Every couple years I decide to go back on the road and live on a tour bus. It generally takes me about 72 hours to realize why I stopped doing this. But then I look at the money coming in and realize it’s a good thing.

   This month I got to program a tour that wasn’t all hard rock music. Quite a change for me after the last 5 concert tours I programmed this year.

      This year has been really strange for me in the variety of music I have been lighting. I seem to lighting quite a few heavy metal bands this year. Nothing wrong with metal mind you, I just haven’t bought into it since Deep Purple and Led Zep hung up their rock n roll shoes. (Or did they?).

So I’m working with another heavy metal artist this week. A band called Disturbed, a popular hard music act. They are extremely nice guys. If you were stopped at a red light and they got out of the car next to you, it could make you feel a tad uneasy about the impending future. But in real life, they are just good old boys who like to play loud music.

     Sometimes I get to a one off gig and see a way I can be lazy and get away with a short programming day. But to be honest, anytime I think I’ll luck out in one of these scenarios, it usually bites me in the ass.

    Well I’m back at the old Sound Stage TV studio at WTTW in Chicago. Familiar building, but boy has the look changed. This is my fifth year doing shows down here, with 3 different directors. This time Bob Peterson is at the helm and the difference is quite noticeable.

It's been 10 years since I went to Russia to light a gig. Last time I was there, I had one of those gigs from hell, where it took 2 days to set everything up and it still didn't work correctly. I'm here to say they've come a long way.

     Every year I design the set and lighting for a traveling rock show called “A Taste of Chaos”. Ten bands will perform on 2 stages every night. Each year I take a few young kids and try to school them in the art of setting up and lighting a rock show. Some pass with flying colors while others flounder miserably.

     I light business meetings every now and then. Those boring conferences where people in the same line of work gather to get worked into a frenzy in order to sell sell sell whatever it is their company hawks. They always seem to have a motivational speaker. And I hate these bastards.