- Jun 19, 2004
- 4,782
- 83
- 42
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist, Schroeder Cabinets
Well, we had the Battle of the Bands last night. Totally hectic, and we didn't even place in the top 3 
We had no sound check and only 1 monitor for the three of us, and we were using the electronic drum set, so it's not even like it was just the vocals we couldn't hear... Imagine not being able to hear your DRUMMER *at all,* save for a 100-watt 2x10 combo we'd brought as a stage monitor for our drummer so he could hear his own kit, and playing in front of judges. Yikes. People told us we sounded great, and we got a LOT of compliments afterward... but man, that was a nightmare. We play improv funk/jam-band stuff, lots of the bass & drums playing off each other, switching sections, quoting stuff in the middle of songs, doubling parts (snare hits coincide with snaps & pops, kick drum hits doubling with roots, guitar player & I doubling parts)... sheesh. I'm amazed we even got through all 3 songs.
Oh yeah, and the "provided crew," although very nice guys, knew positively nothing about sound. Church, our singer/guitarist, had wandered off, and we only had 15 minutes to set up, so I got busy helping Jake with his drums. I told the provided "drum tech" that we were using an electronic kit, with dual mono Left & Right outs, the Left out running to a combo on stage, the Right out running to a DI we'd brought with us. I said, there's a DI built into the combo, too, so all we need are two XLR ins to the snake.
He said, "What's an XLR?"
I said, "Just a mic cable. They just go straight into the DIs."
He said, "What are DIs?"
I almost thought he was ******* with me, but I said, "The little box hooked up the drums and there's another one built into the combo for Channel 2. You just plug mic cables in and it's the same as micing it."
He said, "We have microphones for the drums. Will that work?"
Trying not to show my frustration, I said, "I can just use the cables from those," and he still didn't seem to understand, but he handed me a mic, and I told him I needed two of them, so he handed me two of the mics (the ones they had been using for the snare & tom on the other bands' acoustic kits). I unplugged both mics, handed them back to him, plugged one cable into the DI on the combo (fed from the left channel of the e-drums), and the other into the direct box I'd brought with me and hooked up to the right channel of the e-drums. Jake (our drummer) was still trying to find power for the drum kit and combo, and I had not yet set up my bass rig.
As far as power, we finally were able to get an extension cord from one of the stage techs for the quad box we bought, into which we had plugged the electronic drums and the 2x10 drum monitor combo. I had another quad box I was going to use for my bass rig (needed 3 outlets - 1 poweramp, 1 preamp, and 1 for this miniature glowing Buddha statue I always bring on stage with me that probably draws 2 watts). I told the stage tech that I needed another outlet for the bass rig quad box. He didn't know what a quad box was, so I just held up the plug and pointed to it, and he said, "Oh, gotchya," and ran off. Then, he came back with a power strip, thinking we could put that on the end of the extension cord we already had, and I told him, "No, I need a different circuit, we have 2 rigs running here," but I don't think he knew what "circuit" meant, so I told him, "Nevermind, I don't need the power strip," and just plugged an extra power strip I'd brought into the extension cord, and then both of our quad boxes into that. Since it was a Battle of the Bands and we were only playing a 15-minute/3-song set, I thought maybe it would be okay juice-wise...
Then, Church, our singer/guitarist appeared. He had been waiting in the green room and figured I would come and get him when it was time to go on. Hi, I'm the tour manager now?! haha
By the time we got the drums figured out, we'd used maybe 12 of our 15 minutes of allotted set-up time, so I very quickly hooked up my rig and prayed that a sound would come out.
We had a single wedge monitor for the 3 of us that for some reason was pointed at me, not our singer, even though the only thing running through it were the vocals. I put in a single earplug (the wedge was raised up, around waist level, pointed right at my ear), so I wouldn't be blasted by those vocals, and tried to move the wedge nearer to our singer, but the cable prevented me from getting anywhere with it, so I just rotated it a bit to face him, even though he was 10 feet away from it. The electronic drums were not feeding into the monitor, so I couldn't hear those at all except for a faint tapping coming from behind me from the 100-watt combo. My bass rig worked fine (thank God!), and Church's guitar amp also worked fine.
We played horrible, because we were so rattled from the hectic set-up, and I didn't even have a chance to warm up my hands - normally not really that bad, but if you're only playing 3 songs, and you're being judged, you don't have a song or two to get your hands going.
We played the best we could, trying to literally watch each other for changes since we couldn't hear them, and we didn't do any of our usual creative departures e.g. crazy syncopation, playing off each other, trading lines, etc, so we weren't nearly as interesting as we usually are, not even counting that we were not tight because of bad monitoring, on top of it!
After we started playing, I noticed there was one of those brass round breakout boxes with 2 outlets in it on the floor in front of me... duh. I hadn't realized what it was before and didn't really even notice it because it just looked like a dirty brown circular panel. Whatever, I thought, we have power and we're in the middle of a song, so it doesn't matter.
Then, half-way through our 3rd (last) song, the bass & drums' power went out! Remember, electronic kit, so everything stopped except Church's guitar and his vocal. It was RIGHT on beat, at the end of a 4-bar section, so he thought we just decided to do a grand pause (which we do sometimes), and he kept playing for a second, then realized what happened, and stopped. I yelled at him, "Keep playing!" and I grabbed the quad box (going into the extension cord), unplugged it from the cord, and plugged it back in to the brass thing in front of me. Church yelled, "Chorus!", Jake counted off 4 beats, and we came right back in where we left off - I was very impressed, actually, haha. We finished the song with a lot of cheering, even though we still couldn't hear each other and were missing cues like crazy.
Apparently we did pretty well... people really liked us, and we got a lot of compliments and actually some leads on future gigs. Boy, were we ashamed when we got off that stage, though.
And somehow, while we were loading out, I ran over the hi-hat controller for the electronic drum set with the van. Don't ask.
Did I mention that the entry fee for the Battle of the Bands was $50, and we had to drive 45 miles each way? haha
I live for this ****.
We had no sound check and only 1 monitor for the three of us, and we were using the electronic drum set, so it's not even like it was just the vocals we couldn't hear... Imagine not being able to hear your DRUMMER *at all,* save for a 100-watt 2x10 combo we'd brought as a stage monitor for our drummer so he could hear his own kit, and playing in front of judges. Yikes. People told us we sounded great, and we got a LOT of compliments afterward... but man, that was a nightmare. We play improv funk/jam-band stuff, lots of the bass & drums playing off each other, switching sections, quoting stuff in the middle of songs, doubling parts (snare hits coincide with snaps & pops, kick drum hits doubling with roots, guitar player & I doubling parts)... sheesh. I'm amazed we even got through all 3 songs.
Oh yeah, and the "provided crew," although very nice guys, knew positively nothing about sound. Church, our singer/guitarist, had wandered off, and we only had 15 minutes to set up, so I got busy helping Jake with his drums. I told the provided "drum tech" that we were using an electronic kit, with dual mono Left & Right outs, the Left out running to a combo on stage, the Right out running to a DI we'd brought with us. I said, there's a DI built into the combo, too, so all we need are two XLR ins to the snake.
He said, "What's an XLR?"
I said, "Just a mic cable. They just go straight into the DIs."
He said, "What are DIs?"
I almost thought he was ******* with me, but I said, "The little box hooked up the drums and there's another one built into the combo for Channel 2. You just plug mic cables in and it's the same as micing it."
He said, "We have microphones for the drums. Will that work?"
Trying not to show my frustration, I said, "I can just use the cables from those," and he still didn't seem to understand, but he handed me a mic, and I told him I needed two of them, so he handed me two of the mics (the ones they had been using for the snare & tom on the other bands' acoustic kits). I unplugged both mics, handed them back to him, plugged one cable into the DI on the combo (fed from the left channel of the e-drums), and the other into the direct box I'd brought with me and hooked up to the right channel of the e-drums. Jake (our drummer) was still trying to find power for the drum kit and combo, and I had not yet set up my bass rig.
As far as power, we finally were able to get an extension cord from one of the stage techs for the quad box we bought, into which we had plugged the electronic drums and the 2x10 drum monitor combo. I had another quad box I was going to use for my bass rig (needed 3 outlets - 1 poweramp, 1 preamp, and 1 for this miniature glowing Buddha statue I always bring on stage with me that probably draws 2 watts). I told the stage tech that I needed another outlet for the bass rig quad box. He didn't know what a quad box was, so I just held up the plug and pointed to it, and he said, "Oh, gotchya," and ran off. Then, he came back with a power strip, thinking we could put that on the end of the extension cord we already had, and I told him, "No, I need a different circuit, we have 2 rigs running here," but I don't think he knew what "circuit" meant, so I told him, "Nevermind, I don't need the power strip," and just plugged an extra power strip I'd brought into the extension cord, and then both of our quad boxes into that. Since it was a Battle of the Bands and we were only playing a 15-minute/3-song set, I thought maybe it would be okay juice-wise...
Then, Church, our singer/guitarist appeared. He had been waiting in the green room and figured I would come and get him when it was time to go on. Hi, I'm the tour manager now?! haha
By the time we got the drums figured out, we'd used maybe 12 of our 15 minutes of allotted set-up time, so I very quickly hooked up my rig and prayed that a sound would come out.
We had a single wedge monitor for the 3 of us that for some reason was pointed at me, not our singer, even though the only thing running through it were the vocals. I put in a single earplug (the wedge was raised up, around waist level, pointed right at my ear), so I wouldn't be blasted by those vocals, and tried to move the wedge nearer to our singer, but the cable prevented me from getting anywhere with it, so I just rotated it a bit to face him, even though he was 10 feet away from it. The electronic drums were not feeding into the monitor, so I couldn't hear those at all except for a faint tapping coming from behind me from the 100-watt combo. My bass rig worked fine (thank God!), and Church's guitar amp also worked fine.
We played horrible, because we were so rattled from the hectic set-up, and I didn't even have a chance to warm up my hands - normally not really that bad, but if you're only playing 3 songs, and you're being judged, you don't have a song or two to get your hands going.
We played the best we could, trying to literally watch each other for changes since we couldn't hear them, and we didn't do any of our usual creative departures e.g. crazy syncopation, playing off each other, trading lines, etc, so we weren't nearly as interesting as we usually are, not even counting that we were not tight because of bad monitoring, on top of it!
After we started playing, I noticed there was one of those brass round breakout boxes with 2 outlets in it on the floor in front of me... duh. I hadn't realized what it was before and didn't really even notice it because it just looked like a dirty brown circular panel. Whatever, I thought, we have power and we're in the middle of a song, so it doesn't matter.
Then, half-way through our 3rd (last) song, the bass & drums' power went out! Remember, electronic kit, so everything stopped except Church's guitar and his vocal. It was RIGHT on beat, at the end of a 4-bar section, so he thought we just decided to do a grand pause (which we do sometimes), and he kept playing for a second, then realized what happened, and stopped. I yelled at him, "Keep playing!" and I grabbed the quad box (going into the extension cord), unplugged it from the cord, and plugged it back in to the brass thing in front of me. Church yelled, "Chorus!", Jake counted off 4 beats, and we came right back in where we left off - I was very impressed, actually, haha. We finished the song with a lot of cheering, even though we still couldn't hear each other and were missing cues like crazy.
Apparently we did pretty well... people really liked us, and we got a lot of compliments and actually some leads on future gigs. Boy, were we ashamed when we got off that stage, though.
And somehow, while we were loading out, I ran over the hi-hat controller for the electronic drum set with the van. Don't ask.
Did I mention that the entry fee for the Battle of the Bands was $50, and we had to drive 45 miles each way? haha
I live for this ****.
I can't wait! Many a MILF in attendance, I'll wager!
haha i was laughing for the rest of the song. 
