local guitard rant

[pbass337]

so recently there was a local coffee house at the american legion in my town. a few things made me pretty P.O'd with this coffee house. my band was asked to play(no pay) 2nd to last (last being a terrible metal band but we're not snobs so of course we said yes [side note, we filled the whole room with people standing and dancing to our music and then when the metal band started the had 10 people])

a few days later the kid who was organizing this whole thing gets a hold of me and asks me if i could bring my PA. I said sure. He told me to be there an hour early to set up.

I got there an hour early and had to wait a half hour for him to show up. i'm still pretty chipper by this point. I set up then i start tuning my bass because im always paranoid about tuning even though we wouldnt actually be playing for a few hours. Then the kid runs up to me and starts yelling for me to do my job.
apparently him asking me to bring my PA actually meant run my event for me. I had to round up all the bands tell them when they were going do the EQ and mic balance for each band each song. im pretty fricken stressed right now.
so even though im pissed, everythings still going well. im running a coffee house while the organizer is collecting money at the door.
then my band played and we were tight and entertaining and it was a really good time.

NOW ITS METAL TIME.

so we finish our set and 85% of the crowd leaves. the metal band starts setting up. they took forever. i get their levels and then i sit in the back and listen to see if anything needs to be changed.
about the 2nd or 3rd song in the rhythm guitarist (who never plays a chord he only solos over the lead guitar and vocals; i dont know why hes considered their rhythm player) he jacks the volume up on his huge half stack. the vocals are being completely covered so i get up to fix them.

im at the mixing board adjusting and heres the real killer;

the guitarist walks over to me, starts whipping his 3 foot hair at my face and is screaming at me to "stop f***ing with my band"

OH IM SO SORRY THAT I TRIED TO MAKE YOU GUYS NOT SUCK!


thats my rant. thanks for reading

[lunarpollen]

I would have lost my temper at a couple of things there, and I am known as a very calm, even-tempered, diplomatic person.

[steddy2112]

I would have pointed to my nether regions and told him to inhale it with the ferocity of a starving hooker...and then left with my PA informing how much it must suck to be them lmao.

[jmattbassplaya]

Put your guitar down son so I can kick your ***

[Stingray89]

I would've cut my losses and just dealt with it. Theirs no need to put up with bullcrap like that.

[walterw]

Originally Posted by pbass337

a few days later the kid who was organizing this whole thing gets a hold of me and asks me if i could bring my PA. I said sure.

here's where you screwed up.

we can argue about bands playing for free (original bands at least) but when you're bringing the PA, you best be gettin' paid.

even if it's not that much, a paid gig means at least a verbal agreement, where you would theoretically know what's expected of you.

[NKUSigEp]

You probably could have just left "metal" out of it and got the same point across. If you're around long enough, you'll experience something like this regardless of genre!

[T-Bird]

Hi..

I'm sure this wasn't Your first FOH duty, but makes one appreciate the work and BS involved right?

Originally Posted by walterw

we can argue about bands playing for free (original bands at least) but when you're bringing the PA, you best be gettin' paid.

^This.

You could've get the band I was playing in for about 300€+ gas, PA, lights and all, but if You wanted me to run sound with my PA, 500€ was only the start.

Also, getting screwed when someone else gets laid is something that I don't consider a very nice gesture from the "kids" part.

A lesson learned, I hope.

Regards
Sam

[perogato02]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

Hi..

I'm sure this wasn't Your first FOH duty, but makes one appreciate the work and BS involved right?



^This.

You could've get the band I was playing in for about 300€+ gas, PA, lights and all, but if You wanted me to run sound with my PA, 500€ was only the start.

Also, getting screwed when someone else gets laid is something that I don't consider a very nice gesture from the "kids" part.

A lesson learned, I hope.

Regards
Sam

+ 1

You should have stopped him in his tracks when he wanted you to do all the EQ-ing ... he asked for a PA, he got one for free so let him be a big boy and play sound guy all by himself

[nicoli]

So what exactly did the cover charge go towards if all bands played for free and sound was also provided free of charge? Brutal. One more reason not to play for free.

[modulusman]

Originally Posted by nicoli

So what exactly did the cover charge go towards if all bands played for free and sound was also provided free of charge? Brutal. One more reason not to play for free.

Exactly. Sounds like an idiot fest for all parties involved.

[bassbully]

While shutting off power to PA.......... "Thats it folk's Goodnight"!

[DWBass]

So wait..........your band played for FREE? Ok. Dude asks you to bring your PA and run sound for all the bands? Are you getting paid for this?

[80'sRocker]

..put the faders down to zero!

[Stinsok]

Take out the Sears Robogrip pliers and rip his nuts off.

[OPBASSMAN1994]

Dude. what a typical guitard attitude. Turns up his volume assuming that he should be the loudest at all times. "MY band". Just a stupid kid who probably will never get anywhere in the music world. Don't sweat it.

[OPBASSMAN1994]

Thank God that my guitarist isn't like that.

[lowend219]

I had a similar situation happen to me. I won't do a play by play of the entire evening because (A) I don't want to hijack the thread and (B) I'm too lazy right now to type it all out. Suffice to say my band was playing a show a little bit out of town and the band who set up the night brought the PA. It, was, "their brother's friends PA" or something like that so none of them knew how to set it up. I got to work on it, just trying to move the night along and help people out and someone decided I was the sound guy for the night, so I got stuck trying to engineer/deal with a ton of sh*tty sounding, SUPER unprofessional people all night. Last time I do somebody a favor...

[Burlington]

You didn't make a dime that night?

[Ric5]

Maybe for that metal band the guitar drowning out everything else is the sound they want.