A place to write my experiences, both good and bad, of what it's like trying to become successful as a young sound engineer.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Gorgeous drive. #nofilter (Taken with instagram)
Good start to my day off (Taken with Instagram at My House)
Here’s a video documentary from our show in New York City. You can see a few shots of me loading stuff in and at the mixer console. I’m told the next one will have interviews from Andy and I. Pretty stoked, it came out very well.
hey ill try and get the video uploaded somehow soon. its a pretty big file haha
Here’s a clip from tonights show at the School of Rock in New Jersey. The sound was awesome at this venue and I had a blast. Send me a comment or email or something if you want some other songs from this show, I got most of the set on my camera from the Front of House console.
Headed out West
So I finally took the opportunity yesterday to take some pictures while we were driving. We left Mansfield, Texas around 2am and headed out west on a 17 hour drive to Mesa, Arizona. I was really excited for the drive because I haven’t seen this side of the country in a long time. The scenery was amazing. During the drive we stopped at a gas station and they had an old school Slush Puppy machine! I had to pick one up and it was just like I had remembered. I haven’t had one since probably the late 80’s and may never have one again. Also, AJ and I saw 2 Hells Angels on motorcycles which was pretty sweet. After the drive we got to Arizona around 8pm eastern time but it was really 5pm! Kinda wierd haha. We stopped at this girl Becks work while she finished up her shift because we would be staying with her that night. So we all had a few drinks, ate some food and then headed to her house to hang out and eventually pass out. Today’s show is at a place called The Underground in Mesa, Arizona and I think there have already been over 150 presale tickets sold so tonights show should be an awesome one! Texas was a very hard state for shows and even though they were never bad, the rest of the shows on the tour are supposed to be very good!
Hopefully I will get an oppourtunity to take some more photos and update this but Andy and I have been keeping very busy and finding free time is hard to come by.
Much love, hope you enjoy the pictures below.
Ricky
Here’s an audio clip I recorded from the board of The Dangerous Summer playing Symmetry at Emo’s in Austin, Texas. Tonight we play The White Rabbit and I am told the sound there is really good! Stoked to kill it tonight!
Heres another one I found on youtube. Enjoy!
So I’m really sorry for the lack of updates but I have just been too busy to do anything really haha. This is the first time I have really been on my computer since tour started. I haven’t even really been taking pictures just because I already carry so much on me and I am just constantly busy from the time we get to the venue until the time we leave the venue. We load in a few hours before every show and I work to bring all of the gear in and set everything up for the band. Then if we have time, we run soundchecks. Then during the show, I am watching/listening to the other bands to see what I could do to make the system sound better for The Dangerous Summer. Then, right when the show is over, I work hard to break it all down and it usually takes about an hour and a half so we get at the venue around 3 and dont leave until after midnight. Which is then followed by a drive to the next city where I’m either keeping the driver awake, or sleeping. Regardless, everything has been great! The mixes of the band have been sounding really good! I posted a video of the band playing a new song at one of their shows. Hope this helps to give you an idea of what I have been up to!
Love and miss everyone,
Ricky
Holy Shit! Tonights show was amazing! Theres was about 500 kids there and they all went crazy for the band. We absolutely killed it. I have a song here of them playing Surfaced. The audio file is a little compressed so it may sound wierd at times but you get a general idea of how it sounded! This tour is going to be amazing and I am so ready now to do the best job possible for the band.
Missing everyone back home,
Ricky
D-Day
Well. Tomorrow is the big day. I’m insanely excited but it would be naive of me to not be nervous. I just want the first day to be over so everyone can breathe a sigh of relief that everything works. So much stuff has come down to the last minute which it always does but I just want this tour to be epic! And it will I’m sure.
Today Cody and I were outside when we saw the UPS truck drive up. We were so stoked and the driver was hilarious. We got like 9 boxes full of shirts and hoodies, a box full of posters with a picture shot by Joe Perri, and the backdrop for the tour which will sit behind Tyler and is huge!
Tomorrow, Tyler is going to pick up his drums at 8am from the post office and were going to tape up his drum rug and finalize everything for the Recher show. This show just MAY sell out which would be like 700+ kids! I cant imagine it.
I’ll say it again, this tour is going to epic!
Wish me luck!
Ricky
Down to the Wire
More practice today! Joe Perri snagged some sweet photos today of the practice so I’m just gunna reblog them for you here!
Tomorrow is the last day to get things done before tour starts. Holy crap this week has gone by fast! Can’t wait to get out on the road.
Sleep tight
Ricky
Tour Preparations
This week basically consists of practice everyday and getting things ready for the tour starting this Friday. We went to Guitar Center up here yesterday to try and replace some monster cables and they were giving us a very hard time about it, so we’re going back tomorrow to officially get them replaced. After giving them a little help making sure they don’t work haha.
Things are supposed to be coming in this week, but nothing has come in yet. We’re waiting on Merch, Posters, Laminates, Cables, Backdrop, DRUMS!, and other things that are just coming down to the wire haha. Tyler’s new drum set looks amazing and I can’t wait to mic them up and hear them through a PA system.
Today I snapped a few pictures at practice so check em out below!
Tonight Emily, the girl who will be doing merch for most of the tour came into town so Joe, Tyler and I headed over to Andy’s, the tour managers, house to hang out and go swimming. We ordered pizza and just hung out together. Its nice to all be able to hang out before we go on tour so we can establish friendships before entering a work atmosphere.
So far things up here have been really good and I couldn’t be more excited for this tour. It is going to be a very rewarding experience for everyone. I hope I can represent them in the best way possible.
Tomorrow is more practice and hoping that some things start to come in the mail!
Goodnight everyone
Love,
Ricky
4th of Julie
Today the band had practice around noon so we got up and headed over to Brians house. Practice went really well and everyday I get more and more stoked to just hit the road. Joe Perri (www.joeperriphoto.com) took pictures today while at practice so I’m going to reblog them here. He’s actually going to take pictures for the first few days of tour so I’ll probably just use his. Ch-Check em out!
After practice we headed back to Tylers where his parents made a hell of a lot of food for us to eat. I had squid! a hot dog, a hamburger, phillipine pork skewers, rice, soup and corn! Immediately after I got hit with the worst stomach ache and later destroyed Andy’s (The Tour Manager) bathroom. We hung out at Andy’s and I went swimming in the pool, alone, because everyone thought the pool was too cold. This is going to be a week of presents coming to the band while we wait for Tylers drums, cables, new merch, the backdrop and other fun things. Practices will be everyday and the first show is Friday at the Recher Theatre.
Hope everyone is having a good summer back home!
Ricky
Makin’ them cases!
What a day, what a day! Today started off with me getting a call from Cody around 9am asking if I wanted to come build roadcases for their gear with them. I of course wanted to go I was just surprised Cody called me at 9 considering last night was his 21st birthday. Joe decided to be lazy and stay at Tyler’s sleeping so Cody and I headed over to AJ’s dads house to get to work. It was a crazy long day but I must say that I felt insanely accomplished after what we have done. Its not everyday you find a band that is still willing to work hard and take a DIY(do it yourself) attitude to things instead of just going out and buying whats easy. If you scroll though the pictures you can see some of our progress throughout the day. We spent almost 12 hours outside working on these, I got a sunburn, and they had already spent like 2 days working on them before I got up here!
This was the view from outside AJ’s dads house where we spent most of the day working. It was super nice out and its a great change to what I’m used to in Florida.
Cody and I were constantly hiding behind stuff because metal was flying everywhere. AJ’s a champ!
Here you can see the bass cab almost done and the two guitar amp roadcases still needed all the metal sidings and handles.
Brians guitar case is almost complete! Just needs wheels.
Getting the wheels on the bass cab.
This is how the case will sit up during the shows.
Eventually Tyler and Joe came out to help us with the work.
Heres AJ making his own 4th of July sparks!
Here you can see my sunburn from the day. Tyler helps to show the difference haha
After a long day all the road cases are for the most part done. Just need some wheels on the guitar cabs.
View from the back.
After working all day we went to meet up with some kids for a little bit to relax and have some beers. People up here are super chill and friendly. Like I said earlier, its a nice change of pace. Then we went back to Tylers and he made us Mac and Cheese and we had leftover cake from Codys birthday. Now I’m full and Joe and I are just sitting on our computers, I’m ready to pass out!
Well I’m going to jump in the shower. What a great day today was, I will sleep soundly knowing a did my man duties for the day. Tomorrow will be filled with practice with the band and starting to get things ready for tour.
Missing everyone back home.
Ricky
