Zone Recording: Experience On The Road

We, Martone which consists of Daniel Adair, David Spidel and I, have just completed a very successful tour in support of Joe Satriani's Wormhole tour.

In the last installment of Zone recording I let you in on all the issues that had presented themselves, and how things were still up in the air in certain regards.

Well, you will be happy to know we hit it out of the park on these four dates.

* January 4, 2011 Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium Edmonton, AB CA
* January 5, 2011 Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium Calgary, AB CA
* January 6, 2011 Kelowna Community Theatre Kelowna, BC CA
* January 7, 2011 Queen Elizabeth Theatre Vancouver, BC CA

I have made a video installment which you can view below of our experience.

First off, let me say that everyone on Joe's crew was absolutely awesome to work with, from FOH engineer and production manager Russ Giroux, to the tour manager Galen Henson...

to Glade my guitar tech, and Jim on monitors, which were all in ear by the way, to the mighty Mick Brigden and amazing Joe Satriani himself, along with his whole awesome band!

Let me show you a daily breakdown sheet from production on a normal day's events...

As you can see our sound check was always in the late afternoon. We would have our gear off stage left, such as so...

Then a whole wack of stage hands would wisk it all out onto the stage for us. Nice.

We were all running in-ear monitors as well as floor wedges. We were using some tracks to help fill out the sound, so our ears had click running on all songs, which at first might seem weird, but its actually awesome. I did practice for about a month with in-ears to get used to the sound. At first it was very uninspiring, but I got used to it. That is why I had the wedges in front of me, not too loud, but just right to get the much needed sweet spot of feedback.

My pedal board! And notice the glow in the dark tape around all the switches! I learned that from the master...

...and my rig, which was run wireless. Huge thanks to Mark Storm at EV, he was just awesome and EV makes the best shit out there!

Here is a shot of the type of theaters we were playing in...

Yes, that is me, checking out how far I could run around during sound check with my wireless system!

Now some road shots... rememeber we were travelling through Canada right...

Highway was just pure ice!

Our tour bus!

Daniel enjoying the drive! In 10 feet of snow! With tractor trailors jack knifed all over the road! YIKES!

And I just love this next picture... just because...

A stage shot...

After our last show with Joe in Vancouver, he spent some time with my family and friends, I even had two great buds fly up from Los Angles! Mike and Neal! That's my bro on the left, Mike, Neal, Joe, my father and me.

I have to say this was one of the coolest things I have done in my life yet.

Glad I was able to give you a glimpse into this tour and some behind-the-scenes experiences.

May the tone be with you.