Bucolic Man

Zzzzzzzzz. It's noon on Monday back here in Nashville, but my body clock is still wound to whatever it was in New Zealand. We left New Plymouth at 1:00 p.m., landed in Auckland at 2:00 p.m., waited for luggage until 4:30, boarded the Qantas flight to L.A. at 7:45, flew 12 hours, landed in L.A., had a 3.5 hour layover to Dallas/Ft. Worth, then finally got home at 11:30 p.m. Sunday night.

All in all a great trip, with plenty of unexpected events that made it interesting, too. I had four or five good shows in a row teching, no gear problems and only a minor, brief mental mistake or two that went pretty much unnoticed by the crowds. Auckland was two raucous nights in a theater setting and our last gig was in the decidedly more rustic New Plymouth.

The venue - called the Brooklands - was surrounded on three sides by a duck pond moat.


New Plymouth

A small row boat was used to cross over the power and audio cables to the FOH position.


Row Boat Cable Run

There were lots of ducks and drakes, mostly mallards, but this black swan was hanging around all day.


Black Swan

The grounds were beautiful and the whole place had a very cool vibe about it. We did not soundcheck this show, so we started out "cold". No problems, everyone was happy.


The Bowl of Brooklands

Chris and David were busy working at the time of this photo, but this is the rest of the hardy crew posing outside on the loading dock.

Thanks, guys, for making it a fun trip.


Stig, Albert, Tim, Jake


I haven't posted any stage pics in a while...here ya go...


Stage 1


Stage 2


View From Mic Stand


View From Kenny's Chair


A venue with a moat needs to plan for any eventuality... hence the lifeguards.


Lifeguards

The Waterfront Hotel was right on the coastline.


New Plymouth Coastline

There is a functional sculpture called the Wind Wand that bends with the wind and glows red at night.


Wind Wand

According to the bathroom scale this morning, I dropped 10 pounds on this trip. Cool.


Me and Coastline


Bob and Coastline

The New Plymouth airport is tiny, and with no place else to go, we all had breakfast and talked about the tour.


KA at Airport

Now that I'm back teching JF, I also keep an eye on George's gear. Thanks for a great trip, Daddy G.


Daddy G, Looking Legit, Man!


Dave Davidian has been a fine influence on me on how to gig. He has seen it all, done it all from Montrose to Van Halen to AC/DC, etc. Thanks for a great tour, Dave.


LD Gets Backlit



Goodbye New Zealand