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On the morning of September 11th 2001, I was in Las Vegas, on the "From Chaos" tour with the band 311. I was training our new road merchandising guy, Alex. The show was to be at the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel's club- the Joint. My hotel room window at the Hard Rock provided a view of the Maccaran Airport tarmac directly below, and the mountains to the distance. The crew and I arrived early on the morning of September 10th, after a bus ride from California following the show the night before in Fresno. The band slept at home after the Fresno show and flew in to the Hard Rock later that day. From my bed on the night of September 10th, I could see the long lines of planes on the runways waiting to take off , the long lines of planes on the horizon, waiting to land, and the general hustle and bustle of Las Vegas' biggest airport.At about 6 am I was awoken by a phone call from my wife, in Boston. She told me that the same flight that I had flown several mornings earlier, Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles had, this morning, crashed into the World Trade Center in NYC. I, like most of the rest of the world, was stunned. We stayed on the phone as the other planes crashed that day, and cried. It was terrifying. As I stood next to the bed, 2,500 miles from home, watching the sunrise, it was announced that all air traffic in this country was being grounded. Out of the corner of my eye, and almost in unison , I saw all the planes outside of my window halt right where they were. Some were in line to take off, some just landed, some were mere feet from reaching their gates. Many hours later, I could see some of the planes, letting people off onto the runway, right where they'd stopped, sometimes by scaffolding stairs, ladders and emergency ramps.
As the morning wore on, that nights concert at the Joint was cancelled. It is the first and only Rock show that was ever cancelled on the day of show in my then 8 years in the business. It practically never happens. The band had a meeting to discuss whether the tour should be postponed, or cancelled and decided that it shouldn't because it would be giving in to terrorism. My flight home from San Francisco was cancelled by the national ban on air travel, so I instead was resigned to continuing with the tour and spending a few more days training Alex. When we left for San Francisco late that night the planes were still exactly where they'd stopped hours earlier.
The laminates and tour books for the Three-Eleven "From Chaos Tour" were given to band and crew on September 7th. The designs were laid out weeks earlier. Five days later, they had to be completely revised and reprinted. The one with buildings and fire was the original theme. The "lady liberty ala flag" was the revision. None of us could believe the irony of the initial choice.
I am currently auctioning this pair of ALL ACCESS laminates from that early September tour, over 5 years ago. Although the laminates are in great shape as collectibles, their true value is in the history and story of their production.
