finished. It was a little long, but whatever. At least being a theatre show, it was all over relatively early, so I was out by midnight, and 20 mins later I was in the East Village with friends with a cold pint of Guinness.

Martha Wainwright Day 2, Philadelphia, PA

I tried to get up early enough today to get breakfast at the hotel. Good in theory, bad in practice. It was terrible. With dulled enthusiasm, we hit the road to go to Philadelphia. Fortunately we did really good time, so we were able to stop quickly for real food once we got in to the city.

We were at World Cafe Live tonight, which is a really nice venue, almost like a dinner theatre with all the tables and chairs. It was a good show, and after it was done we wasted no time getting in to the van because we had to drive back to Brooklyn.

It usually sucks to have a drive like that after a show, but sometimes you get little gems... A couple of us were able to form a very detailed plan on how to take over and dominate the internet, and possibly end up owning Google. It's kind of insane, but so wild that it just might work. Stay tuned... Internet domination is at hand...

By the time I was done dropping everyone, and the van, it was about 3am. Not good when you have to load in to Radio City Music Hall at 9am the next day...

Martha Wainwright Day 1, Washington, DC (9-10-08)

I haven't had a break yet after getting home from the European dates with Chromeo. I've spent the last 2 days preparing for my run with Martha, and the first show is tonight at the 9:30 Club in Washington.

The day started off like any other... Woke up, hopped in the van and picked everyone up before heading out of town. The thing about that is that when you live in New York, picking people up adds some serious time to your travel. It took me 3 hrs to drive around Brooklyn and get everyone, and when you add that to a 4.5 hr drive, it can get long... I had to leave my place by 8am so we could get out of the city for 11am, and even then we left a little later... Alas.

So the drive down was uneventful and we actually got the club a little earlier than I'd expected, so all was good. It was a pretty smooth afternoon, and I actually got a dinner break, which is rare when you are tour managing and doing sound on a tour. I was able to hook up with one of my friends from the Sean Lennon and Morcheeba tours and we hit up a wine bar for a quick dinner.

The show was interesting for me tonight. It was their first show with a new guitarist, and with no dedicated keyboard player. As a result, some of the keys parts were played on guitar, and some were changed a little so the guitarist and bassist could play them on their smaller keys setups. It was definitely a different sounding band from the last time I did a show with them in July, but it was cool. I think it's going to be a good run.

After the show, we headed over to our hotel, which was sold out for the night, so it was good that we had reservations. Despite that, there were still a couple problems with the rooms. In particular, I was given a key to a room that already had someone in it, so in an effort to find an empty room, the front desk sent a security guy up and down the hallways opening doors until he found an unoccupied room. Amazing.

Chromeo Day 18/19, Brussels, BEL, Then Flight to NYC.

This was a long one. It started with a ferry back to the main island of the UK, a drive across the southeast, a ferry to France, then a drive up to Belgium. The first ferry ride was uneventful, the second was a lesson in turbulence. It was beyond rocky, to the point where one of our guys was sitting down, white-knuckled, and very, very green. It was pretty amazing. The other highlight of the voyage was another one of us finding a crushed bug in a roll of toilet paper. It doesn't really take a whole lot to amuse us.

Aside from that, the 11hr drive was pretty uneventful. We pulled in to Brussels pretty much on schedule and proceeded to set up for the show which was on the roof of a parking garage. It was special.

After soundcheck, we got to the hotel quickly to drop our bags and then went out walking. We were right by the Grote Market, which is one of my favourite places in the world, so I had to see it. It was particularly awesome tonight because there was a massive beer festival in the square. People were stumbling, screaming, chanting, cheering and, of course, drinking. It was amazing. Of course, given our luck, we got there too late to buy tickets, so all we could do was watch. We ended up sitting down at a patio just around the corner to have some dinner, talked for a bit to the people at the table next to us about the history of war in Europe, checked out the square one last time and headed back for the final show of the tour.

It went pretty well once again, but only after our tour manager literally kicked the dj off the stage so we could start. The dj had 3 warnings... He was not a happy dj. Security sided with our tour manager though, and the dj was escorted away. Eventually they worked things out and an all-out rumble was avoided. After the show we didn't hang out too long, because in the spirit of living the dream, we got right back in to the van to drive to London. Yes, we though it was insane too.

So we drove through the night. We dropped one guy at Gatwick, and me and one more at Heathrow. In theory, it was good to get dropped off at the airport. In practice, it was ridiculous. I got dropped at 9am because the guy at Gatwick had an early flight. My flight was at 4:30pm. This is one of the cons of my job.

I tried to move my flight up, but no go. Not for $250. I considered going in to the city, but I was burnt from the overnight drive to make it worthwhile. So I gave up. I checked in, went through security and began the wait. I somehow found a quiet area, which I didn't think existed in Heathrow, and sat in a chair for 7 hours. I did not get up once, and I didn't really care. I was too tired to move. There were a few other people around me who had been waiting almost as long. It was funny to watch them all try to sleep or read with no success whatsoever. I was in the same boat though. It was a whole lot of no good. I decided to just turn off my brain and do some people watching. I was pretty dazed from the whirlwind of driving the last couple days, so my goal was easily achieved. Eventually, around 3pm, I started feeling alive again, and I ended up talking with someone across from me for a while before I had to go to my gate.

The flight itself was painless. No screaming babies!!! I guess I finally earned a quiet flight. I couldn't sleep to save my life, but I didn't care. It was quiet.

After 8 hours in the air, I landed in NYC, ready to crash for the night. Then I made the mistake of turning my phone back on. The voicemails and emails poured in, and before I was even in the cab, I was taking care of my next week of dates with Martha Wainwright. Living the dream...

Chromeo Day 17, Newport, Isle of Wight, UK

This was another early morning. We had to get to the airport and fly back to London, then drive 3 hours to Isle of Wight to play Bestival. You would think with a name like that , it would be the best festival... Names can be deceiving.

We knew it would be a long day just based on the flight alone. We were surrounded by screaming kids, and the ones behind us peed in their pants and spent most of the flight throwing up. It was absolutely horrid. And all that was between the times they spent kicking our seats. Quite possible the most unpleasant flight I've ever had, and I fly alot. The parents thought all this was cute. We thought otherwise...

Then we got to the venue, and it was a mess. Nothing but mud. Deep, wet mud. Not good mud. We were scared to drive down the road to the stage because we didn't want to get stuck and not get out. They had already closed some of the roads on site...

We did make it to our stage in one piece, but it was a mess. I decided very quickly that I wasn't going to walk anywhere but the stage, and even that was covered in mud. Fortunately we didn't have to hang around too long. It was our turn soon enough and we were up and running pretty fast. My night was a little frustrating because I had a house tech playing with my settings the whole show. That never happens. It's not supposed to happen. It's a first order violation of etiquette, punishable by firing. Usually when you walk in to a festival, you get complete control of the whole sound system, and you run it how you want. I've never had a problem. The guy at this place apparently had a problem, because everything I changed got reset when I wasn't looking. Not cool. I told him to back off, but there was no change. It was pretty lame and I was really happy to get out of there.

We didn't have time to get dinner at the festival, so on the way back we drove through town to try and find food. We settled for a little hot dog hut and got some dogs, which, again for some reason, ended up being some kind of spicy sausage. What's up with that? The dogs were terrible, but necessary, but the fries were pretty good, so we survived. We went back to the hotel pretty quickly after that because we had another painfully early departure to drive to Brussels.

Chromeo Day 16, Geneva, SWI

The first part of the day was painless. Airport was easy, flight was good, and the person who greeted us in Geneva had Toblerones. Life was good. And, to top it off, we had a but of extra time, so we were able to go to the hotel to crash for a bit before going to the club.

Tonight was a bit of weird one. It was a corporate show for Diesel Jeans, celebrating the opening of their new Geneva location. Good for them. Where are my free jeans...? At least they took us out for a good dinner, that was a nice touch.

We went back and did the show, it seemed to go pretty well. All the Diesel-wearing folks seemed to like it. Or maybe they just liked that they were at an exclusive event... Who knows...

After we were done, we were debating wether or not to stick around. It was kind of early still and we weren't quite ready to crash. Fortunately, the decision was made easy when our hostess informed us that we had access to the bar that was in our dressing room. We ran in to a minor problem when we found out that the drinks were dispensed by a computer controlled system, but we worked out that kink in a matter of minutes. In no time at all, we were serving everyone backstage.

It was going really well for a while. Then, when I was pouring a drink for someone, the bar manager walked in. Turns out we weren't supposed to have access to the bar we were told we had access to. Oops. I played dumb for a second, pretended I was just playing with the machine and couldn't make it work, and he left the room for a minute. Then he came right back with a flashlight and inspected all the bottles. It was time to leave the room.

For a few minutes, we were successful. The manager was walking around the bar looking for us, but didn't see us. Then I remembered that every time we poured a drink, the computer spit out a receipt on the counter. This wasn't good, so I went back in on a suicide mission to recover all the receipts. Worked like a charm. Went back out in the club for a bit, manager was still on the hunt, and then the house lights came on. That was the cue to bail. We set up an elaborate system of surveillance so we could retrieve our bags from the dressing room, but that failed miserably when we turned around and the manager was standing there with the head of security. Turns out every time you pour a drink, a duplicate receipt is printed in the main office. They were coming right at me when a Diesel rep stood in the line of fire to take the heat. That was all the motivation we needed and our artist rep scurried us out the back door and in to a cab.

If nothing else, at least we took a night that seemed like nothing and turned it in to a decent story...

Chromeo Day 15, London, one more time...

Another day on the slow side in the Grove. The name of the street where we're staying is Hammersmith Grove, so we've just started calling it the Grove. Slow days consist of getting up around noon, going downstairs for coffee, going back up and sitting on the windowsill for a while, spend some time people-watching, and eventually coming up with a plan for the evening.

Today was daring. We actually walked down the street for coffee. It's slightly more inconvenient than just going downstairs, but it had to happen. First of all, the coffee is just better, and second, after almost 2 weeks of going to the same coffee shop once, sometimes twice a day, the staff at Cafe Kristof still won't even say hello. We've tried. We're always nice, we try to talk to them, we're regulars. Nothing. Not even "hi", never a "thank you". There was one guy who sat and talked with us for a bit the first week, but that was the only time we saw him so we figure he got fired for having a personality. So, off to Cafe Brera we go.

It was a windy day, very cold, the coffee was good for that. We also had some entertainment for the afternoon. The pub across the square had a patio set up, and the wind was so strong that it was blowing full pint glasses off the tables. We saw about 5 of them smash on the ground, chairs were blowing around, etc... It was pretty amazing. After a few minutes, someone finally went out and shut down the patio and put away all the tables and chairs.

For the evening, the plan was to go meet another friend of mine, from France who was in town for the day, from whom I received a last-minute message. So we went out to Camden where, for the first and likely last time of my life, I bought Chinese food from a street vendor. I've had better meals...

Anyways, we went to a club called Dingwall's to see a show by a guy named Thomas Dybdahl. He was pretty good. After the show, we went to the pub upstairs, which was a little on the dead side, so two of the people we were with went down to recruit some show-goers and bring them upstairs. It livened up for a bit, and we met a few Norwegians who were fascinated by the Canadian health care system. They ended up leaving with us when the pub shut down, but we couldn't find another place to go so they ended up bailing.

The rest of us walked around for a bit and eventually called it, but not before buying hot dogs from a street vendor, which were not at all dogs, but lamb sausages, and searching hopelessly for the bus back to Hammersmith. See, in London, the trains stop running around midnight, and it was about 3am. We had a problem. It took some work, but we did find the right bus stop and hopped on for the long ride home. On the bright side, it was the first time any of us had taken a ride on a London double-decker bus, and we got the front seats on top. It was pretty cool, as far as bus rides go.

Once we got back we crashed pretty fast. We had to be up at 6:30 to head to the airport...

Chromeo Day 14, London, UK

Today was another quiet day in the Grove... Walked around a little, went for coffee... For dinner I met a friend I hadn't seen in a while, who now lives in London, and went out for some Indian food on Brick Lane, which is an area densely populated by Indian restaurants. Afterwards, we had a quick drink at a complete hole-in-the-wall, and that pretty much capped the night. Nice and easy.

Chromeo Day 13, Drive to London

Today is drive day, and I'll be damned if I'm leaving without breakfast, so I got up early enough to enjoy the free, mediocre, hotel breakfast. You get what you pay for sometimes...

We left the hotel around 11am and began the trek back to London for 3 more days off. Highlights include stopping at an outlet mall in Swansea and ordering a couple pizza's from Domino's when we got back. Which brings me to my next point...

It's really nice to have 3 more days off in London, but it's freaking expensive! When I called Domino's, I asked what the specials were and we ended up going with 2 large 3 topping pizzas. In Canada or the US, that might run you about $20 for delivery, with the tip. This cost us £26. That's $52. For 2 large 3 topping pizzas. Think about it.

Chromeo Day 12, Stradbally, Ireland

So, about that stuff I said about the hotel staff last night... I was hoping that things would be different this morning when I went to find breakfast, but no such luck. Again, the front desk and concierge were utterly useless, even downright rude, and none of the staff I passed in the halls would even say hello. I will specify that this commentary is not meant to reflect on the Irish people, because all the ones we talked to last night were great. I just think that no one likes working at this hotel.

But so be it, on we go. We made our way over to the Electric Picnic in Stradbally, about 45 mins from our hotel. We got there just early enough to have some nasty catering dinner and get setup. Again, we were put in the dance tent, but the people still came and loved it. There were a couple other bands we were hoping to see tonight, ie The Sex Pistols, but the timing was all wrong. We didn't stay too long after the set.

Once we got back to the hotel we went by the pub in the lobby again. It was pretty quiet tonight, it was Sunday after all. Of the handful of people there, a couple ended up sitting down with us. Turns out one of them is the guitarist with George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars / Parliament / Funkadelic, or whatever the band name is now. We ended up hanging out for about 3 hours, just sitting around talking. We heard lots of stories about his grandchildren and why the monitor man is so important to a band. Solid.

Pretty good way to end the evening.