Roadie Blog: 2005-04-03

Saturday Night Live -NYC

Friday, April 08, 2005

Sorry I didn't get to post this earlier. It was a busy week in NYC.

Arrived in Manhattan on Wednesday night (4/6). Check into the Blakely (hotel), big room, free wi-fi, killer location on 55th St. between 6th and 7th Avenue near Central Park. Call my buddy Steve and we meet for Thai at my favorite place, The Lemongrass Grill on 34th St.

Load-in to SNL on Thursday morning at 8:30am (ouch). Set-up and do a line check, the crew here is great, some have been here since the 70's. Band comes in and we run through the songs a few times, done by around 4pm. Find out my pal Skip is in town with Maroon 5, head over to Radio City to meet him and we go to dinner.

Friday, have the whole day off. Try to hook-up with my friend Jimmy, but he's stuck in traffic coming back from Boston. I take the subway down to Macy's on 34th and do some browsing. Check out a few furniture stores on 18th St. and end up at Union Square. Call Steve and we hit Burittoville for lunch. Next door is a theater so I decide to catch Sin City. Killer film. Subway down to Canal St. and shop in SOHO till around 8pm. Meet Steve and a friend at Otto's Shrunken Head, crazy Tiki bar on 14th St. Around 10pm meet Steve's wife Morgan for our usual Indian food feast. Shrimp Vindaloo for everyone!!! Subway back to the hotel late.

Saturday, do some walking around in Mid-town before our call at 3:30pm. Back at SNL, we soundcheck the songs again. Everyone on the crew, from stagehands to producers, keep coming up and saying how great the band is. Very nice. Break for dinner, then there is a full dress rehearsal at 8:30pm with a live audience. They run 2hrs of material, of which they will cut 30min to make the 90min live show. At 11:30 we go live, songs go well, band looks and sounds great. Load-out and back to the hotel by 3am.

Sunday, flight back to Raleigh, for a few days at home before the tour starts again on Wednesday.

Home on the Range...

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Been busy, busy, busy since I've been home. Drove to Baltimore to buy a truckload of IKEA furniture for the beach house. Got a new refrigerator for Raleigh house. Finally closed on our beach house in Oak Island, NC. Played a gig with my cover band, Driver. Assembled three rooms of IKEA furniture and installed a house full of blinds. Back in Raleigh, switched the guest room and the office. Painted new guest room. Repaired and installed multiple phone lines, etc.

Gotta get back on the road, I need a vacation ;)