
The Truth About Van Halen and Those Brown M&Ms (2012) - evo_9
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/02/14/146880432/the-truth-about-van-halen-and-those-brown-m-ms
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briandear
Funny thing about this is that lessor rock stars and performers used this as a
license to act like jackasses without having the context as to why the brown
M&M thing was important. My friends are a reasonably famous touring
DJ/production act on Anjunabeats and they occasionally stick some rider-stuff
in that appears a bit nonsensical. If the promoter doesn’t have a yellow, 6ft,
16 gauge extension cord placed on the left side of the mixer and taped with a
strip of red electrical (not gaffer) tape, there is a good likelihood that the
monitoring system, mixer and everything else is likely half-assed connected.
They won’t trash anything, but that’s a signal that they need to more
carefully verify their connections. For a massive stadium show, David Lee Roth
is completely correct: a failure to follow the plan precisely could lead to
actual tragedy.

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joe_the_user
TL;DR; Van Halen was one of the first "arena rock" bands. Their operation was
industrial scale with equipment carried on multiple semis and such.

They still had to deal with the heterogeneous set of arenas that existed
around the country and to do so, they laid their requirements very carefully
in a contract - important things like how much weight the stage had to be able
to take. But how to tell immediately whether someone had read the contract in
detail when they arrived as a given venue? Ah, put a random but visible
requirement right in the middle of the contract.

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pkulak
I do this when I get my car serviced. Take 5 lbs out of the left front tire,
maybe intentionally not fill the washer fluid, etc. So far, it's about 50%
that the item was not found or fixed.

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melling
Needs 2012 in the title

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IshKebab
The truth is apparently that it is true. No new information here.

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egypturnash
The new information is why they _did_ this.

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nocman
Except it isn't new information to a lot of people.

I heard about the "why" for this years ago (of course, the article _is_ from
2012). Pretty sure I'd heard the reason considerably earlier that.

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praptak
I see how such tests can filter out people who blindly agree to everything
(and then don't deliver). On the other hand I think this is a bit underhanded?
disingenuous? to have fake requirements in the contract just to test the other
party.

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jadell
Trust but verify. People have died at festivals and concerts because the
venues didn't follow the event organizers' instructions.

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dingaling
> Trust but verify

That phrase just distills down to 'verify'.

Or more generously 'verify and extrapolate' but it still lacks trust.

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twizzlers
Wrong, when paranoia replaces trust, no agreement gets struck, and business
halts.

If I don't trust you, I don't even speak to you. I don't buy a sandwich from
you, I don't buy a car from you, I don't fly planes over your territory
without mach 3 interceptor escorts armed to the teeth.

If I trust you, but double check you, I buy the sandwich, but I don't leave
the counter without opening up the bag, unwrapping the paper and checking for
onions. I buy the car, but have a third party mechanic inspect it. I fly the
plane through the territory, but also observe from orbital satellites, just in
case.

