Here we go again

Rob K here.

Well, it feels like July today, and it is not because we are in Florida, (which is unusually cool). No, it is because I was onstage setting up my drums at friggin" 10AM today!! You see, we are playing at a festival today. The Del Ray Beach 12th annual Garlic Fest to be precise. Guess what's for dinner.

Festivals are a different animal than your normal "an evening with DSO" days. First off, they start much earlier. We pulled out of Orlando last night around 2:30. After the crew winds down for a while, they hit the bunks somewhere between 3:30-4:00 am. Today the doors on the truck opened for load in at 10:am. Not a lot of sleep for those hard working guys and gal. Dino and I hit the stage around 10:30-11:00 to set up our drums. NO, we don't have a dedicated drum tech (please don't apply, we have no empty bunks), to do that for us, but the crew does help quite a bit.

Due to multiple bands and scheduling, we usually have to set up quite early in the day, and then hurry up and wait for a night time show. When we did the JamGrass tour in 2002, our load ins were at 7am, then we played at noon and again at 8pm. By the time the doors closed on the trucks it was usually 1am. Then another 7am load in. What an unforgettable tour, though.

Today sound check will be at 2pm and we wont start the show until 7:30. That adds an additional two hours of waiting around to our normal schedule. Every one kills the time differently. Sleep, exercise, movies on the bus (although today we are parked in a garage, so no satellite signal), video games, and of course, crosswords and Scrabble. On some occasions there is the chance to see some other bands perform. That is the great part of the festival thing for us. Getting to hang out and see some of our friends play and check out some new bands is one of the few perks of being on the festival grounds for up to 18 hours at a time.

The biggest perk is the exposure. A lot of people who never knew of the Dead or have been hesitant to check us out get to see us. Hopefully that translates into new fans who will help keep this train rolling.

We have had a pretty good week. Good crowds and fun shows. We are in the homestretch now. Two more shows and then straight to the airport for early flights Sunday morning. Looking forward to getting home for a little R&R. Many thanks to all that have joined us on this tour. You have made it a successful one for us. See you up north in a couple of weeks.