In the words of David Prater, taken from his diary from MelodicRock.com
here is a VERY detailed accounts of this multi platinum producer (Firehouse, Dream Theater, movie soundtrack for Dirty Dancing, and former drummer of the band SANTANA.) ALL are as I remember them for the most part, except his words about me personally, I can neither confirm or deny them lol. PS, I saw the phone image the weather lady had, it was FREAKY.
---------------------------------------------------------
I, David Prater, do solemnly testify that the following accounts are accurate so help me God!
As you read the following narrative, please bear in mind that during the weather event described below I was elevated 20 feet in the air within the main stage mixing tower getting ready to mix Lita Fords’ first proper show after a 15 year sabbatical. As a result, myself and three other technicians witnessed the following episode firsthand.
On Saturday, June 12, 2008, at approximately 6:00 p.m. CST, during the final moments of a performance of Guns N’ Roses “Paradise City” by Trixter, a storm cell accompanied by heavy rain ripped through the main staging area of Rocklahoma producing a “wet microburst” with “straight-line winds” in excess of 70 mph. The highest recorded wind speed of such an atmospheric phenomenon is well over 150 mph. A storm of this type is often times mistaken for a tornado and can in fact be equally if not more destructive. Within the mixing tower itself, the wind was so strong that I personally saw it very nearly rip the sheet metal from the rivets holding it onto the steel reinforcement columns. Although it seemed much longer, this dramatic event lasted for only 15-20 minutes. Nevertheless, as a result, it caused the complete collapse and utter destruction of the North and South “side” stages. It’s worth noting that both stages’ construction was rated as capable of withstanding sustained winds up to 75 mph.
Miraculously, there were no fatalities nor serious injuries reported.
Musicians should be aware that Rocklahoma had graciously filled these stages to overflowing with high-end guitar and bass amplifiers (Crank, Dual Rectifier, Marshall JCM 900, Ampeg SVT, etc.) as well as premium quality drums (Drum Workshop, Zildjian, Sabian, Paiste, etc.) and various musical instruments. The bulk of this “back-line” had been provided as an alternative to groups having to lug into the festival grounds massive truck loads of equipment far too impractical to use. Virtually all the performers were delighted that such quality gear had been provided. They could then use their own guitars, effects pedals, cymbals, foot pedals, etc. to supplement their performances.
Well…most all of it was ruined. As with all the stage lightning, sound reinforcement and other various technologies, the back-line gear stayed uncovered in the rain for more than 24 hours during which time it was almost always raining. Yellow law enforcement tape designated the area as strictly off limits. The sight of that much ruined gear literally made me sick to my stomach. It’s an ominous sight to see “flown” P.A. enclosures lying in the mud with the trusses that held all the stage lighting resting on top of them. The heavy duty aluminum used in their construction was bent like salt water taffy. The wind force that did this must have been biblical in nature.
Not taking into account additional claims from other vendors and festival concessionaires, conservative estimates by professionals familiar with filing claims for such “acts of God” valued the damage at over $2,000,000 per stage. The main stage, however, was almost completely undamaged due to the strength of the industrial-grade steel and sheet metal structure that completely housed it on all 5 sides when fully retracted.
During lunch the following afternoon, I sat with the team of Michael and Becky Orange from “Event Weather” (www.eventweather.net) and discussed all that had happened. They’re in the business of providing a multitude of onsite weather services for various outdoor functions. After having finished our meal, Becky turned to me and said, “Hey…you gotta check this out.” She pulled out her cell phone and showed me a jpeg of the storm cells’ topographic display as it passed over Rocklahoma. She shot the picture right off the weather screen the night before. As God as my witness…the image was in the shape of the holy cross. You can view the entire time-stamped high-resolution file at the address below. It wasn’t altered by Final Cut Pro nor Photoshop. Earlier today, I even went so far as to call Becky and verify the images’ integrity. She swears it is absolutely genuine.
The event owner then walked up, viewed the image and immediately downloaded it into his cell phone. As he began to walk the grounds and show it to associates, the news of the oddity quickly spread. From then on, for most of us working the show the festival took on a hallowed glow. In fact, looking back I dare say the entire event represents something spiritually significant for many of us in attendance that week.
I arrived at the festival on Tuesday afternoon, July 8th and would be there for the next 6 days. I was attending Rocklahoma as a business partner with Brad White, the events’ talent coordinator and booking agent. We are responsible for all affairs relating to “The Texas Hippie Coalition” (www.myspace.com/texashippiecoalition). Brad and I had produced their CD/DVD package and I was going to mix their 2 shows on Wednesday and Sunday. As it turned out, I was commissioned to mix an additional 6 acts on various stages over the duration I was there. The most notable of these was Lita Ford on Saturday Night. Her normal soundman was in Europe on assignment.
Following Jackyls’ “chainsaw” massacre on the main stage, I mixed a rowdy set for The Texas Hippie Coalition on the North Stage at 10:00 p.m. Wednesday July 9th. It seemed our show was an unqualified success and really buoyed my enthusiasm for mixing the rest of my clients throughout the week. Both the North and South stages featured Midas mixing consoles that sounded warm and smooth even at loud volumes.
Ratt followed our set on the main stage. It was nice to see Steve Pearcy in good form with the band sounding competent. I had produced an Arcade album for him in 1992 but this was the first time I had seen him since. There would be a several more acts I had similar experiences with as the week progressed.
It had rained earlier that day and in places the festival grounds started to become very muddy. The next day, Thursday July 10th, once again saw some annoying precipitation that added to the mud from the day before. By evening, especially in the reserved VIP RV camping area, the festival grounds had devolved into a quagmire of deep mud containing beer, various forms of alcohol, urine, vomit and God knows what else. The weird thing was that even without the presence of any livestock you smelled cowdung everywhere. It was explained to me that when the festival grounds become this wet and are stirred up this much by pedestrian and vehicular traffic, the underlying soil containing 200 hundred years of inert cowdung becomes rather pungent to say the least.
However, none of this had any effect on the crowd in attendance for the most completely over the top stage show I’ve ever seen.
EROCKTICA!!!
OMFG! Just go to their website…you’ll get the idea. They were QUINTUPLE X-RATED!!! Full nudity, Bondage, simulated male ejaculations, girl on girl sex, audience sexual participation, etc. All the while the performers were swizzling a huge bottle of Jim Beam and passing it back and forth through the crowd. Some of the songs were interesting too! The main stage performer, Pink Snow, was hysterically funny. At one point she got behind the drums and hit harder than the real drummer. She was actually very good!
One of the things I remember most about Rocklahoma was seeing her in the crowd for the 2nd THC show at the makeshift tent on Sunday night, the festivals’ closing evening. It seemed all the THC guys knew her and all her girls knew the THC guys. Go figure. Too much information.
Friday the 11th turned out to be hot, dry and windy. As a consequence, 70% of the previous days’ mud had dried significantly and the entire area as a whole was markedly easier to navigate both by foot and transport cart. I mixed 4 shows that day. The performers I mixed on the South Stage Friday were as follows;
· Minoli (from Italy)-12:30 p.m.
· Gods of Kansas-1:55 p.m.
· Lipstick Magazine-5:15 p.m.
· Krucible (featuring Lance King)-10:15 p.m.
All 4 acts acquitted themselves well, however, 2 in particular stood out. Lipstick Magazine and Krucible featuring Lance King.
When I was prepping the stage plot for Lipstick Magazine, I couldn’t helped but feel that they were an odd-looking assortment of people from completely different walks of life. For one, they didn’t look like Rocklahoma hellraisers in the least. Secondly, they had keyboards which were sort of faux pas for Rocklahoma in general. Thirdly, they played out of what appeared to be solid-state Marshall amps and just about all the band went wireless with their instruments and voices. It just looked strange…THAT IS UNTIL THEY STARTED PLAYING!
Holy Shit!
They had a female singer that sang great. The rhythm section had two lead guitarists, one of whom was bald, black and wore glasses. They switched on and off for solos AND as it turns out, the black dude was without a doubt one of the finest soloists at all of Rocklahoma! Who knew? You can’t judge a book by its cover, right? The bass and drums were really solid and the keyboardist played with some nice sounding Hammond Organ sounding patches. The songs were melodic, heartfelt, driving anthems with some immaculate 3-part harmonies (in tune I might add!). I laughed my ass off at my misperception and got them sounding awesome! When a band plays that good, mixing them is a breeze.
Then comes Lance King. I met him the day before and he seemed like a completely grounded, down to earth guy, however, I didn’t know he sang. He is a tall, dark and handsome fucker but rather unassuming. My friend introduced him to me as a small label owner and that was it. He asked me to mix some shows for him with his band, Krucible, being one of them. Later, when someone asked me who I was mixing, I said “Lance King…is he any good?” The guy looked at me like I had 3 nostrils and said…”Lance is probably the underground rock scenes’ greatest living singer!” “Hmmm…this I gotta see” I thought.
Well…yep…the guy was right. Lance was remarkable as was his band and the material. OMG, the songs were awesome!!! Heavy, progressive, melodic, anthem-like, etc. Why Krucible and he aren’t household names is beyond me. Geoff Tate has nothing on this guy. The funniest thing about their set list was that they were to end it with a cover of Dream Theaters’ “Pull Me Under”…another record I produced. So…I knew there was at least one song I might mix right. They played 5-6 songs and right before they were to play “Pull Me Under”…THE STAGE MANAGER PULLED THE PLUG!!! Their set ran too long. It seemed Extremes’ set ran slightly over and as a result everybodys’ set got cut about five minutes. Damn! I wanted to hear them cover DT! Hands down, Lance King was the finest metal voice I heard at Rocklahoma.
I was hoping the following day, Saturday the 12th, would be hot, dry and windy again like Friday. One more day of that would dry this place out completely. Instead I woke up Saturday morning to the sound of heavy rain hitting the skylight of the camper Rocklahoma provided for me. I thought…”Oh shit! You gotta be kidding me!” I was due at the South Stage at 2:00 p.m. to get the stage ready for a band called Order of Nine and I was hoping that at least the rain would stop before then.
It did. I missed an interview THC was doing for Rolling Stone at 2:30 but I had to supervise the stage plot for Order of Nine. They were scheduled to perform at 2:30 and it takes around 30 minutes to go through all the checklists during a changeover. Troubleshooting while the show is going on isn’t the best time to check mike cables for a short.
Order of Nine gave a strong performance and their show went off without a hitch. Finally I could relax for a while before I had to mix Lita Ford at 9:55. By now it was around 3:30 so I walked over to production headquarters to see if there was any change in plans, time slot, etc. for her show.
Then I ran into Brad White.
He was barely responsive due to an extreme lack of sleep but seemed nonetheless really perturbed about something. He was trying to get all the festival stage managers to acknowledge his prompt from his 2-way radio but they seemed aloof. This was the festivals’ 4th day and everyone was completely exhausted. Then he looked at me and said…”Event Weather told me they had been tipped off about a nasty looking group of cells coming our way. I gotta get the stage managers to double check all their shit because they’re saying this storm could bring high winds.”
I couldn’t believe it. The sky looked clear from what I could tell but I immediately made my way over to the elevated main stage mix tower to see if I could get a better look. Sure enough, Tom Sweeney, the main stage sound company’s mix supervisor was looking at his I-phone monitoring a streaming weather forecast. It looked like a solid orange blob. “FUCK!!!” Tom started gathering massive plastic tarps he had for such occurrences and began to unfurl them to get everything sorted if the worst hits us.
I looked out to the northeast and saw a low level front moving in. For a long while it looked like it would miss us. Then it got closer and closer, all the while looking seriously pissed off about something. I could see violent air-to-ground lightning bolts firing at a rapid clip. It was identical to the lightning in Steven Spielberg’s movie “War of the Worlds.” In between songs from the main stage I could softly hear what sounded like distant thunder getting louder and louder. The front was closing in.
Trixter was by now finishing their set on the main stage. Like other groups at Rocklahoma, I had produced them as well. Back in 1989 I recorded the 1st studio version of their later hit “One in a Million”. As fate would have it, they were obsessed with the production on Def Lepards’ “Hysteria” and wouldn’t settle for anyone less than Mutt Lange producing them. Needless to say, that never materialized.
Since most people are unfamiliar with Trixter’s music outside of their 1st record, like many bands at Rocklahoma they began playing some high energy covers in order to keep the crowd engaged.
Then it began to rain.
Most people don’t realize it, but, if performers use wireless technology with their instruments and microphones, they aren’t connected to anything that would complete a circuit and ground them. Therefore, they usually can continue without fear of electrocution. I saw the Rolling Stones play in a downpour at Shea Stadium in the late eighties and the band played better after it began to rain.
The crowd was really into Trixter’s set and the mix was quite good as I recall. However, when they started Guns N’ Roses “Paradise City”, a river began to pour from the sky. Undeterred, Trixter’s frontline taunted the weather and appeared determined to play through it. The crowd was emboldened by Trixter’s defiance and seemed determined to ride it out with the band.
That’s when all hell broke loose.
In a space of about 5 seconds, from seemingly nowhere a vicious wind from hell combined with the already heavy rain to create what felt to me like an instant hurricane. The conditions were worse than those I experienced in a typhoon while touring Japan with Sam & Dave. People began to scream and yell, all the while running for cover. Trixter’s instruments began to short out because the mikes and guitar pickups took in so much water they could no longer function. I could see the stage hands furiously trying to lower the lighting trusses on the main stage so they could then close the structures’ huge sheet metal door. It’s built like a massive military airplane hanger.
Then the storm got serious.
The wind doubled in velocity and seemed to start picking up speed. I was watching the rain against a black backdrop and could see the raindrops falling completely horizontal, almost to the point of raining upwards. The storms’ wind, however, wasn’t rotating. I thought, “How weird? This isn’t a tornado?”
By now the lightning was literally right on top of the mixing tower. The thunderclaps were so loud it scared me off my feet. I was blinded by the brightness of the lightning bolts so close and low to the ground. The storm clouds couldn’t have been more than a couple of hundred feet above us and I was in a metal tower with a shitload of electricity running through it.
This was the real meaning of “shock and awe”.
I wasn’t an official crew member for the sound and light company but that didn’t matter now. It was all hands on deck. We managed to get the digital sound and lighting consoles covered and then we each hunkered down, the whole while the storm getting progressively worse. By now the main stage seating area was completely empty and all the screams seemed far away.
I tried to look around the corner in the direction of the storm but it felt like I was getting sprayed with buckshot. It was actually painful. The sheet metal enclosing our tower was flapping like a goose that couldn’t fly. I could see the ground in between the spaces where it was pulling away from the rivets securing them.
Then, after what seemed a small eternity, the wind stopped as suddenly as it began. Now it was just a steady rain. And it was quiet. Eerily quite.
Right about then Tracey and a couple of stage hands from the North Stage ran into our tower. He said he literally started to become airborne when he tried to hold down the awning over the soundboard. That’s when he hauled ass to our tower. He was as white as a ghost.
There was an older fella’ with the lighting company who looked out the tower and said…”Holy shit! They lost the North Stage.” Then he turned south and said, “My God! They lost both of them!”
The whole thing didn’t last more than 15-20 minutes. But it was 15-20 minutes of abject terror. It scared the living shit out of me but I must say that it was exciting and really fun!
By now the 1st responders were out in force. They did a fantastic job of maintaining order. They marked off the stages like it was CSI Miami to prevent assholes from stealing equipment that may have survived. There were sirens going off everywhere and like most people at that time I had only one thought.
“Dear God I hope no one was injured.”
After 4-5 minutes I began to walk to the massive main dining tent. This thing is H…U…G…E…! With maybe 2-3 inches here and there, it was largely flooded but not a disaster. I must have looked like hell because everyone that saw me walk in looked at me incredulously. They must have sensed that I had been in the thick of it. I felt like I had been in a firefight with the Taliban.
I immediately went into survival mode and thought to myself…”If there’s any food to be eaten eat it now! That may be the last food you eat for a quite a while.” I grabbed a plate and filled it up. A few minutes later, sure enough, they started to take all the food away.
I went outside to the production offices but it was in full crisis mode. Everyone had a phone pressed to their ear with a walkie talkie squawking in the background. I went to my camper and changed clothes. Unbelievably, it was still there and the power was on. The air-conditioner had tripped a circuit but I reset it and it started right up.
Believe it or not Rocklahoma never lost power.
I sat down and called Lita’s husband, Jim Gillette, and asked him what he knew. He said Lita’s manager, Danny Stanton, had told them to pull over, grab a bite to eat and wait for further instructions. Then Jim said, “Lita is going to play this show even if she has to play in the parking lot. She’s on fire!” Then I thought to myself, “Oh shit! What does he mean by that?”
Lita, Jim and I spent an hour together the night before discussing all facets of her show for tonight and copying setlists. She’s an unbelievably sweet person. You just want to please her the minute you meet her. Kinda like I feel about my sisters. I was hell-bent to come through for her because this was her first “real” show in 15 years but she didn’t have a soundmixer who knew her music!!! The last one she used was on assignment in Europe and was unavailable. Still, she was sooooooooooo excited about the event, the fans, everything. I thought to myself, “Wow!!! This could really be good if I can get it right!”
We discussed all the songs with regard to who was going to solo first or second and how each song began. Three or four of them started with keyboards. Additionally, everybody in the band sang backup and they all had great voices. The vocal blend was very important to her. I had my work cut out for sure. Then I got the word.
Rocklahoma 2008 was still alive.
I called Danny and he said the show would go on but only on the main stage with the scheduled headliners. That meant;
§ Lynch Mob-8:15
§ KIX-9:30
§ Lita Ford-10:45
§ Warrant-12:30
In spite of everything that had occurred, we had only lost about an hour.
Apparently, everyone would cut their set by 1 or 2 songs to save as much time as possible. Every stagehand from the North and South stages was ordered to assist in changing stage sets between acts. They were hoping for about 20-30 minute changeovers.
I returned directly to the mix tower. The Lynch Mob was about to go on and I wanted to see if there were any changes in approach as to how Tom wanted the Pro-Tools digital mixing console to be set up. When I got there everything was already up and ready.
The Lynch Mob gave an excellent performance with their namesake giving a textbook lesson on how full a 3–piece rhythm section with 1 guitar could sound. George played beautifully.
I asked about who would play next and someone told me KIX had backed out or words to that effect. Lita Ford was to be next!
After The Lynch Mob finished their set I immediately began asking Tom to help set the board up for Lita. However, when I tried to get people onstage to give me a line check no one would cooperate. “FUCK!!!” I thought out loud. Time was running out. I called Jim Gillette and asked him how much time Lita had. He said, “I don’t know but she’ll be taking the stage at 10:45.” I looked at my watch and I thought is said 10:20. Because my watch was soaked and therefore difficult to read, I mistakenly read the time as an hour later than it actually was.
That was soon to cause a major FUBAR!!!
After about 10 minutes of trying to get things checked I heard the drum tech onstage triggering Simmons drum samples! “What!!”…no one told me anything about this and I had no idea how to route anything through the Pro-Tools live mixing matrix. Tom was busy so I decided to physically run to the stage and get some answers.
I was soon to be more humiliated and embarrassed than any time I can remember.
here is a VERY detailed accounts of this multi platinum producer (Firehouse, Dream Theater, movie soundtrack for Dirty Dancing, and former drummer of the band SANTANA.) ALL are as I remember them for the most part, except his words about me personally, I can neither confirm or deny them lol. PS, I saw the phone image the weather lady had, it was FREAKY.
---------------------------------------------------------
I, David Prater, do solemnly testify that the following accounts are accurate so help me God!
As you read the following narrative, please bear in mind that during the weather event described below I was elevated 20 feet in the air within the main stage mixing tower getting ready to mix Lita Fords’ first proper show after a 15 year sabbatical. As a result, myself and three other technicians witnessed the following episode firsthand.
On Saturday, June 12, 2008, at approximately 6:00 p.m. CST, during the final moments of a performance of Guns N’ Roses “Paradise City” by Trixter, a storm cell accompanied by heavy rain ripped through the main staging area of Rocklahoma producing a “wet microburst” with “straight-line winds” in excess of 70 mph. The highest recorded wind speed of such an atmospheric phenomenon is well over 150 mph. A storm of this type is often times mistaken for a tornado and can in fact be equally if not more destructive. Within the mixing tower itself, the wind was so strong that I personally saw it very nearly rip the sheet metal from the rivets holding it onto the steel reinforcement columns. Although it seemed much longer, this dramatic event lasted for only 15-20 minutes. Nevertheless, as a result, it caused the complete collapse and utter destruction of the North and South “side” stages. It’s worth noting that both stages’ construction was rated as capable of withstanding sustained winds up to 75 mph.
Miraculously, there were no fatalities nor serious injuries reported.
Musicians should be aware that Rocklahoma had graciously filled these stages to overflowing with high-end guitar and bass amplifiers (Crank, Dual Rectifier, Marshall JCM 900, Ampeg SVT, etc.) as well as premium quality drums (Drum Workshop, Zildjian, Sabian, Paiste, etc.) and various musical instruments. The bulk of this “back-line” had been provided as an alternative to groups having to lug into the festival grounds massive truck loads of equipment far too impractical to use. Virtually all the performers were delighted that such quality gear had been provided. They could then use their own guitars, effects pedals, cymbals, foot pedals, etc. to supplement their performances.
Well…most all of it was ruined. As with all the stage lightning, sound reinforcement and other various technologies, the back-line gear stayed uncovered in the rain for more than 24 hours during which time it was almost always raining. Yellow law enforcement tape designated the area as strictly off limits. The sight of that much ruined gear literally made me sick to my stomach. It’s an ominous sight to see “flown” P.A. enclosures lying in the mud with the trusses that held all the stage lighting resting on top of them. The heavy duty aluminum used in their construction was bent like salt water taffy. The wind force that did this must have been biblical in nature.
Not taking into account additional claims from other vendors and festival concessionaires, conservative estimates by professionals familiar with filing claims for such “acts of God” valued the damage at over $2,000,000 per stage. The main stage, however, was almost completely undamaged due to the strength of the industrial-grade steel and sheet metal structure that completely housed it on all 5 sides when fully retracted.
During lunch the following afternoon, I sat with the team of Michael and Becky Orange from “Event Weather” (www.eventweather.net) and discussed all that had happened. They’re in the business of providing a multitude of onsite weather services for various outdoor functions. After having finished our meal, Becky turned to me and said, “Hey…you gotta check this out.” She pulled out her cell phone and showed me a jpeg of the storm cells’ topographic display as it passed over Rocklahoma. She shot the picture right off the weather screen the night before. As God as my witness…the image was in the shape of the holy cross. You can view the entire time-stamped high-resolution file at the address below. It wasn’t altered by Final Cut Pro nor Photoshop. Earlier today, I even went so far as to call Becky and verify the images’ integrity. She swears it is absolutely genuine.
The event owner then walked up, viewed the image and immediately downloaded it into his cell phone. As he began to walk the grounds and show it to associates, the news of the oddity quickly spread. From then on, for most of us working the show the festival took on a hallowed glow. In fact, looking back I dare say the entire event represents something spiritually significant for many of us in attendance that week.
I arrived at the festival on Tuesday afternoon, July 8th and would be there for the next 6 days. I was attending Rocklahoma as a business partner with Brad White, the events’ talent coordinator and booking agent. We are responsible for all affairs relating to “The Texas Hippie Coalition” (www.myspace.com/texashippiecoalition). Brad and I had produced their CD/DVD package and I was going to mix their 2 shows on Wednesday and Sunday. As it turned out, I was commissioned to mix an additional 6 acts on various stages over the duration I was there. The most notable of these was Lita Ford on Saturday Night. Her normal soundman was in Europe on assignment.
Following Jackyls’ “chainsaw” massacre on the main stage, I mixed a rowdy set for The Texas Hippie Coalition on the North Stage at 10:00 p.m. Wednesday July 9th. It seemed our show was an unqualified success and really buoyed my enthusiasm for mixing the rest of my clients throughout the week. Both the North and South stages featured Midas mixing consoles that sounded warm and smooth even at loud volumes.
Ratt followed our set on the main stage. It was nice to see Steve Pearcy in good form with the band sounding competent. I had produced an Arcade album for him in 1992 but this was the first time I had seen him since. There would be a several more acts I had similar experiences with as the week progressed.
It had rained earlier that day and in places the festival grounds started to become very muddy. The next day, Thursday July 10th, once again saw some annoying precipitation that added to the mud from the day before. By evening, especially in the reserved VIP RV camping area, the festival grounds had devolved into a quagmire of deep mud containing beer, various forms of alcohol, urine, vomit and God knows what else. The weird thing was that even without the presence of any livestock you smelled cowdung everywhere. It was explained to me that when the festival grounds become this wet and are stirred up this much by pedestrian and vehicular traffic, the underlying soil containing 200 hundred years of inert cowdung becomes rather pungent to say the least.
However, none of this had any effect on the crowd in attendance for the most completely over the top stage show I’ve ever seen.
EROCKTICA!!!
OMFG! Just go to their website…you’ll get the idea. They were QUINTUPLE X-RATED!!! Full nudity, Bondage, simulated male ejaculations, girl on girl sex, audience sexual participation, etc. All the while the performers were swizzling a huge bottle of Jim Beam and passing it back and forth through the crowd. Some of the songs were interesting too! The main stage performer, Pink Snow, was hysterically funny. At one point she got behind the drums and hit harder than the real drummer. She was actually very good!
One of the things I remember most about Rocklahoma was seeing her in the crowd for the 2nd THC show at the makeshift tent on Sunday night, the festivals’ closing evening. It seemed all the THC guys knew her and all her girls knew the THC guys. Go figure. Too much information.
Friday the 11th turned out to be hot, dry and windy. As a consequence, 70% of the previous days’ mud had dried significantly and the entire area as a whole was markedly easier to navigate both by foot and transport cart. I mixed 4 shows that day. The performers I mixed on the South Stage Friday were as follows;
· Minoli (from Italy)-12:30 p.m.
· Gods of Kansas-1:55 p.m.
· Lipstick Magazine-5:15 p.m.
· Krucible (featuring Lance King)-10:15 p.m.
All 4 acts acquitted themselves well, however, 2 in particular stood out. Lipstick Magazine and Krucible featuring Lance King.
When I was prepping the stage plot for Lipstick Magazine, I couldn’t helped but feel that they were an odd-looking assortment of people from completely different walks of life. For one, they didn’t look like Rocklahoma hellraisers in the least. Secondly, they had keyboards which were sort of faux pas for Rocklahoma in general. Thirdly, they played out of what appeared to be solid-state Marshall amps and just about all the band went wireless with their instruments and voices. It just looked strange…THAT IS UNTIL THEY STARTED PLAYING!
Holy Shit!
They had a female singer that sang great. The rhythm section had two lead guitarists, one of whom was bald, black and wore glasses. They switched on and off for solos AND as it turns out, the black dude was without a doubt one of the finest soloists at all of Rocklahoma! Who knew? You can’t judge a book by its cover, right? The bass and drums were really solid and the keyboardist played with some nice sounding Hammond Organ sounding patches. The songs were melodic, heartfelt, driving anthems with some immaculate 3-part harmonies (in tune I might add!). I laughed my ass off at my misperception and got them sounding awesome! When a band plays that good, mixing them is a breeze.
Then comes Lance King. I met him the day before and he seemed like a completely grounded, down to earth guy, however, I didn’t know he sang. He is a tall, dark and handsome fucker but rather unassuming. My friend introduced him to me as a small label owner and that was it. He asked me to mix some shows for him with his band, Krucible, being one of them. Later, when someone asked me who I was mixing, I said “Lance King…is he any good?” The guy looked at me like I had 3 nostrils and said…”Lance is probably the underground rock scenes’ greatest living singer!” “Hmmm…this I gotta see” I thought.
Well…yep…the guy was right. Lance was remarkable as was his band and the material. OMG, the songs were awesome!!! Heavy, progressive, melodic, anthem-like, etc. Why Krucible and he aren’t household names is beyond me. Geoff Tate has nothing on this guy. The funniest thing about their set list was that they were to end it with a cover of Dream Theaters’ “Pull Me Under”…another record I produced. So…I knew there was at least one song I might mix right. They played 5-6 songs and right before they were to play “Pull Me Under”…THE STAGE MANAGER PULLED THE PLUG!!! Their set ran too long. It seemed Extremes’ set ran slightly over and as a result everybodys’ set got cut about five minutes. Damn! I wanted to hear them cover DT! Hands down, Lance King was the finest metal voice I heard at Rocklahoma.
I was hoping the following day, Saturday the 12th, would be hot, dry and windy again like Friday. One more day of that would dry this place out completely. Instead I woke up Saturday morning to the sound of heavy rain hitting the skylight of the camper Rocklahoma provided for me. I thought…”Oh shit! You gotta be kidding me!” I was due at the South Stage at 2:00 p.m. to get the stage ready for a band called Order of Nine and I was hoping that at least the rain would stop before then.
It did. I missed an interview THC was doing for Rolling Stone at 2:30 but I had to supervise the stage plot for Order of Nine. They were scheduled to perform at 2:30 and it takes around 30 minutes to go through all the checklists during a changeover. Troubleshooting while the show is going on isn’t the best time to check mike cables for a short.
Order of Nine gave a strong performance and their show went off without a hitch. Finally I could relax for a while before I had to mix Lita Ford at 9:55. By now it was around 3:30 so I walked over to production headquarters to see if there was any change in plans, time slot, etc. for her show.
Then I ran into Brad White.
He was barely responsive due to an extreme lack of sleep but seemed nonetheless really perturbed about something. He was trying to get all the festival stage managers to acknowledge his prompt from his 2-way radio but they seemed aloof. This was the festivals’ 4th day and everyone was completely exhausted. Then he looked at me and said…”Event Weather told me they had been tipped off about a nasty looking group of cells coming our way. I gotta get the stage managers to double check all their shit because they’re saying this storm could bring high winds.”
I couldn’t believe it. The sky looked clear from what I could tell but I immediately made my way over to the elevated main stage mix tower to see if I could get a better look. Sure enough, Tom Sweeney, the main stage sound company’s mix supervisor was looking at his I-phone monitoring a streaming weather forecast. It looked like a solid orange blob. “FUCK!!!” Tom started gathering massive plastic tarps he had for such occurrences and began to unfurl them to get everything sorted if the worst hits us.
I looked out to the northeast and saw a low level front moving in. For a long while it looked like it would miss us. Then it got closer and closer, all the while looking seriously pissed off about something. I could see violent air-to-ground lightning bolts firing at a rapid clip. It was identical to the lightning in Steven Spielberg’s movie “War of the Worlds.” In between songs from the main stage I could softly hear what sounded like distant thunder getting louder and louder. The front was closing in.
Trixter was by now finishing their set on the main stage. Like other groups at Rocklahoma, I had produced them as well. Back in 1989 I recorded the 1st studio version of their later hit “One in a Million”. As fate would have it, they were obsessed with the production on Def Lepards’ “Hysteria” and wouldn’t settle for anyone less than Mutt Lange producing them. Needless to say, that never materialized.
Since most people are unfamiliar with Trixter’s music outside of their 1st record, like many bands at Rocklahoma they began playing some high energy covers in order to keep the crowd engaged.
Then it began to rain.
Most people don’t realize it, but, if performers use wireless technology with their instruments and microphones, they aren’t connected to anything that would complete a circuit and ground them. Therefore, they usually can continue without fear of electrocution. I saw the Rolling Stones play in a downpour at Shea Stadium in the late eighties and the band played better after it began to rain.
The crowd was really into Trixter’s set and the mix was quite good as I recall. However, when they started Guns N’ Roses “Paradise City”, a river began to pour from the sky. Undeterred, Trixter’s frontline taunted the weather and appeared determined to play through it. The crowd was emboldened by Trixter’s defiance and seemed determined to ride it out with the band.
That’s when all hell broke loose.
In a space of about 5 seconds, from seemingly nowhere a vicious wind from hell combined with the already heavy rain to create what felt to me like an instant hurricane. The conditions were worse than those I experienced in a typhoon while touring Japan with Sam & Dave. People began to scream and yell, all the while running for cover. Trixter’s instruments began to short out because the mikes and guitar pickups took in so much water they could no longer function. I could see the stage hands furiously trying to lower the lighting trusses on the main stage so they could then close the structures’ huge sheet metal door. It’s built like a massive military airplane hanger.
Then the storm got serious.
The wind doubled in velocity and seemed to start picking up speed. I was watching the rain against a black backdrop and could see the raindrops falling completely horizontal, almost to the point of raining upwards. The storms’ wind, however, wasn’t rotating. I thought, “How weird? This isn’t a tornado?”
By now the lightning was literally right on top of the mixing tower. The thunderclaps were so loud it scared me off my feet. I was blinded by the brightness of the lightning bolts so close and low to the ground. The storm clouds couldn’t have been more than a couple of hundred feet above us and I was in a metal tower with a shitload of electricity running through it.
This was the real meaning of “shock and awe”.
I wasn’t an official crew member for the sound and light company but that didn’t matter now. It was all hands on deck. We managed to get the digital sound and lighting consoles covered and then we each hunkered down, the whole while the storm getting progressively worse. By now the main stage seating area was completely empty and all the screams seemed far away.
I tried to look around the corner in the direction of the storm but it felt like I was getting sprayed with buckshot. It was actually painful. The sheet metal enclosing our tower was flapping like a goose that couldn’t fly. I could see the ground in between the spaces where it was pulling away from the rivets securing them.
Then, after what seemed a small eternity, the wind stopped as suddenly as it began. Now it was just a steady rain. And it was quiet. Eerily quite.
Right about then Tracey and a couple of stage hands from the North Stage ran into our tower. He said he literally started to become airborne when he tried to hold down the awning over the soundboard. That’s when he hauled ass to our tower. He was as white as a ghost.
There was an older fella’ with the lighting company who looked out the tower and said…”Holy shit! They lost the North Stage.” Then he turned south and said, “My God! They lost both of them!”
The whole thing didn’t last more than 15-20 minutes. But it was 15-20 minutes of abject terror. It scared the living shit out of me but I must say that it was exciting and really fun!
By now the 1st responders were out in force. They did a fantastic job of maintaining order. They marked off the stages like it was CSI Miami to prevent assholes from stealing equipment that may have survived. There were sirens going off everywhere and like most people at that time I had only one thought.
“Dear God I hope no one was injured.”
After 4-5 minutes I began to walk to the massive main dining tent. This thing is H…U…G…E…! With maybe 2-3 inches here and there, it was largely flooded but not a disaster. I must have looked like hell because everyone that saw me walk in looked at me incredulously. They must have sensed that I had been in the thick of it. I felt like I had been in a firefight with the Taliban.
I immediately went into survival mode and thought to myself…”If there’s any food to be eaten eat it now! That may be the last food you eat for a quite a while.” I grabbed a plate and filled it up. A few minutes later, sure enough, they started to take all the food away.
I went outside to the production offices but it was in full crisis mode. Everyone had a phone pressed to their ear with a walkie talkie squawking in the background. I went to my camper and changed clothes. Unbelievably, it was still there and the power was on. The air-conditioner had tripped a circuit but I reset it and it started right up.
Believe it or not Rocklahoma never lost power.
I sat down and called Lita’s husband, Jim Gillette, and asked him what he knew. He said Lita’s manager, Danny Stanton, had told them to pull over, grab a bite to eat and wait for further instructions. Then Jim said, “Lita is going to play this show even if she has to play in the parking lot. She’s on fire!” Then I thought to myself, “Oh shit! What does he mean by that?”
Lita, Jim and I spent an hour together the night before discussing all facets of her show for tonight and copying setlists. She’s an unbelievably sweet person. You just want to please her the minute you meet her. Kinda like I feel about my sisters. I was hell-bent to come through for her because this was her first “real” show in 15 years but she didn’t have a soundmixer who knew her music!!! The last one she used was on assignment in Europe and was unavailable. Still, she was sooooooooooo excited about the event, the fans, everything. I thought to myself, “Wow!!! This could really be good if I can get it right!”
We discussed all the songs with regard to who was going to solo first or second and how each song began. Three or four of them started with keyboards. Additionally, everybody in the band sang backup and they all had great voices. The vocal blend was very important to her. I had my work cut out for sure. Then I got the word.
Rocklahoma 2008 was still alive.
I called Danny and he said the show would go on but only on the main stage with the scheduled headliners. That meant;
§ Lynch Mob-8:15
§ KIX-9:30
§ Lita Ford-10:45
§ Warrant-12:30
In spite of everything that had occurred, we had only lost about an hour.
Apparently, everyone would cut their set by 1 or 2 songs to save as much time as possible. Every stagehand from the North and South stages was ordered to assist in changing stage sets between acts. They were hoping for about 20-30 minute changeovers.
I returned directly to the mix tower. The Lynch Mob was about to go on and I wanted to see if there were any changes in approach as to how Tom wanted the Pro-Tools digital mixing console to be set up. When I got there everything was already up and ready.
The Lynch Mob gave an excellent performance with their namesake giving a textbook lesson on how full a 3–piece rhythm section with 1 guitar could sound. George played beautifully.
I asked about who would play next and someone told me KIX had backed out or words to that effect. Lita Ford was to be next!
After The Lynch Mob finished their set I immediately began asking Tom to help set the board up for Lita. However, when I tried to get people onstage to give me a line check no one would cooperate. “FUCK!!!” I thought out loud. Time was running out. I called Jim Gillette and asked him how much time Lita had. He said, “I don’t know but she’ll be taking the stage at 10:45.” I looked at my watch and I thought is said 10:20. Because my watch was soaked and therefore difficult to read, I mistakenly read the time as an hour later than it actually was.
That was soon to cause a major FUBAR!!!
After about 10 minutes of trying to get things checked I heard the drum tech onstage triggering Simmons drum samples! “What!!”…no one told me anything about this and I had no idea how to route anything through the Pro-Tools live mixing matrix. Tom was busy so I decided to physically run to the stage and get some answers.
I was soon to be more humiliated and embarrassed than any time I can remember.
