Band Nite

[CaptNoize]

If all of you were closer to me, I would get all of us backstage, access all areas passes. For whatever shows you'd like to see. 35+ years of being in the entertainment business, gets me certain perks...!

[crosscourt]

My wife and I were professional musicians for awhile, back in our younger years. She was a pianist and concert soprano. I was a woodwind specialist as I started out on clarinet, went to saxophone my main instrument but I also played flute,oboe and bassoon. Job wise I was playing saxophone mostly in studio work but that dried up in those days due to synthesizers and augmented music setups. Music scene in Baltimore where I lived was great and iot was easy to find work overall. Your comments about backstage brought back some good memories.
My name crosscourt comes from tennis as I was a professional tennis player and coach for 25 years. My knees had some problems so I had to go into coaching. My side jobs all sprang from the tech side as my father in law taught me most of what I know.
Its funny how a post can cause you to pause and think about so many things from the past.

[CaptNoize]

I'm glad I could rekindle some fond memories for you. I grew up a working class poor person, on my grandfather's farm. I was always a skinny, waif-ish child mostly till I was in my early twenties. I was trained in classical music,and most of my influences early on,came from church pipe organ music. About the time I was 10, I discovered Black Sabbath. I got bit with prog rock,and hard rock, early in my musical career.( playing guitar) I started going into Pittsburgh,at the age of 16,since I lived way out in the country. In 1976, kids here didn't do that. But I did, because I wanted to see and work shows, at the Civic Arena. I never thought I would end up working with bands like Rush,Kansas, UFO, Judas Priest,and many, many others.I worked all thru the 80's,as a sound engineer, stage hand,or system engineer. Out on the road. Did every major city in the U.S.,at least once. Hammerjacks in Baltimore, Md. Rocked..!! I really miss those days.....
BTW.. I cut my teeth at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh. Go here

https://sites.google.com/site/pittsburg ... --rock-era

[crosscourt]

Hammerjacks was great and Baltimore had a good club scene back then. I also spent a lot of time in DC and the club scene there fostered many successes Foreigner being one of the them. My wife and I were both classically trained and we met in high school as members of the concert/marching band, she was also in the choir. We both ended up going to the Peabody Conservatory/John Hopkins Univ in Baltimore. We ran out of cash and decided to get married and dropped out of school and started working. My wife is presently the managing director of the Reston Chorale a large choir in Northern Virginia. I miss those days a lot!
I grew up in New York City and Queens and was born at a hospital just behind the courts at the National Tennis Center. My father was a WW2 vet and became an Accountant and we lived eventually on Long Island a lower middle class family. He worked for a defense contractor so we moved 13 times by the time I was in middle school. Got started in music because of severe asthma and took up an instrument to improve my breathing. Took e awhile to get into sports due to health problems, so I was a late bloomer.

[tlmiller]

I did like Hammerjacks, one of the first clubs I ever went to.

[CaptNoize]

New York city...,brings back memories of Madison Square Garden,and Radio City Music Hall. I took gear up to RCM back in the 90's when Iron Maiden played 5 nights there. I found myself in rush hour traffic,not knowing the route, this was before GPS, and Garmin, in 28 foot box truck, looking for RCM......ugh..!!HATE..! The next time would be to MSG, but I had learned my lesson,so I drove all night from Pittsburgh, and got there at around 10:30am. This again, was in a 28 foot Mack box truck, with no A\C... totally sucked. But, the gig ROCKED..!

[crosscourt]

Many memories of Radio City Music Hall as my mom was a Rockette for a time, and when I was older we went there quite often to watch shows and visit friends. My mon also worked in the Empire State building so spent a lot of time downtown at various locations. Ice skating at Rockefeller Plaza, Macy's and and all the Christmas lights on the buildings, amazing. The National Tennis Center was built on the site of the 1963 Worlds Fair, which was Corona Park when I was a kid as I lived just down the street. A lot of good memories.

[CaptNoize]

CC,
You said you were a "late bloomer" in sports. I get it completely. I tried in grade school to play sports. Mostly football. Being as small as I was, I tore ligaments in my right foot, which took 6 months to heal. It left me in a cast. Later on, I played hockey, and broke my nose twice. My parents insisted I play an instrument,instead of sports,since they didn't like seeing me injured. I had always loved music. So,that's the route my life and career took. If I wasn't a sound engineer, I wanted to be a makeup artist for monster movies,and horror films. I spent a brief time renting gear to, and getting to know George Romero, director of Night Of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Creepshow. I always ended up going back to music. By that time, I was out doing everything from Huge Airshows, concerts and even sound production for wrestling events.(NWA, WWF)

[crosscourt]

Im 6-2 about 170 ibs in high school but wasnt very quick. Once the breathing problems subsided I had coming out in my early 20s which lead to tennis as a living. My first pro tournament was at 27 but it was an amazing time in my life. Music was a fall back and had I had options I would have gone sports if I could have early on.

[CaptNoize]

Last nite, I got a call at the last minute to go mix a band, at a local venue. Alot of bar owners and band managers will call me to help, since I will do everything from load in, to be a crew chief, to be a front of house, or monitor engineer. I even do lighting, altho, I never considered myself an LD.
However, the temperature was 20 degrees here, and with the winds howling at 20-30mph, my bones were ache-ing,and I wasn't going to put myself thru a nite of angst. In 40 years, I've never turned down a nite of work. Last night was the first. But, as much as I'm hurting today, I don't regret it. This is from years of beating myself up doing live sound. It's Hell to get old....