Last Thursday we played at a venue in Kyoto. During sound check, after one song, the MTR we use for our prerecorded sounds suddenly stopped playing anything. We reset it, perplexed, and then it asked us if we wanted to format the memory card. Oops.

We reset it again, same result. All the data was gone, so we played an impromptu acoustic show which probably turned out okay. I noticed that the mixer was also acting extremely strangely, with dead spots on the pan pots and insane popping whenever I switched inputs. After testing it upstairs to make sure I hadn’t just broken it somehow, it was pretty clear that it was an electrical problem, probably from the hodgepodge of daisy-chained extension cords and the fact that the mixer was plugged directly into the house system through some weird board, and not through direct boxes as usual, so the most likely suspect was a ground loop. My theory is that the memory card got zapped that way.

Lessons learned:

• Always use a DI box.
• Always bring a backup, preferably several.
• I can get a plastic ball through the hole in a kick drum head in only two tries.

By the way, if anyone can put us in touch with these people, we are extremely interested in touring with them.