Overcoming Disaster in MI & IL Last Weekend
Wed., Aug. 25. 2010 10:02pm EDT
We had to overcome a mini-disaster to play our concerts this past weekend in Michigan (near Elkhart IN) and Illinois (near Chicago), but God brought us through it.
Friday's show in Dowagiac MI was in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Crystal Springs United Methodist Camp. But during sound check, it seemed more like Camp Crystal Lake -- even though Friday the 13th was actually the previous week.
ApologetiX sound engineer Greg Spack explains:As per usual procedure we connected the cable to the generator and tested the voltage at the connector for even 120V distribution, and it looked good. We then connected to our Power Distribution Unit (Furman ACD-100) and powered up the system.
I then began sound check with track for room displacement. That is when I noticed the voltage on my power conditioner at my effects rack began to fluctuate and dip to below 100V and my console/rack lights began to flicker and shut on/off. I immediately shut down my area and ran to the stage to check the distribution and connection, thats when Tinch and I noticed the back Intel lights starting to smoke!
Before I could even get to the Furman, its breakers tripped on three of the five sections, so I turned it off all the way and disconnected from the generator feed. I measured the feed and it was still "normal"??? Upon further inspection, we noticed that Jimmy's Butt Kicker amp was dead and at least one Intel for sure was dead.
Still to be determined are the status of the other Intels and LED lights on the back truss. We had several blown fuses in the front light truss and in the monitor rack, which we replaced and they are functional.
I spoke with Furman and they are going to ship me out the parts (MOV's) to repair the unit free. They insist that it was our generator that caused the issue, I was told to check all connections to the generator for loose connections that can cause voltage spikes. I will not have the parts from Furman to repair the unit for this weekends concerts though. Editor's note: We found out later that Tom Milnes' floor pod multi-effects pedal was also fried in the disaster. So all of those pieces of equipment will need to be replaced. Thankfully, Tom Milnes' had a two-year replacement guarantee that will hopefully cover the damages to it.
Despite the problems, we were still able to do Friday's concert, and although the concert the following night was at First Baptist Church on Oak Avenue in Aurora IL, there was no nightmare on Oak Avenue. We knew everything would be all right when our concert coordinator greeted us in Pittsburgh Steelers jersey.
Special thanks to:
Our concert coordinators: Jeff Parsons and Pam Cowgill (Dowagiac) and Bob Moncrief (Aurora)
Our merchandise coordinators: Pam (Dowagiac) and Marie, Destiny, and June (Aurora)
Our bus driver: Akron's own Alan Strobel
Honorable mention to: Rich and Marie Polick and Marie's friend Destiny, who all made a 1000-mile round trip from Aliquippa PA to see us in Aurora.
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