Man, it sounds like there are a lot of crappy sound guys both on a technical and personal level. I'm glad to say that I haven't had to deal with too many.
I normally never publically toot my own horn or my band's own horn, but I'm going to do it just this once. I pride my band on how easy we are to work with sound techs. We treat them with respect. We act professional. My guitarist and I know how to use our gear (i.e. we don't do unprofessional ametuer crap like scoop our mids then wonder why the mix sucks, etc.). We don't have prima-donna attitudes. We don't bludgeon the room with insane amounts of stage volume. We don't tell the soundman how to do his job. The biggest request we'll make is "Could I get more [insert name] in the monitor?" You shouldn't have to tell a soundman "more kick drum" or "more bass". You're hiring them for their expertise. A company doesn't hire an accountant and then then tell the accountant how to do his/her job. Anyways, I digress. Production companies love us, because they know that we're professional to work with and we don't have attitudes.
I know many of our sound guys as much as my bandmates. I always make it a point to chat with them at gigs, ask them about their day jobs, ect. Most of them are tech heads. Many of our sound guys have given me advice on my own equipment, especially when I was looking for the right power amp. Get to know your sound and light technicians, and I can guarantee that things will go much better for you.
There, I'm done tooting my own horn. You won't hear me do that very often.
The sounmen who set them up deserve to be shot!
