Where did I come from? My colorful history

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Having started my career as a musician and sound engineer, I decided in the early 80’s to become an audio engineer basically because I decided I liked eating and paying my bills more than I liked being a legend in my own mind. From the early 80’s I was blessed to work sound in a large club in Milwaukee WI that was hosting acts such as Dire Straits, the Police, The Plasmatics, Alvin Lee, U2, Tim Curry, The Pretenders, The Cars, Todd Rundgren, U2, AC/DC so many supergroups of today in their infancies. Also a few talent searches that produced a few regional upstarts such as Yipes. 

Milwaukee while not being the hub of the music industry did produce the BoDeans and the Violent Femmes. It was a great learning environment patching analog gear to construct mixes from consoles that were not designed for monitor mixing. BGW amps, Phase Linear amps, with Neptune 31 band equalizers. I can remember having to pan subgroups on a twenty-four channel Kelsey board to get eight un-discrete mixes out of a console with four stereo subgroups. It was a day of unbridled excitement when I had the opportunity to mix on an Audy Instruments console designed for 8 discrete monitor mixes. 

I was taken on my first tour by my brother (who went on to steer Clearwing Productions to the national spotlight in the production industry) with Eddie Rabbitt as a driver and his personal guitar tech. Eventually becoming the production provider for Summerfest in Milwaukee of which eventually I was grateful enough to steer the production on the grounds for 12 stages, 12 days and 850 bands a year. It was there that I started my sojourn into production management. 

This experience flowed into numerous corporate events, NFL Tailgate parties at the Superbowl, numerous music festivals, and some pretty large events about the country that included political rallies, product rollouts, Marlboro Music Series, Miller Blind Dates, Jamestown 100th Anniversary with a 400 piece orchestra and a 1200 member choir with guests like Chaka Khan, Bruce Hornsby and George Bush then President of the United States taking over and conducting the orchestra. That on top of becoming a base sound engineer for Guantanamo Bay Cuba after we sold our first proprietary PA to the base and providing the personnel to run it and train the Jamaicans on the base who were there full time. As an account executive for two different production companies I have increased sales from 750k to over 7m in four short years.

My touring experience started in 1995 after a hiatus out of the industry for a few years. I started as a monitor engineer for the BoDeans. I eventually moved to drum tech, and then got fired all the way up to Tour Manager where I spent the next 6 years. of course all good things come to an end playing off the hit song "Good Things" Moving through the touring world had me working the likes of Everclear, Soul Asylum, Five for Fighting, Gin Blossoms, Dispatch, Vonda Shepard, David Copperfield, Shannon Curfman, Postmodern Jukebox, Drumline, Marvel Universe Live, Brit Floyd, Mannhiem Steamroller among others Also an absolutely fun and fantastic Michael Jackson tribute that unfortunately was managed into the dirt before it got traction. But what fun it was to mix that show. The musicianship was fantastic. The management not so much.

I left the touring world after Mannhiem Steamroller to do labor coordination for Clearwing in Milwaukee. I spent numerous years with Clearwing in both Milwaukee and Phoenix. Shortly thereafter I had been recruited to manage a theater in Carmel by the Sea in California.

 While serving at the Sunset Center in Carmel CA I renegotiated contracts, fixed and developed excellent rapport with a union, a relationship was previously shattered, led safety and security initiatives, and re-established positive relationships with historic presenters who were feeling left out and disregarded. "For the good of the community" was a common refrain that just didn't exist.

Here is where I became highly certified in event safety. This is also where I got my introduction to the orchestral performances, dance competitions and performances, speaker series, film showings etc. Unfortunately, I had witnessed some injuries (including my own) and numerous safety issues that came to light after I suffered a workplace injury. Eventually with the OSHA and WC fallout my position was of course "eliminated" for budgetary concerns. The personal fallout for me was overwhelming tarnished my reputation, tainted my employability, but I have done incredible work since. Thankfully Scott Kenison Executive Director at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore CA believed in me and hired me as the production manager.

This was the second eye opening experience for me in theater management and venue operations. On my first day he put in his resignation over the politics within the board of directors and the city. In both theaters (non-profits) I got a very good education in how non profits run and what is and is not a priority in operations and the politics behind it all. Although at this theater I had a lot of opportunity to make a difference and I took every one. While there I was tasked with developing the working model for VenueOps a fantastic operational tool for information in a venue. I taught FOH staff and BOH staff in it's functions, capabilities and collaborated with all to get it functional and singing as we came out of Covid. I also got to utilize a program called WorkforceGo that made scheduling, and labor reporting and billing (for rental clients) a breeze. I stand by these two softwares highly. I have recently successfully saved over 30k in capital budgets on a new PA install and another 30k in refurbishing spotlights versus purchasing new as the administration suggested. 

The greatest accomplishment for me was the re-establishment of BOH and FOH relations. In the past the two departments were very segregated and did not have a great working relationship. I fixed this by using the diversity and inclusion lessons I learned while educating myself during Covid. I had a very divesrse crew that soaked up training like a sponge. Fall Protection Competency, OSHA 10 and 30, Electrical Hazard containment, audio mixing, stage patching and Dante networking were all taught and became a great knowledge base for the crew to build on. Although my title was production I regularly had to cross function in operations.

I ended up writing the Emergency Action Plan, and trained over 200 volunteers on Emergency Action Response, something they had never had trained on since the theater opened. Although training on the California IIPP was mandatory by OSHA it didn't happen so I did what i could to at least get everyone on the same page should an emergency happen.  I remodeled the green room from a drab colorless, lifeless space to a warm inviting area with numerous representations of the Livermore area including representation of Livermore finest product, wine. Many compliments were given on the remodel and artists were quite comfortable while we represented them by painting logos in the backstage hallways for them all to sign during their performances. It really did become a comfortable and hospitable place to perform.