Mods: I was primarily intending for this to be a thread about “Choosing my Rig for the Big Gig” but once I fleshed out the context for why it was such a big decision for me, it sort of ended up being kind of a “gig story” and might belong in OT or somewhere else. I tend to be long-winded and ramble and I digressed.
Some background here to set the context:
I play in a cover rock band in Portland. We mostly play the small bar scene around here. While for lots of folks on this forum, playing to a crowd of a few hundred people on a big stage with a pro sound company running things is “another day at the office,” playing a festival is a big deal for us. As a full time stay-at-home dad, it’s a HUGE deal for me – I really look forward to this one particular show all year long (we’ve played it a few years in a row). To me, it’s even bigger than Christmas or my birthday, since I can get out of the house for the whole day and play “rock star,” if only for a few hours since it’s 21+ only – an all-weekend biker festival/party that’s just a whole bunch of fun. I love hanging out after the show, and just reveling in having rocked out and partying, which is something I rarely get to do. It’s out of cell phone range but I tell my wife about it months in advance so she knows it’s coming. It’s my big day off. Best day of the year.
This year, we were scheduled to open for Molly Hatchet, and I was getting really excited about the big gig.
I very nearly posted a thread here (maybe even with a poll), to help decide which rig I would be playing with. I was down to two choices:
1) My Mesa Carbine M9 into a Bergantino AE410. This is my primary gig rig for small bars because it’s more than loud enough and I love the tone for rock, but it’s also somewhat lightweight which is great for late-night load outs. It’s very aggressive and mid-forward which I like for our music/band but the Mesa also compensates nicely with tons of available low end. In the small bars we mostly play, the Berg has volume to spare. The Mesa also has a mute switch (which can be really important when you’re plugged into a full PA like at the big show), and lots of tone shaping options. I have it in a rack with the PA monitor amp and headphone amp (for singer’s IEM), so it’s my go-to amp for most gigs. I’m very familiar with it, having played it on dozens of gigs. I figured I’d pull it out of the rack for the big day. Maybe I’d also bring a Summit TD-100 for use as a DI too, heh heh.
Or 2) my Bergantino IP310, fed by the Summit TD-100. The Summit is a studio-grade preamp that sounds fantastic, and the IP is just a HAMMER. I rarely bring the IP out to most gigs any more since it’s just overkill in most places and I’m usually bringing the M9 in a rack with the monitor amp for the band anyway. Also, I’m a 43-year-old who’s had back surgery and has to load the whole PA in addition to my rig up the stairs into my house after a typical 4-hour gig late at night. So the IP sounds awesome but mostly stays at home. This was the rig I brought last year for this festival and I loved it, other than not having a mute switch. I found on the big stage that I didn’t really miss not having tone controls by using the Summit. I really had it rocking last year. So much fun!
All last week, I agonized over which rig to bring. I just couldn’t decide. I’m also lucky enough to have a Bergantino AE212, but I think I slightly prefer the more aggressive tone of the 410, especially for hard rock gigs. So it was down to either the M9/AE410, or the Summit/IP310. Tough call.
The night before the big gig, we had a small gig at a place we’re not very fond of, so we used the gig as almost a paid practice. I had fun but didn’t really worry too much about the nuances of my bass tone, so for convenience I took my lightest rig – the M9 (I had to bring the monitor amps which are in the rack with it anyway) and my Bergantino AE212. It’s also a bit of a tough load in, so it was nice to carry the AE212. I had just put new strings on my bass in anticipation of the big day and had to back off the high end a little as a result, so the 212 was a nice choice for the gig anyway.
At the end of the gig, I drove home, put the car in the garage and figured I’d unload the 212 and PA in the morning and FINALLY pick a rig for the big show. It was too late to post a thread here on TB. I got home at 2AM, tired but excited.
An unexpected detour:
At 6AM, my daughter had a massive seizure. I suppose I should elaborate here that she has a rare chromosomal disorder that causes rather severe seizure clusters. Most of the time she’s under control and we’ll usually go a few weeks or sometimes even months with no seizures at all. But then something will change and she’ll go through a really bad patch, having dozens of seizures and sometimes even status epilepticus episodes (>30 min seizures which can be life threatening) in the space of a day or a few days until we get her settled down. We’ve been to the hospital with her many dozens of times. People who hang out in OT hear me complain about it all the time. I don’t want to say it’s become “old hat” as that would seem flippant, but perhaps “nauseatingly familiar” is a more accurate term. My wife and I jumped into action, and started helping her and preparing and giving her the emergency rescue medicines. At this point, it occurs to me that it’s the morning of the Big Gig.
NONONONONONO. Not today! Oh, come on. Really?
One of the main reasons I play in a cover band is for just this situation. My main job (if you can call it that) is being a stay-at-home caregiver for my daughter, who has to be watched 24 hours a day. Several times I’ve had to bail on gigs last minute because of my daughter’s condition, and there are several local guys (including a TBer or two) that I can call and some have subbed for me at the last minute. In fact, one of them was actually playing in the band which was playing between us and Molly Hatchet. I REALLY didn’t want to have to call in a sub for the big gig though.
My wife, sensing my sorrow at the notion of losing out on the big show, told me to go to the show, and she would handle everything at home. She called in her mom (lives nearby) and her best friend and they came over, right before I had to leave for the gig. I knew that the gig was out of cell range and so I’d be completely in the dark about how my daughter was doing. But I also knew that my wife was the most experienced person (along with myself) anywhere in managing our daughter’s seizures. We’ve had tons of experience dealing with this. We had lots of rescue meds on hand, and the paramedics at the fire station are only two blocks away and have been here many times. The PICU is not far away. My daughter was in good hands. There wasn’t really anything I could do that my wife and everyone else couldn’t.
As almost an afterthought, I’d realized I still had the 212 and the PA in my car right as I was about to leave. I quickly unloaded just the PA speakers and raced off to the gig. I didn’t really care what rig I had. I was more worried about my daughter. I also wondered if I was being really selfish for doing the gig. I glumly drove out of cell range (Can you hear me now? Nope.) to the gig and hoped for the best, feeling like a selfish jerk for abandoning my child.
I got to the festival and tried to put the home situation out of my head. I was completely out of cell range and well over an hour away from home anyway so there wasn’t much I could do. I drank a beer to try to loosen up with little success. Mostly I hung around and waited to get our gear loaded on stage. I kept checking my cell over and over for no good reason.
“Yep, still says “No Service.”"
Felt like a jerk for abandoning my wife. I wanted to get my rig up on stage so I’d have something else to think about and something fun tol focus on and so I could fiddle with the EQ and such before sound check, but we weren’t supposed to be up there before the show.
Still “No Service.”
The Show
15 minutes before we’re scheduled to go on, we finally are allowed to bring our gear on stage so I throw the Mesa M9 and the Berg AE212 together, grab my pedals and plug everything in. The sound guy comes up with a Sennheiser MD421 for the cabinet (Nice!!! Thanks!!), and connects the DI on the Mesa into the board. A 5-minute sound check and away we go!
I had a Zoom Q3HD with me, so I got the singer’s boyfriend to set it up by the mixing board, so I was able to get some video clips.
As a bonus to anyone who’s actually read through all this and is up for it, I’ll give you a little game: See if you can spot the two naked girls who come up towards the front of the stage in the clip below. They only appear from the shoulders up, so there’s no nudity but there’s a little catcall/whistle that goes through the audience right before they started walking to the front after around 1:15 into the video. I guess it’s kind of like “Where’s Waldo?” but with strippers, LOL. 
This was from very early in the show when they were still setting up the mix and I liked my bass tone a whole lot. I think they may have changed it a bit as the show went on. Or else I got tired and stopped digging in as much. Four hours of sleep and a non-stop adrenaline rush throughout the day had taken their toll. This was not quite how I’d pictured this show was going to be . . .
"Paris" – clip from the show. I think it’s best heard through headphones or speakers with some bass if you want to hear the bass rig properly.
Anyway, I guess the moral for all of this for me is that it really didn’t matter to me or anyone else what rig I brought to the big show. They had a great sound company there with great equipment (EAW mains! Sweet!) and they knew what they were doing. I had bigger issues on my mind anyway. It sounded good to me, at least as much as I was able to focus on it.
All I saw of Molly Hatchet was their airport shuttle arriving as I was racing out of there to get home. It would have been nice to hang around and play at being a “rock star” for a while, but I’d inconvenienced my wife enough already and wouldn’t have been able to enjoy staying there given what was going on at home.
I raced home to find that while my daughter had suffered numerous seizures while I was gone, my wife and her mom and friend were able to manage them with the seizure meds they had and keep my daughter from having to go to the hospital. Shenandoah even alerted for one or two of the seizures, which was a silver lining to the whole mess. My daughter got through last night with no seizures so we felt OK sending her to her summer program today. She's doing great now and is currently playing on her ipad.
I think I used up all my gold stars with my wife in one fell swoop, but it was an exciting gig.
Conclusion (Back OT):
The Mesa M9 run through the Bergantino AE212 sounds great when you crank it. Or at least it did to me in my frazzled yet excited state. I guess it didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things though.
Doesn't sound like they did much for you though.
