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boputnam
09-27-2008, 06:18 PM
Ya'll come, ya hear!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass - No. 8 (http://www.strictlybluegrass.com/)

Golden Gate Park, free. 3rd -5th October.

5 stages, all sorta music. Many peoples... :)

Schedule, below.

Friday's line-up includes:

Star Stage
10.30 Ruby Jane
11.30 MC Hammer

Banjo Stage
14.30 Sharon Little
15.35 Jerry Douglas Band
17.15 Robert Plant & Alison Krause, with T. Bone Burnett

:applaud:

SMKSoundPro
09-27-2008, 06:44 PM
which stage are you working?

Fred Sanford
09-27-2008, 10:14 PM
Just saw some of last year's, on PBS. Great acts, but they only showed about 2/3 of each song.

je

boputnam
09-28-2008, 02:15 PM
which stage are you working?Load-in/load-out Banjo and Rooster; crewing Rooster.

SMKSoundPro
09-29-2008, 12:31 AM
Darn!

You'll miss MC Hammer on the STAR stage.

"can't touch this; Hammer time!"

Just saw HSB on PBS tonight. Man, it looks like a lot of fun work!!!

Good luck and keep us posted.

Scotty & Lisa.

BMWCCA
09-29-2008, 06:55 AM
Asleep at the Wheel and The Waybacks! The former I've always wanted to see in person and the latter I just missed locally a couple of weeks ago (I was out of town) but I've seen them three times. Highly recommended. Hopefully their set will be long enough for them to do their mandolin/guitar/fiddle version of the Dead's Dark Star. The last time I saw them they added Danny Barnes' banjo to the mix. Great group. Warren Hood and James Nash are superb musicians. And I'm really not a bluegrass fan. To paraphrase James Nash, The Waybacks got their first #1 slot on the Billboard Bluegrass chart by issuing an album with no bluegrass on it (Loaded (http://www.waybacks.com/merch.html)).

boputnam
09-29-2008, 07:27 AM
Darn!

You'll miss MC Hammer on the STAR stage...
Yeah, probably miss Jerry Douglas, Robert Plant & Alison Krause, too. System load-in takes a pretty full day per stage. Stage is set, but the lighting trusses are enormous and hang about 4-ft off stage to get the lights mounted (anyone know what the pennies are for...?). We can't hang until that gets done and is raised. At Rooster we hang about 10 V-DOSC per side, and ground stack 4 SB218's per side. It takes a while to get the hardware sorted out and installed so the hang is just right - optimum throw over the field. And, we take it slow - saftey first. Then we have to stage the stage - get everything into position and wired. Lots to do... :)


Asleep at the Wheel and The Waybacks!
You just made me realize I've links to both.

My band opened for ASATW way back in the late 1970's at the Golden Inn, outside Santa Fe NM - long since burned to the foundation. And, I've worked with James a number of times as engineer for smaller ensembles. I knew the Waybacks in their first iteration - quite a few members were friends. Even played some harp at a local General Store gig - but that goes back about 10-yrs, I'd guess.

Hell, I need me a rockin' chair... :p

boputnam
10-02-2008, 09:14 PM
So, like, we loaded-in Banjo (main) Stage today, but had to leave room for Robert Plant & Alison Krause's gear. They are bringing a couple semi's, two tour buses and 35 in their entourage (so sez the Rider). :blink: They are mid-tour and I hear have 7 more semi's of PA, lights and stuff circling while they do this opener with us.

We have PM5D's at FOH and monitorworld, but they are bringing their own Heritage 3000 for FOH, AND their own snake, by-passing pretty much everything but the hang (8 V-DOSC (http://www.l-acoustics.com/fichestech/vdoscgb.pdf) per side; side-fills SR and back-field are ARCS (http://www.l-acoustics.com/fichestech/arcsgb.pdf) (pretty much my favorite cabinet... :) )). Ka-ching $. I guess another H3000 at monitorworld??, but we'll see.

All our gear is under tarps for the weather, and outa the way for Friday's evening delight! Buddy Miller is sittin' in with them. I sure hope we get the Rooster up and tuned in time, and can wander over for that set. :dancin:

boputnam
10-09-2008, 04:09 PM
Widget chastened me for no follow-ups. I've been too bushed to sit-up and type...

After four-days - 2-days of load-in and 2-days of crewing and FOH engineering - we got the systems at all 5 stages down, cased and trucked within 2-1/2 hrs after the last act. Pretty amazing effort. Some rain Friday night cost a few power supplies on two of the PM5D's at Banjo, and we at Rooster developed a nasty GL buzz (we think related to the downstage 48-input stage box getting doused by an awning wind dump...), but nothing major.

The acts were stellar. Of all I saw and worked, Krause / Plant had the worst mix. Ironic. After all their effort to get their own system in, the engineering job was the least subtle - lacked dynamics, lacked definition and had a whopping response peak 2.5kHz to 5kHz that was real difficult to endure, and was overdriving the outputs (no excuse for that). There were 3 of us FOH guys sitting at FOH, watching, and cringing at the product. One of them was Krause's 14-yr veteran FOH guy. He was almost in tears.

Crowds were bigger and better behaved than ever. We added delays and side-fills to a few of the stages, and will have to increase those assets next year. Gotta get the music to the people... :)

btw, Warren Hellman, the benefactor of this, turned 74 this year. But reportedly, he established a trust (or somesuch) to provide for at-least 15 more years of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass should he not be around. Thanks, Warren, for your incredible generosity to perpetuating music of all genre's.

You-all should mark your calendars and think about visiting the Bay Area next year, first weekend of October...