Brown M&Ms Okay

REO Speedwagon plays the Del Mar Fair tomorrow. While the band is in town, they would like to do some golfing, particularly "if the golf course chosen would agree to trade tee times for tickets and passes." The band's dressing room requires a bowl of tuna salad ("chilled"), a box of low-fat Wheat Thins, two large bags of M&Ms (one plain, one peanut), a box of microwave popcorn ("natural flavor light"), one large can of mixed nuts, a box of Hall's cough drops ("light blue or light green"), and "one box of Kleenex." Drinks: a case of Coors, a six-pack of Samuel Adams ("ale or porter"), a six-pack of "a good local beer," six Snapples ("assorted"), and a six-pack each of V-8 and Diet Mountain Dew. Singer Kevin Cronin has his own dressing room with separate necessities, including two liters of bottled water ("no bubbles"), a bag of pretzel rods, and "one box each of low fat regular and low fat cinnamon Honey Maid graham crackers (green label)."

When Merle Haggard plays the House of Blues on June 22, he'll use the house sound system and won't use a set list; the band keeps up with whatever he decides to play. He'll be singing into a Shure SM58 microphone fed through a dbx 786 microphone preamp. Occasional compression and effects on the vocals may be added via a Yamaha SPX 990, "to add a subtle shade of bass chorus," according to tour production manager Mark Woodcock. The mixing board rarely inputs more than 20 channels. "My equipment rider never asks for anything exotic, because I'm not going to get it anyway. Our standing joke, but it's also a truth, is that our favorite gear is whatever happens to be there for a given show.... Anytime I walk in and see we've got a line array for the night is great."

(from livesoundint.com and thesmokinggun.com)