The Rubb
Tampa rocked....on the bus ride there, I got my first exposure to
what Gusgus is all about with the "Barry" video they
showed me...I got to see the "banned
version"...something about the censors not liking the farm
animal scene at the end (laughs)... Actually, it was a little
homoeroticism done by Magnus, the guitarist, and Steph, the
band's DJ.... Steph puked his guts out after filming the
scene...... Now, I kinda had a feel as to what Iīm in for.... we
get to the gig, and our sponsor, Dr Martenīs Shoe Company, was
kind enough to fork over for a crappy lunch at some place across
from the venue...one of those rat bastards stole the itinerary I
was given the hour before that Marko, the tour manager and other
Token American on the tour, so kindly make for us......
Anyway....we finally got set up, programmed, and I got my first
taste of Gusgus.... they were right.... the concert music is MUCH
more aggressive than the CD... It was a very entertaining
evening, except for the fact that Georgia didnīt show...I
already got my explanation..... did dinner across the street from
the Rubb at a place called Cherrys with the local crew, who it
turned out was my all time favorite band Savatage's old crew.....
So.... as we were heading out, we noticed a stench coming from
the bus....the fucking GENERATOR burned out.... spewed water all
over the place....(KILL THE BUS DRIVER!!) Hindsightīs 20/20...we
should have replaced the bus at that time....hell...their home
base was 20 minutes away....
Technically Speaking
Thought I would add a technical side to these pages for the people who asked.... What ended up happening in Tampa was I used the house's High End controller... It was easier to patch my I-Beams into their system than it as to patch theirs into mine.... Not to mention the fact that I didn't quite have the Pearl controller down at that time....
So.... We had 6 of my 8 I-Beams going (two were screwed up in shipping), and 8 Trackspots the house had above the stage... I thought it looked cool.... Video was projected onto the walls outside the PA, since the lighting rig hung down too low and was not moveable, plus a bunch of par cans, all green..... I hooked up the Dataflashes we had, then quickly figured out that I hated them, and didn't need them anyway, since the I-Beams strobe at 14 flashes per second, and when they're aimed, they don't wash out the video like the Dataflashes do...
Did I mention that this was an all green tour?
So, anyway, we went back to Orlando to do the rescheduled gig.....