A Barking Dog

Getting to be about time to wrap up the old Mexican adventure. This will be the final chapter of the saga. We were 23 days into it, though it seemed like 23 months. Even though some of the gigs were under trying circumstances, all of the performances were well received. When you went to these towns and did this size show, those were the places bands gigged. Not too many of them were pop bands from the States. The band, while only used to playing a few gigs in a row with each other a time or two a month, was really starting to smoke. Good band, and good folks to boot.

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I pulled my rented Ford Explorer in front of the non descript building on Main St in Whitinsville, MA just after 9:00 AM on a cold winter morning in November. It had been more than two months since the deal to sell the Live-Audio_Board had been sealed. During that time I’d been searching for office and data center space in Seattle, though later I was told the offices would be located in Whitinsville. I’d found world-class data center space in Seattle, we just needed to seal the deal. At the time, the LAB was running from a managed colo space at Rackspace.com in San Antonio, Texas.

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“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.”

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Our stay in beautiful Juarez had been extended for a few hours. Instead of taking an early afternoon Aero California flight to Mexico City, we were taking an early evening Mexicana flight. We were given the reason that Aero California “was not a good airline.” However true that is or was, it would mean we wouldn’t see a hotel in Mexico City until after 11:00 that night, possibly midnight. The gear was being shipped back to Mexico City via a freight company. When I asked HLB about piece counts I was told not to worry about it. So I didn’t. To quote the Goddess of Mon Beach at the big rock show, “I am SO over this right now…”

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It was a typical late summer night, the Thursday prior to Labor Day in the year 2000. I was sitting in a suite in the Wall Center Tower Two. thirty floors above downtown Vancouver. The two “special friends” that I had met earlier that night at the club in the Cecil Hotel had already showered, packed and headed back to the club. It was still early, just after midnight. On what should have been one of the happiest days of my life, tears filled my eyes. Earlier that day I’d just sealed the biggest deal of my life. I’d sold the Live-Audio_Board site and secured a rather well paying job after several weeks of negociations. As my normal custom over Labor Day for the last few years, I made the trip to Vancouver for the Molson Indy Vancouver race. I knew things were going to change, little did I know how much. I was in for the ride of my life, I just hoped I could hold on.

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We’re winding down the last couple of installments of the Great Mexican Adventure, or Dave’s version of Sierra Madre. The computer karma at Roaddog Manor, located in the “versatile” Capitol Hill neighborhood , didn’t fare so well this week. The server upgrade was a little shaky and there was lost mail and then to top it off my last Powerbook, or should I say Kenny’s last Powerbook, bit the dust. With my tour notes, pics and my iTunes library on it, about the only things that weren’t backed up. I also lost the cooling fan on my BillGatesXPPro box, nearly smoking the CPU. It took nearly a week for the Mac doodz to download my homemade porn from my hard drive, err I mean fix the Powerbook. Today’s installment really needs pictures so one can get the full effect of the story.

We return you to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress…

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The 4:15 wake up was mighty early, considering I hadn’t racked until nearly 2:00 am. I did a pack and dash, the ritual where you pack the night before, leave the luggage near the door, get up late as possible and make a mad dash to the door. It’s a tried and true method,used by many a big time show business roadie types, and smaller timers like me. The crew assembled in the lobby just prior to depart. Nice hotel, too bad I only had a few hours there. We were getting the gear out of storage, the rest of the luggage and heading on the “8 to 10 minute” drive to the airport. We were to fly to Mexico City, change planes and land in Chihuahua, near the Texas/Mexican border.

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