I am very depressed at the service Skillet has gotten lately with sound crews. I feel sorry for you if you have never seen a Skillet show with their own production crew, lighting, and sound equipment. Their shows never reach their full potential when they use other peoples equipment. Like at the shows in Pa, at each show, they lost sound or an instrument at some point of the show thanks to the sound crew that was hired to do the sound not taking care of their equipment.

When you have Phil working the lights and Jonathans own people working the sound, the show is so much better. I mean, Skillet is still great when they do festivals, but their shows lack so much when it's not their production crew.

CJ

that stinks, i always thought Skillet had a traveling crew

They only have a production crew when the people booking the show don't want to do have their own production rented out. Festivals and the sort always have their own production hired out because there is more than one band playing. Also, Jonathan's production crew doesn't just work for Skillet either. They have a heap of bands they work with.

CJ

ic, they should try to learn som themselves and/ or have close firends that can be depended on do it. how much education and man power does it take?

I will go on tour full time with them. I've helped out Jonathan before a few times.

Hehe, yes, I remember the long days of setting up/tearing down Skillet's set. It takes about 2 hours to setup with about 12-15 people helping out. I had to learn their whole setup inside and out. :- It was great fun but heaps of work.

CJ

uncle b ur going to be traveling with Skillet?

uncle b ur going to be traveling with Skillet?


i think he was saying he's willing to. i doubt uncleB is gonna tour with Skillet. ya never know tho...

No, I am not going on tour with Skillet. I think my girlfriend would shoot me. Plus the Air Force might get a little suspicious if I did not show up for Basic Training in December. A couple of years ago I would have dropped everything and gone on tour with them, but now it is not an option.

The Newsboys did ask me to go with them on 2 occasions though. A girl stopped me the first time and I don't remember what stopped me the second time.

Aweeeeeeeeeeeeeee

The ABC's of touring with a band that isn't your own

LOL, traveling with them is great. I've done it 3 times already and it just keeps getting more and more fun. Of course, in order to do something like that you must:

A) Have no life
B) Have a good amount of money
C) Be a musician who wants to see first hand how things work or have some wacked out reason to want to learn how musicians live.
D) Have a big, comfy automobile to sleep in (cause you wont be able to afford a motel)
E) Have a good sense of direction (cause you leave before the band in order to get the stage setup before they get there and sometimes drive for 300+ miles to the next show)
F) Have AAA (I have locked myself out of my truck 1 mile away from the church at 2am and AT&T couldn't get anyone to open my door at that hour)
G) Have a semi reliable automobile

I have traveled over 8000 miles with Skillet, north, south, east coast, west coast. I am the Official Panhead Roadie. ;)

CJ

I would quit my job to go on tour with Skillet. I would have to bring my daughter and all, but Alex needs someone to play with. My four year old would love to entain her, and my daughter would love to have John do her hair for her. Now there is an idea.

Yes, I told their repair guy about it durring the worship cause I couldn't hear it at all. He just said it's really low but it was on. He's gonna look into it...

If you saw Ben's guitar up close tho, I think you would understand. The thing is chipped beyond recognition, its been busted up and fixed several times (which explains why the guitar keeps going out at shows) but Ben refuses to get rid of it. He says it's the best sounding thing they have sent them. I think he needs the whole thing replaced if you ask me. Maybe buy another of the same exact guitar...

CJ

doesnt Ben have another one.. I thought he used a flame guitar for the savior vid.. so if he used that for the vid why cant he use that one for the concerts?

looks good, sounds.... not as good ;)

doesnt Ben have another one.. I thought he used a flame guitar for the savior vid.. so if he used that for the vid why cant he use that one for the concerts?


maybe he will bring it out on the collide tour.

He loves that guitar. I don't see him ever getting rid of it... I mean, the strap is ductaped on to the guitar, it's gonna fall apart... he's gonna find a way to put it back together...

CJ

You can fix anything with duct tape.... except a Broken Thumb.... Tried that... ::)

yeah, my Dad says the same thing.

gotta a problem? where is the duck tape. ;)

yah i saw that today where this bass player from this band used duck tape to keep his strap from falling off when he was playing.. some people even use duct tape for there drums... hehe

now if sum1 could make bass or guitar strings out of duct tape...that would be real skill!!!!!

How bout a bass made out of duct tape instead of the strings. ;)

CJ

How bout a bass made out of duct tape instead of the strings. ;)


Ben might very well have to do that if he doesn't get a new guitar soon. :D

Yeah... I worked their GMA show here in Nashville with them. It was probably the best sounding and most finely tuned system they have ever played on; It was provided by Clair Brothers! ;D

I asked Jonathen if they needed anyone for their summer festival runs for stage managing/patchmastering (he is the only one who ever mixes the band). He said probably not. I've worked with them on tour, Ive provided a system for them, I've worked with them on a couple of festival shows before.

They are actually a pretty low budget and tight operation. I'm not sure if Jon or John is behind it but they keep things pretty organized and structured. I'm sure their new van/bus is eating a lot of $$$ up. I'm not sure if they bought it or if they are leasing it.

Either way they have (IMO) the most awesome sound of any band I've ever heard; secular or Christian!

You can fix anything with duct tape....
Good idea! Duct tape would probably hold my headphones together better than the Scotch I'm stuck with right now...

I asked Jonathen if they needed anyone for their summer festival runs for stage managing/patchmastering (he is the only one who ever mixes the band). He said probably not. I've worked with them on tour, Ive provided a system for them, I've worked with them on a couple of festival shows before.

They are actually a pretty low budget and tight operation. I'm not sure if Jon or John is behind it but they keep things pretty organized and structured. I'm sure their new van/bus is eating a lot of $$$ up. I'm not sure if they bought it or if they are leasing it.


The production that Jonathan owns is very well built. I like hearing them play on that rather than anything else because Johnathan's production crew knows how to work it to best fir Skillet's sound. Lately, their shows have been lacking in the sound area because the production is being used for another tour Jonathan has going on (which I believe Skillet is now a part of?). Not to mention, Phil is doing the lighting for that production and he does all of it according to the song which adds so much to the show.

Skillet owns the new bus. It's amazing looking on the inside. Lots of room on the inside. It runs on diesel so they can get pretty far without having to refuel. They are a pain in the butt to turn around in the middle of a highway though I found out when I had to direct them across the middle of a busy intersection in Allentown when we missed our exit towards Penn State... I've actually been pricing busses from the same company lately for us to get one. They are to drool over. :)

CJ

I've never met Phil, but Jon and I know each other.

I think the equipment you are talking about is the rig they used for the smaller AY Tour venues? It was 3 EAW tops over 2 (or 3) EAW subs. There was a Ramsa (blah) at FOH and I want to say a midas at MON.

There were two production guys and I thought they said they were from Missouri or Illinois (I couldnt remember).

I think the lighting and mon stuff was provided by the other production co and the FOH/mains was Jon's gear.

Phil would be one of the 2 guys on the production. He looks kinda like a surfer and is tall, and the other bloke was mexican and didn't talk much. I worked mainly with Phil on the tour because I love doing lighting production (hence the extencive 100+ scanners/20 moving heads/special effects we are using for our shows) and because, like you said, Jonathan likes doing everything himself... and I have to admit, he's good at what he does.

Jonathan owns both sound and light productions. I don't know much about the sound production cause I'm by no means a sound engineer for live events, so I am not sure exactly what the equipment was. It was on the AY tour though, ya.

CJ

The guy doing mon on the AY tour wasn't his name Keith or Kenny or Kevin or something like that? I don't remember. The guys that setup the system in the venue were great to work with and they were awesome about showing their gratitude for their help.

Keith I believe was his name. They were both really good to work with even though Keith and I didn't talk much. He just kinda kept to himself. Phil showed me the in and outs of their light production. :)

CJ

Yeah... those guys were kewl... I enjoyed working with them, and they enjoyed working with me... ha ha ha. I'd like to send them an e-mail if I knew their addy and ask them how they were doin these days.

The church they were at on the AY tour when I met them short-changed them on their crew and I worked with them from load-in through load-out. In their contract if the church (or promoter) doesn't provide enough help then they have to pay Skillet more money which in turn goes directly to the guys who had to work twice or three times as hard. Being very generous people and knowing that I had driven over 300 miles round trip to work (volunteer at) that show they shared in their booty with me in which I was very greatful for. I was still in high school.

My last Skillet show was in April during the GMA up here in Nashville. That was awesome because they were on the best sounding system they have ever played on. One of the hired stage hands I was working with was actually Geoff Moore's monitor engineer during the Thread's tour. And I remembered him from working one of the GMD shows. John and him and myself talked for a good 30 minutes on the loading dock of the hotel about GMD and the "golden days" of Christian rock ;) Memories...

I cant wait for Skillet to come around again! I'm dying to see them live again.

Yes, I told their repair guy about it durring the worship cause I couldn't hear it at all. He just said it's really low but it was on. He's gonna look into it...

If you saw Ben's guitar up close tho, I think you would understand. The thing is chipped beyond recognition, its been busted up and fixed several times (which explains why the guitar keeps going out at shows) but Ben refuses to get rid of it. He says it's the best sounding thing they have sent them. I think he needs the whole thing replaced if you ask me. Maybe buy another of the same exact guitar...
CJ

You can't just replace a guitar, every single one has it's own tonal characteristics. Also, it actually probably was where you were standing. Where you stand always makes a huge difference. If you want to hear something really well you have to go back about 50 feet. That is where the best sound is. I just went to one of their concerts friday and the guitar sounded really good. About the video thing, you don't actually play the song for a video, its ALL about looks, and ben probably doesnt like the way that guitar sounds.
Rick

Guitars are the one thing I don't know too much about so you are probably right in that statment. Though I don't see why he wouldn't just take the pickups off his origional one and put them on a new body or something. His guitar is literally going to fall apart soon. As far as the sound, me and their repair guy stood away from the stage and I still couldn't hear it clearly.

As far as videos, thats just lip syncing anyways. So yes, that's all just looks...

CJ