Recently, Gearwire ran a video of a gear disaster that happened to black tape for a blue girl at Chicago's Gothic Fest (Click here to watch). Unfortunately we were unable to stick around to see how the problem--a malfunctioning ESI 4000 - was solved. Band-founder Sam Rosenthal was kind enough to bring us up to date.

"I've been playing shows with black tape for a blue girl for more than a decade, and there's all kinds of stuff that can go wrong. Elysabeth (our vocalist) says, 'There are not problems, only challenges.' And what I see - when watching Pat's video in part 1 - is that I quickly analyzed the problem, and figured out the solutions to pursue." says Rosenthal.

There were four possible solutions:

1-Replace the whole ESI. This one seemed the most obvious, but the least likely, as the synth is ten years old. The sound-guys (from Andy's) called around, but couldn't locate an ESI.

2- Replace the ZIP drive with an external zip drive (this will be explored in a minute.)

3- Borrow somebody else's keyboard, and find sounds that are close enough to work. Sam figured Edward from Attrition could help there as he had already loaned his keyboard stands.

4- Stand on stage and pretend to be playing.

"This option would be my worst nightmare, as I absolutely hate when bands do that. Yes, I have backing tracks," says Rosenthal. "They serve to replace the three additional keyboardists I would otherwise need, to play live (I once saw Ziggy Marley play, and he had about 7 synth players. I thought that was crazy!). I really never want to be one of those bands where the keyboardist just pretends to be playing."

When it came time for solution number two Rosenthal went on a hunt for a Zip drive.

"Around 4:00, after we sound-checked, sans keyboards, I walked to CDW, a computer parts store. Except that they were out of business, as was COMPUSA that was suppose to be located nearby. I went to Office Depot. 'Nope, sorry, we stopped carrying Zips a few months ago'," says Rosenthal. "The guy recommended I try a place called Microcenter, out on Elston."

Here is another tricky thing. Rosenthal had lived in Chicago but says his brain has "long since deleted the Chicago City Plan." When in a place you do not know, finding your way around can be as big a pain as the broken gear.

"At Microcenter, they had a Zip100, but it had USB. I asked about a USB to SCSI adaptor, and they looked at me as if to check what time capsule I fell out of," says Rosenthal. "Argh! I called a place called GAND, which the sound-guys had recommended. A helpful woman on the phone said they didn't have a SCSI USB adaptor, or a SCSI Zip drive, and furthermore, they're way up in Northfield. She gave me the number for Andy's (the place the sound-guys were from, actually) and also a repair place whose name I have forgotten. I called Andy's, and it turned out they were just a 10 minute walk from Microcenter. It was about 5 p.m."

While walking Rosenthal called the repair shop and explained his problem and the tech said they could replace the internal Zip - maybe.

"But that means getting back to the venue, taking the ESI apart and then seeing if it's the right one. Oh, did i mention that the place closed at 6 p.m.?" says Rosenthal. "When I got to Andy's and explained my problem, they dug around for a while and turned up a SCSI Zip-250, that should be backwards compatible with my Zip100 disc. Problem? It has a 25 pin SCSI, not a 50 pin. Argh!!!!"

Rosenthal again had to go back to Microcenter to find an adaptor cable. When he says he is going to walk an Andy's employee tells him he will drive them over.

"No shit! This isn't New York City, where they'd look at you like you were wasting their oxygen (the rental was only $15 for the night!). These guys were going out of their way to make it work. This guy ends up driving me to three stores looking for the adaptor cable. How nice is that!!!! But, no luck. Nobody sells SCSI adaptor cables," says Rosenthal. "The stupid thing is that back in Brooklyn I have two old Zip100 external drives, plus miles of old SCSI cables from my 1990s Mac days. I decide that number two has been exhausted, and now I have to go to Number three."

This is something to remember. Redundancy is good. If you have a back-up. Bring it! Rosenthal goes back to Excaliber (downtown Chicago) and picks up his music notes from his hotel.

"Edward from Attrition is loaning me his Kurzweil. I go to his room and try to find sounds that work. Can you imagine how hard it is when you've been using the same sounds for between 4 and 10 years to have to try to find something 'close enough' on a synth that you don't know?" says Rosenthal. "Edward did a lot of helping, but I felt the sounds were all very FM sounding vs the samples that I created for my songs. Sigh. An hour passes. it will have to do."

More from Rosenthal soon.