Roadie – The Thein Way to Live

Music, Roadie, Travel, Uncategorized, Work

Vermont and Rhode Island- States Number 48 and 49

Posted on April 3, 2023 by Jaimee T

If you read this blog, you know that most of my writing is about the music industry. Since my work is slow right now, I figured I’d write about the other part of my life: traveling. I travel on the tour bus from show to show so I see a lot of the country from the tour bus. Technically, I’ve probably been to all the states based on driving. However, I don’t count that. I think that it’s important to spend time in each state that I’ve been to. I can personally tell you the pros and cons of each state.

This trip wasn’t a work trip, but it’s very important to mention these two states due to the nature of being a roadie. As a roadie, our agent books shows in certain areas based on contracts with the venues. Since the surrounding areas of Vermont and Rhode Island are surrounded by states such as Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, it’s safe to say there’s really no reason to go to those states. With the states being so close in driving distance, it’s pretty easy to head over to Boston if you live in Rhode Island and go to New Hampshire if you live in Vermont

Basically, we aren’t suppose to do a show within an hour and half of each other, to keep the competition between the venues and such. Since my goal is to go to all 50 states, it was my mission to go to Vermont and Rhode Island.

It’s still snowing in Vermont, so I was lucky to catch the tail end of the spring ski season. Of course, on the last day, they got hit with snow, which I missed. But I will say it was much better skiing than I expected it to be. I figured the snow would be gone and the mountains wouldn’t be worth it. To say the least, I was impressed. Well done Vermont, I would love to come back to ski.

As we make our way down to Boston, I’ve been to Boston several times. Great city, but the mission was to go to Rhode Island. So we took the hour drive to go down and hang out with all the big mansions on Ocean Avenue. Have a very expensive and delicious lunch, and have a look at the cute towns on the water. I really wish I was born into a wealthier family.

If you haven’t been to that area, I strongly suggest you go. It’s very beautiful, there is a lot of history, great food and of course drinks. It’s very easy to drive from place to place but public transportation is great too! Now I will say… the highways in Boston are super confusing and not everyone is super friendly, and it was surprisingly still really cold for this time of year. There are more pros than cons to the northeastern part of the states. So you should go!

I think it’s important to say this, every state has its’ own personality, history, and more importantly story. There’s a lot each state has to offer big or small. Make sure you try to travel far and wide to go all the states.

entertainment, Music, Travel, Uncategorized

Back to the Land Down Under

Posted on October 14, 2022 by Jaimee T

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been back down under. To say the least, I was excited to be back.

One of the reasons why I was excited to be back, is because Australia changed my life. I learned a lot about myself and I learned a lot about life and what it meant to me. I learned that if I wanted something, I had to get it, if I wanted something to change I had to do it, if I had a challenge ahead of me I had to work through it.

I’m sure this would be the same thing if I had an internship in Europe, but my friend group and the people I have met over there changed my life for the better. It was truly one of the most remarkable and greatest experiences of my life. I truly cherished every second of it and I’ll never for

Just a couple of things you need to know about Australia:

Yes, there are the most dangerous animals down there but don’t worry if you are hanging out in the city, you’ll be fine. If you hang out in the bush, you’re going to have some problems… maybe.
Australia is America flipped upside down with a twist of Eastern influence run by the British monarchy. It’s a very unique and unexplainable in a way. Between the architecture, food, art, music, there’s a lot of mixes of each of the different cultures.
People are genuinely nice, I haven’t met “mean” Aussies, crazy yes, mean not so much. I think when your background comes from criminal descent, you just want to be treated like you’re not a criminal.
Overall, Australia tends to be very liberal believe in universal health care, “freeish” education, and of course clean drinking water.
As of a google search of today, there are only 25.69 million Australians, to put that into perspective, there are 39 million people who live in California.
Yes, Australia is expensive, but what do you expect living on a big island so close to Antartica.
Australia is the size of the United States, so Perth is LA and Atlanta is to Sydney. It’s very wide and very large.
The seasons are “backwards”, so for example, are fall is starting as their spring approaches.
Australians love their music and they love their country music. I was astonished how many people knew my bosses songs.

This was the first time I went to Brisbane, was when I went to the Gold Coast about 11 years ago. Most people that go to Brissy go to the Gold Coast. It’s where the waterparks, night clubs, and all the tourists/family stuff is. Brissy is a cool city, but I think there’s more around the city like the wildlife sanctuaries and the beaches. Brisbane was a great place to start tour, the weather was nice, it’s in the middle of the country on the coast, and it was easy to go north or south. I think if I go back to Brisbane, I’ll spend more time by the beaches.

Brisbane, Australia

career, entertainment, Life, Music, Travel, Uncategorized

Europe Tour Part 1- The UK

Posted on August 3, 2022 by Jaimee T

To say I wasn’t nervous about going over to Europe, would be a big lie. I’ve been working in events for about 11 years now. It’s always growing and changing, so you have to keep up with the times. Since I haven’t been to Europe on tour, I didn’t know what to expect. I was worried that accents would get in the way, culture/work habits would be a problem, or even just being American working over in Europe would get in the way. I’m extremely hypersensitive to what is going on in the world and how the world views the states. It’s not an appearance thing or vanity for that matter, I just don’t want people to take me as a joke. I’m here to work, I’m open-minded and I want to adapt to the situation I’m in as best as I can.

There are always problems in the events world, and our job is always to have a solution to those problems. Of course, the first thing that happens when we get over there, KLM lost 14 bags including my own. 14, that’s a pretty big number, and I knew we weren’t alone in that! Of course, there was/is a shortage of workers, and I’m sure there was a strike going on, but what I tell everyone, if you can’t handle the workload, just don’t take it on, and that includes airlines. So it wasn’t a good start but the very next day, our luggage finally made it to the UK.

We are very lucky and found an awesome work crew to travel with us, SoundForce Crew, if you ever need extra hands on your tour, these are your guys. Urban was the leader and a true leader at that. It’s great working with people that have the same type of work ethic as you do. The last thing he said to me was, “you are truly good at your job.” What he doesn’t know is I feel the same exact way, and I think he’s amazing at his job. Hiring those guys if you can while you are working in Europe. They made our first day go by very smoothly and let me handle other things like finding luggage.

Glasgow was the first start to the tour, and man what a day it was. From trying to understand accents to try to get everyone’s luggage, it was a very interesting start. I learned very early on, Europeans are a little bit more relaxed (I should have known that from my travels over there before), maybe it’s just the midwestern in me that’s always “Go Go GO” but it made me take a step back with my runners, and think “OK this is how they work over here.” It’s not a bad thing, just a different pace of work.

The biggest issue I had in Glasgow was the accents. Man, did I have a hard time understanding all the venue workers. Literally, my biggest fear on my first day on tour was not being able to communicate with them. They speak English for crying out loud, and I still had to ask them to repeat themselves 100x over. However, they all made me laugh so hard, that I cried. I needed that on my first day on the road in Europe. I even made a dog friend over there! I can’t wait to go back… but this time with my luggage.

With all the hiccups and such we made it through the day. However, we had to take a ferry overnight. I stupidly slept through the ferry which you are not supposed to do, but needless to say, the rest of my guys got up and they were very tired going over to Ireland.

Dublin is everything you imagined and dreamed of. It’s the place of music, art, and culture. It was fantastic and I can’t wait to go back. We had great burgers for after-show food and gathered lots of great information about Dublin and the history behind it. And of course, people were thrilled to see the boss man on stage. I couldn’t have asked for a better second show in Europe.

The thing that stuck out the most to me in Dublin, was the number of tourists. Where I’m from in Milwaukee, we have a huge Irish community, a lot of people migrated over to that area from Ireland. When I was able to sneak away, my runner was great and answered all my questions. I’m always curious and will always take the opportunity to escape when I can. With all the different things you can do in Dublin, I was able to go to Stephen’s Green. It was packed and full of people. People were everywhere drinking coffee on the grass, sitting in rounds playing music, and just enjoying the little sun that Ireland normally gets. With much history involved in the park, it’s no wonder why it’s one of the main places to go in Dublin.

Image result for big park in dublin ireland — Stephen’s Green

My runner was great and showed me all the buildings, the bridges, and all the neighborhoods in between. I had to ask him, “people are so proud of the Irish heritage, even in the states. Why is that?” He just said, “We are proud people, with a lot of history, but we are about a culture of who you know as well. That’s why we spread far and wide, we just know people!” Which in the end, totally makes sense, if you know anyone who is Irish in the states, they proudly say, “I’m Irish”.

Overall, I hope to make it back to the UK sooner rather than later.

All the luggage shoved in the back of the car

career, Love, Music, Uncategorized

My Birthday:What I’ve Learned

Posted on December 7, 2015December 7, 2015 by Jaimee T

Yesterday was my birthday. Yes, I am a year older. Yes, I have more wrinkles and more cellulite. The joys of getting older. And I still don’t have a roadie job lined up for next year. But as I went to McKay’s today to look through thousands of discounted books, I realized, I may not be where I want to be right now, but I’m constantly trying to work on making myself better.

I work out, read, continue to reach out to those who know more than me, and most importantly, trying to do whatever I can to be the best person I can be.

And so here is my promise to myself:

To continue to work on getting on the road

To always look on the bright side of things

To make sure the people that are important to me get my attention and the attention they deserve

But most importantly,I want to stay true to myself and always believe in myself

I never thought I would post a Justin Bieber song, but this is brilliant! #loveyourself