This past Friday I had the gig from hell!! It was horrible! A veritable comedy of tragedy......
First off, work was a real bear last week. Friday was icing on the cake, and my mood could certainly have been better. It did not improve upon my arriving at the venue and seeing that the teeny little corner we had to play in was dominated by the drum kit. He had come by earlier in th eday and set up his kit He'd set up in the corner, and must have had at least as much room back there as the "stage" area left for the rest of us. (Not really a stage, just a section of floor with no tables.)
So the guitar player and I proceed to load in the PA (The drummy was long gone by this time, and the singer suffers from L.S.D. and only carries what he uses ie. his microphone.)
In the trailer along with all the crap I notice the drummer left his big freaking monitor speaker. Sure he can roll the box full of drums out early, but he can't drag this monstrosity out of trailer and set in in place. So I drag it out, and wrestle it with great difficulty behind the drums where he has tons of room.
I then proceed to run cables and try to get everything else set up. I probably have a 4x3 foot area in which to set up my mic and bass rig at this point.
15 minutes to show time:
The drummy shows up, and complains quite loudly about where his monitor is set up. That's not where it goes and it's just going to cause feed back. Then he starts to mic his kit. My bass was on it's stand in front of the drums and he says "This can't be here, I'll knock it over". So I grab my bass and move it out in front of the mains (Pretty much out into the bar and off the stage).
At this point, I'm more than just a little annoyed.
Then the drummy moves my bass rig so he can put his monitor out in front of his drums like he should have done when he set up hours before. My personal "Stage" area now measures about 2X3........
This is the point where I just walk away. We have 5 minutes or so to go, and if I say anything, it's not going to be nice.
So with 5 minutes to do, the singer shows up (This is aggravating, but completely normal) The drummy comes out side complaining that there aren't enough mic cables in the cable box. (Lemme see.... You own a box full of drum mics and not a single cable?.....
) I begrudgingly go back inside and hand him 2 of my own personal cables. (I own one mic, and have a well stocked bag of cables and other necessary things.)
So we start the first set.......
The guitar player uses a Marshall 4x12 with a head that sits on top of it. He always leans the Marshall back against the wall, and it never looks real safe, but it seems to work for him. Well at this place, there is no stage, the floor under his rig is the same faux hardwood flooring that's everywhere. So about 3/4 of the way through the third song the guitar suddenly cuts out. I kinda look over my shoulder and am amazed at the sight of the guitar rig lying face up on the floor.
It made some awful sounds after he picked it back up, and I'm thinking we're going to be playing acoustic all night long.
I think the big deal was the cables were all plugged into the back of the thing and it landed right on top of them. Anyway, after about a 20 minute lull as he tried desperately to make things work, we get the guitar back up and running. (I am SO glad he doesn't use a tube amp!)
It was about this time that the amp running the subs started making a very weird clipping noise, and then ceased to work entirely. The sound guy unbridged it, and it seemed to work acceptably for the rest of the weekend. (I'm kinda in the market for a new amp....)
The set runs long, we take a very short break, and come back for round 2........
About halfway through the second set, the singers microphone just quits. He kind stares at it, turns it on and off, raps it against his hand, and that's pretty much the end of his problem solving ability. The sound guy comes over, starts wiggling cables behind the amp box and
POP suddenly the mic starts working again, so we finish the set. The singers mic was a problem all night long, and kept fading in and out to some degree accompanied by a loud popping sound where it would either be back at full volume or gone completely......
Somewhere in the whole melee, I got socked in the face with my microphone because I was essentially playing on the dance floor......
At the end of the night I ran away as fast as I could!
The sound guy re-wired the mic hook ups from the singers wireless, (These things are easier to catch right out of the box if the singer would show up with his stuff more than five minutes before go time).
The guitar amp seemed to work ok on Saturday night.
I could not move at all all weekend long.
The singer was too busy trying to get laid to help with load out, and the drummer disappeared for about 20 minutes as he texted his GF from the parking lot as we carried heavy stuff past him.
The only good thing was that we got paid on Sunday morning!
I am really looking forward to this coming weekend. The club is my favorite place to play, and I'm not setting up the drummers monitor!!!!
