| Workin' in coal mine |
[Jan. 19th, 2005|12:24 pm]
Peter Hast
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| [ | Current Mood |
| |  exhausted | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Dying video card fan noise | ] |
Damn. So it's been a busy couple of days. Yesterday was get up - school - work - and then a live sound gig at Suite G that I picked up at random. This guy came in the store, desperate for a soundman for this gig he had put together, and someone at the shop told him I was one. He made it sound like some little acoustic gig that started early. So I figured, sure, why not... make a little extra money, have a couple of beers, and go home, right?
It was significantly more involved than I thought. Three acts. One solo guitar/voice performer (she was good, real bluesy), one country/bluegrass act with two singer/guitarists (one played fiddle as well), and a sort of Allman Brothers-y country rock band. Shouldn't have been a big deal, but it was a logistical clusterfuck. The guy who put the show together was in the last band, and for some reason he had his drummer come at the END of the night and set up before their set, rather than showing up early so the kit could get set up before the other acts started. Bad planning. So I had to tear down and set up almost everything between sets.
There was also no house soundguy in sight. So here I am, stuck at an unfamiliar club, on a COMPLETELY foreign console (A Midas Venice. Nice board, but kinda laid out weird), with these hella cryptic symbols that the house engineer had taped on to denote monitor sends, etc.
Anyway, it was a fucking mess. The first performer was getting all kinds of delay in her monitor (but I COULD NOT for the life of me figure out how to get effects returns to come back on the mains). The bluegrass act had unamplified guitars, so I threw couple of 57s in front of em... no gain at all, just the most miniscule fucking signal... they had these little condensers so we put those up insteads. I couldn't find the phantom power on the board, so I had to run back and reroute EVERYTHING to the snake. So we get the condensers up and BANG, it's fucking feedback mania all night. I tried EVERYTHING to take the howl out, to no avail. They were kinda pissed off, I could tell.
So finally homeboy's band shows up and we tear everything back down to make room for the drummer. So finally, after fucking up all night long I get a halfway decent sound (STILL no effects in the mains). So that was good, but these cats decide to play for like 2 hours. So the show actually STARTED at 7, and here it is getting to be like 12:30 when I finally get out of there.
As if that wasn't enough, for some insane reason this gig was double booked with a "speed dating" night at the bar. So there's all these yuppies just yacking away while I'm trying to hear what's coming off stage. I try and turn the music up to be audible over all the talking, and the fucking club owner tells me that it's too loud and the bartenders can't hear the drink orders. IT WAS NOT EEEEEVEN LOUD. All that fancy PA, and they want some light background music? Why hire a band at all? I don't get it.
It was an awful lot of stress for 50 bucks and 4 free beers. I don't think I will be hired again. I am such a fucking amateur.
I was gonna talk (bitch) about today, but now I'm out of space. Tomorrow I guess.
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amused
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bleah