Dr. Milo T. Pinkerton III's Journal

RATS
After a day spent working on my friend Alex's battered old Lexus LS300 (stupid, stupid engineers - if both brake lights go out, you can't shift out of park!) and another guy's 'Earthshaker' pinball (I repaired the shaker motor and two other parts of the game broke!), I put some time in programming the moving lights for our last show of the Halloween season at the House of Shock. They were looking excellent! I also did some more work on the new build of the show computer, getting it pretty much rock solid. Then I got a call from Dr. A Rachnid.

Bad news - seems Rachnid picked up something last weekend at the House of Shock... now he's running over 100 degree fever. I had heard he was sick at the end of the week but it seems that he's getting worse instead of better, as I had hoped. This also happened two years ago, but it wasn't THIS bad... he was able to scrape through the performance bundled up. But tomorrow night might be a wash... there's no way we can perform if he can barely stand, let alone sing, and there's no understudies to fill in for him.

Feeling simultaneously nihilistic and restless, I abandoned my light programming efforts and ventured out to Voodoo Music Fest. My wristband from Friday got me in, and I wandered around the grounds taking in the scene. What a scene... damn, I sure wish we were performing there! But I consoled myself with the sure knowledge that Rachnid would be sick whether we were performing there or not, and if we HAD gotten the booking, I'd REALLY be feeling low right about now.

Nine Inch Nails was performing on the big stage. They were performing some of their new material, a morose, slow tempo number. The crowd really didn't seem into it - I actually observed a guy in a NIN t-shirt walking away from the show as I walked up. The band was silhouetted against an intense blue and white undulating backdrop and I noticed they were behind a scrim as well, further separating them from the audience. After two or three newer songs, they kicked into 'Terrible Lie', an old favorite from the first album. At this point they went into full on RAWK mode, with Trent Reznor looking for all the world like Henry Rollins. Ever since he bulked up, he hasn't looked like himself at all ... the band sounded really tight and the lighting was amazing. But something about it all wasn't really doing anything for me - it all seemed distant, sounded digital and came off as... empty. So I wandered off to see what the rest of the festival was looking like at 10pm.

Unfortunately a bunch of the stages had closed for the evening. A D.J. was going strong on the NooMoon stage though, with video projected behind him. Along the way back though, two things made me smile. One was a mobile techno rave, a 5 foot box frame on wheels packed with battery operated sound and lighting equipment, and decorated like a homemade robot with silver pegboard and christmas lights. Hypnotic beats throbbed from within in time to the music. A few feet back, another more primative looking cart was in tow, with a guy on a bass guitar hooked to it and playing along to the beat. A small crowd had assembed and were enjoying the mobile grooves.

Then I came across a 'Best Buy Musical Instrument' tent. (I didn't even know they sold real instruments...) anyway, they had a drumset, a guitar, a bass, and a keyboard set up, and kids were being allowed to jam together on them. A small crowd of kids in front of the tent patiently waited their turn. The sounds were quite competent and everyone was having fun. A good way to end the night, even if I didn't feel quite like waiting long enough to jam on the drums myself.

One thing left to vow - we are GOING to play that COG-damned festival next year. Dammit!

Current Music: NIN - 'Piggy'

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