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JIMMY BONES AND MICHAEL BRADFORD OF KID ROCK'S
BAND, TWISTED BROWN TRUCKER

 

ON TOUR IN THE USA with Kid Rock and Metallica!

by
Christopher Buttner

The biggest tour of the summer was, without a doubt, the MarsMusic.com and MTV-sponsored Metallica Sanitarium Tour.  Throughout the months of June and July 2000, the big, bad, mobile monster featured the chart-crushing Korn, Kid Rock, System Of A Down, and Powerman 5000, with Metallica topping off the evening with a headbangingly awesome two and a half hour set.

JIMMY BONES POSES WITH HIS KEYBOARD RACK AND
BELOVED MACKIE 1642 VLZ PRO

What does it take to pull off a show of this magnitude?  Two massive stages went leap-frogging from city-to-city in 50 tractor trailers and 300 workers, 25 lighting technicians and 27 supervisors took two days to assemble the stage, lights, sound and pyrotechnics that enthralled the 60,000+ spectators each evening.  Bands and crew traveled in over 20 luxury tour buses, as well as a few charted jets.
 
JIMMY BONES HAMS IT UP ON STAGE AT 3COM PARK IN
FRONT O F 50,000 PEOPLE WITH A MACKIE 1604 VLZ PRO

Kid Rock would hit the stage at about 5:30 in the afternoon and then Korn and Metallica exhausted the crowd by 11 p.m.  Kid Rock's stage show is 90 minutes of some of the most enjoyable, hedonistic entertainment not seen since the heyday of Rome!  The performance includes an amalgamation of "two-guitars-turntables-and-drums rock" with pounding beats, keyboard virtuosity, explosions, midgets, strippers, pimp suits - and the indomitable Kid in the spotlight!
 

Mackie friends, Kid Rock keyboardist Jimmy Bones and bassist Michael Bradford, have been using Mackie gear for as long as they can remember.  These days Jimmy's entire keyboard rig is routed through a Mackie 1642 VLZ Pro, which is mounted in his rack and strategically placed directly behind him for on-stage tweaking of backline
loudspeaker cabinets and monitors.  The inimitable Michael Bradford is a longtime Mackie user and proud owner of a few LM3204s, a HUI and his beloved HR824 High Resolution Active Studio Monitors.   

After checking out the Kid Rock on-stage Mackie inventory, Jimmy pointed out that Metallica bassist Jason Newsted's backline rig makes use of a rack-mounted Mackie 1402 VLZ Pro.  The 1402 VLZ Pro routes all of Jason's basses and Ampeg SVT bass heads!

Band members from System of a Down, Korn and Powerman 5000, as well as many crew members agreed the phrase of the day was, "I have a lot of Mackie stuff at home and I love it."