2022 Started off full on for me. The HS tour was in motion but on a temporary hiatus at this point. With the first 360º run under our belts, the upcoming segments would morph into a few different designs and deployments.
Before that could get underway though, I first went out with Dua Lipa to start the first few months of her Future Nostalgia tour. This began with rehearsals in New Jersey, and the tour starting officially in Miami and ending 27 cities later in Vancouver. I had some great repeat offenders on the crew as well. Stage folks Sapna, JTL, and Alex from the Mumford days, as well as PA heavyweights Owen, Chuck, and Tony. The show itself was full of gags likened to the biggest of award shows. A remote controlled personal lift, balloon drops, lasers, inflatables, and several other crazy visuals. It was trying at times fitting that much equipment into some of the arenas in this country. The end result looked pretty wild and was complimented overall by a fantastic mix from the great Will Nicholson. It was great to work with him and he consistently nailed it when it came to making her and the band sound great. Plus on top of it all, he’s damn funny. I look forward to working with him again down the road someday.
The DL tour carried me up to the first week of April. After that, it was immediately back to HS with our first show headlining at Coachella. Rehearsals and the first weekend’s show went great. Sooo many folks. Then it was back to more rehearsals before heading back to the polo fields for weekend two.
After Coachella, it was off to home to get things finalized on my move back up north. It had been in the works for quite a long while, but with tons of work, travel, and Covid, that just couldn’t get going in a timely manner. I literally got moved out of Houston the day before I had to fly off to start the summer run of events.
We started with two album release shows at UBS Arena on Long Island, New York, and another show at Brixton in London, UK. Special thanks to Johnny K for stepping in to help at FOH in New York. Loved picking his brain and working with him. After those, it was off to do several shows in stadiums that would then morph into a slew of arena dates throughout Europe.
The seven stadium shows went great with an all star cast of folks. From Rich and Josh nailing it on delays to Jonny, Owen, and Isaac on the mains and ground gear. Long days but worth it.
We were scheduled to do 15 arena style shows but our first one in Denmark…well, that got cancelled due to an idiot with a gun… This took place across the street from our venue and thanks to the quick thinking folks there and around it, they potentially saved a lot of lives that day getting those folks inside the gig fast. Unfortunately, they pulled the plug and I had to watch the faces of several thousand kids turn from anticipation to sadness when they made the announcement through the PA. I have to say, the crowd dealt with it better than most would have. They exited the building in a very orderly and efficient manner. Glad to see we went back to Denmark for our first Euro show in 2023. The shows moved on though and we finished up strong at the end of July.
The beginning of August led us right into the fall 360º tour “residency”. A redesign of our previous 360º tour but this time it was only done in 6 different cities only…
2 nights in Toronto
15 nights in New York
6 nights in Austin
6 nights in Chicago
15 nights in Inglewood
2 nights in Palm Springs
A few of those Inglewood shows were makeup shows pushed to 2023 though due to the boss being sick. So they rescheduled them and added in the Palm Springs shows.
At the end of our 2022 run in Inglewood, we then made our way to Mexico and South America for a run of shows there.
This run was different for me though as I became the advance system engineer. Due to time constraints the day of show and with the size of the venues, we wouldn’t have enough time to setup and tune a stadium rig of PA in time to make soundcheck. Plus, the time that it would take to make any changes would have delayed us potentially by several hours. Potentially affecting doors and showtime. So it was agreed that I would fly ahead, make whatever adjustments to the PA were needed and tune with the local PA crew onsite. That way my guy Owen could arrive the next day with the tour to operate for the show with minimal adjustments. The whole operation worked out great and wouldn’t mind doing that again.
Screaming Monk Audio 