Chicago, Illinois

Chicago...the Windy City......good thing the Cubs weren't in town.... the wind was blowing in, and they need all the help they can get..... Wanna know how I know the wind was blowing in? The venue was right across the street from Wrigley Field (falls to his knees and bows, chanting ohmmmm....ohmmm......) The venue was cool, except for the fact that the stage was upstairs with no elevator (ACK! ANOTHER TIN HELL FLASHBACK!!!).... it´s a DAMNED good thing they had a load in crew... I´m not about to carry 4 Intellabeam cases, 3 cable cases, and that fuckin´Show Power case, which weighs 500 lbs, up a flight of stairs....I went exploring after getting paid , and stumbled into an Oriental import store.... this place was COOL....got a nice present for my wife.... went to the gig, snapped a pic of Wrigley... That date was my wife´s 28th b-day.... poor girl had to spend it alone...... she knew the hazards when we met.... I´ll make it up to her..... sent her a card signed by everyone in sight on this bus, even the driver, Dickie Fut..... and not to mention the nice jacket I got her in Toronto, which fit everywhere except up top... Anyway.... the gig was cool.... In NY, the guys filmed an episode of Oddville for MTV.... they did their song Believe..... the reaction the song got in Chicago made me think that the Oddville episode had aired.... but it won´t until August..... anyway.... people were freaking... it was great... maybe these guys should have considered hanging around the states for a few months.... milk the Oddville thing.... after all, White Zombie´s entire career was made by Beavis and Butthead raising their fists and screaming "YES!!" to "Thunderkiss 2000"... we loaded outta Chicago, and I fell asleep on the bus... (no shower) When I woke up, we were just west of Minneapolis/St Paul..... Then, the most amazing discovery was made.... these dorks, namely Biggi, have been holding out on me....he had a PC laptop ALL THIS TIME, and DIDN´T TELL ME!!! (everyone else here uses Macs)(flail) Oh well.....he has no modem. Lotta good that does me.....and...it only has MSIE 2.0..... really useless...(laughs) Some really whacked-out Japanese girl was having everyone sign her boots outside the Metro when we were done...when it got to be my turn, I wrote,

Looks like someone doesn't quite understand the concept... it's not BOOTS you're supposed to offer for autographing.... it's BOOBS!!! (laughs)

She wasn't amused.

Next stop- Vancouver, BC, Canaduh!

Technically Speaking

The entire show was finally programmed when I came up with the lighting for "Remembrance", my favorite song of the show... It was very, very simple... Magnus was the only one on stage, other than Biggi and Steph.... All the beams were aimed at him, dot gobo and very dim (this song also had the best video.... Magnus riding his motorcycle through Iceland)... No front lighting at all... When it came to the rockin parts of the song, I put the gobo wheels on full blast rotation, and when it slowed for him to do the Icelandic reciting of the copyright laws (yes, that's what he's saying), the gobo wheels stopped on the dot gobo, and I faded up the I-Beam on the floor behind Magnus, making it the only light on the stage, in full intensity, making him one huge shadow puppet for when he says the word 'Steevot' (forbidden)..... Try that with a stupid High End controller...(laughs) It rocked. I also changed the way Believe was done, making the lights move more with the music... Even Marko liked that one...(grins)