"Michael"
haidagwaii.net> wrote in message
news:Za2dnRDhpYn6t8DYnZ2dnUVZ_qmdnZ2d@qcislands.net...> Michael wrote:
>
>> Mowe Z. Slowley wrote:
>>
>>> do you ever go out for supplies?
>>> what goes on your feet then?
>>
>> Gumboots on bare feet in today's weather. I just got back from the
>> beer store - about two miles return-trip.
>
>
> Oh... and...
>
> On the walk into town, I got stopped on the side of the road by the guy
> driving the local heating-oil truck. He and his band (he's
> guitarist/singer, and 3 other members are friends/acquaintances of mine)
> need a sound tech for an all-departments government-employee Christmas
> they have coming up in a couple of weeks. They've all seen/heard me
> work... and they've decided I'm who/what they want if I'd like the gig.
>
> I agreed on the spot.
>
> I have no acoustics, sound reinforcement or mixing training at all, but I
> have good ears and the techie-guts to learn what I need whenever I need to
> learn it - by the seat of my pants if that's how it has to happen - and
> I've been doing theatre-stage (and occasionally live-music) sound for
> almost 8 years in this neck of the woods... on all kinds of different
> equipment.
>
> Best part? They're all (except one) long-time pros who're used to tours
> and hoping to do some, and if the fit is good, it *might* turn out (slim
> chance, AFAIK, but still a chance) that they'll want/need me on the road
> as early as next summer. :-)))
Heheheh, oh man, that ROCKS LOL!
I enjoy stuff like that, not done near enough!
Only one actual gig, in fact, and that was a stitch-up - guy I went to
school and college with (his dad, Phil Newell, big into his studio tech.
stuff here, worked for Branson etc.), well when we quit college, he went to
work in London at a big rehearsal studio called E-Zee Studios (or similar
spelling), they also had a small rec. studio.
Anyway, I'd not done any mixing at all, but had seen a little, and like
you - I pick stuff up and can do the whole seat of the pants thing. So, my
mate Jules was offered this gig, mixing live music, couldn't do it as he had
studio tech. stuff to do at E-Zee, and I was over there in London with him,
taking a holiday, and needed the cash (I'd smoked and drunk most of my own
by that time!), so he offers the gig to me. Tells me nothing about it, just
that it would be piss-easy for me, involved a little mixing for some live
music (Yamaha 24 or 36 channel mixer, nothing huge or real fancy). I got an
attack of bravery and took it. The London lads with the gear who drove me
there (total strangers to this Northern lad), also wouldn't tell me what it
was all about. They just kept passing me joints in the back of the van...
So, we are now in Angels, Islington, and pulling up outside an old stone
church, real pretty.
They set-up and live this stoned, paranoid, and ridiculously nervous ~20 y/o
lad outside to try and chill. Next news, it's time for me to check the deal
out inside. I get in, and front of the church, a one step stage, about 14 or
so microphones. Stage right, an electronic keyboard. Either side of the
stage on 9 ' stands and pointing at the pews, are two 2x12 3 way speaker
cabs, plus a couple bass cabs on the floor. I am positioned stage left,
between outside wall and side of the pews, about 20 or so feet from the
stage. I get a quick tour of the Yamaha mixer, the guys do a quick sound
check and I preliminarily set the levels and EQ, then in come this small,
all female Baptist fucking black gospel choir, led by this tall black dOoOd
in a suit... then in come the congregation... heheheh... oh yeah, and my
guys leave me alone there and go off to do some other shit!
Well anyway, to cut a long story less long, they fired up and the girls
sounded just beautiful! Took me about one bar to reset the levels and EQ to
suit the choir and room accoustics best (no warm up time, ugh!!!)... but
then, the guy, 'leader dOoOd'
Steps up, grabs his mic. steps off the stage, and starts whalin' on it, and
he walks back and forth, right down the sides, and spends most of his time
in front of and underneath the fucking speaker stands, FFS! So, now I got
shit-loads of feedback to deal with... !
',;~{~
1st things 1st, I back his levels off like a flash, then tweak the EQ down
at the resonant/feedback freq's. best I can without ruining the girl's great
work, then up his levels again most I dared. Guy was furious with me (HUGE
ego!!!) because his voice now blended with the choir more, rather than
wailing out up front. So he's waving furiously 'UP! UP!!!!' at me, while I'm
flipping him the bird and wafting him the fuck away from the damned speaker
cabs, utterly scared to death of the whole mess, and still mightily stoned
LOL!
So this goes on, back and forth for the whole almost 2 hours, him trying to
get me to up his levels, me trying in vain to communicate to him to get the
hell out from under the speakers with that fucking mic, but I make the very
best I can of it and just ride it out. Congregation is going nutso too,
jumping up and dancing like MoFos in the isles, wailing, shouting, singing,
howling and having ecstatic fits etc. - kinda freaky as hell for me at the
time... heheh...
End of the gig he goes to the guys back of the room and starts giving grief,
while the girls (who were all real humans, no ego shit, sweet-as etc.) all
come up to me and thank me for doing a great job, and managing to cope with
that ego-in-a-suit dOoOd's stupidity and attitude. They then go and tell the
lads (my bosses, if you will) the score.
We leave, I threaten to murder Jules and every last one of these guys for
the set-up, then we laugh and smoke all the way back to E-Zee, I get my
