Every year at Pro Sound News, we run a story on what to get your favorite live sound roadie for the holidays. We look around for useful and sometimes goofy items that are small enough to fit in a road case drawer, and which are as applicable to guys running PTA meeting audio as to their brethren tackling 50,000-seat stadium shows.
This year, we cast our net far and wide, using Twitter, publicist listservs and more to ask for cool gift ideas. We hoped we’d get interesting responses, and were not disappointed: Everyone from Pink’s touring drummer to a roadie’s mom wrote in, and while some answers didn’t fit the question, there was a lot of good stuff to discover. In fact, there was so much that we’ve split it up into four parts—and to close out this year’s edition, we highlight…the letter from the roadie’s mom, which was so awesome, we had to run it in full:
My name is Teri Hurley and I live in the Austin, Texas area. My son, Jason Hurley, is a professional sound engineer (looking for work, so hook me up, please!) who has spent many a year on the road. Some of the things I sent him:
• Winterized coveralls for load out in/out Canada.
• Gloves sans fingers.
• Those hot packets you put in your pockets to stay warm (located in the sporting goods area of your local Wal-Mart).
• 4″ light-up Xmas tree and Xmas lights to string on the console or around the hotel room.
• Tiniest microwave in the world; this is along the lines of what we had.
• Tiniest fridge in the world (similar to this); both fridge and micro traveled in the equipment truck.
• Rolling luggage-style tool box.
• Mini pin flashlight.
• Extra tool belt.
• TSA-approved locks.
• Starbucks cards.
• Visa Gift Cards (we know it’s expensive living out of hotels).
• Motorized Razor Scooter—A lot of times, the venue was a long ways from the hotel. This thing takes up little space and is a real time saver when you’re trying to get to and from…
Though it wasn’t for Xmas, one of the best gifts was sending ourselves to him to see his show and spend time with him. He really appreciated seeing us and showing us around his world. I know it was one of the best gifts I ever received.
Best,
Teri Hurley
