This weekend, I was up in Wildwood NJ for two shows at the Wildwood Convention Center, a medium sized arena...one night was my band by ourselves, the next night was a Bowzer oldies show with Chubby Checker, Freddy Cannon, The Chiffons, The Tokens, Frankie Lymon's Teenagers, and The Vogues, and I backed up everyone but The Vogues, who had their own band but used our rented bass amp, keys and drums. Naturally, they brought extra guitar amps because everyone loves the guitarists but the rest of us had to share gear.
I had to play upright, so I had a bunch of pedals I had to bring, and I decided to forego the REDDI so I could bring a smaller suitcase, and I brought a Countryman that I figured I'd run through the speaker out of the SVT rig the backline company brought for me. Didn't have to use my Countryman because they had one for me. The first night went great...the FOH and monitor guy were excellent and loved the speaker out DI. The next night...not so great.
Why? Because after we did our soundcheck, the Vogues came up and did a soundcheck, and the sound tech told the cable runner to run a second DI and mic line for the Vogues' bass player and run it into the SVT's input. So what does this idiot do? He disconnected my speaker DI, ran the Vogues bassist into the second DI, took my own personal speaker cables that I brought specifically for this purpose, and ran one into the amp and cab and ran the other from the DI out into the SVT's input! A freaking speaker cable! And then he switched out my line with his when the Vogues were done. No speaker DI for me. All this dope had to do was unplug my cable from the SVT's input and plug his in. Done.
I didn't even think for a second to stand guard over my setup while they were setting up because of the positive reaction of the two main sound guys who loved the speaker DI. But they threw an idiot into the mix and he screwed everything up. So all I know is that the rig sounded a little noisier than it did the night before, and I didn't realize he had done that until it came time for the switchover.
I lost it on the guy. I told him that -I- was the headliner's bassist, not the Vogues' bassist, and I had set that rig up that way for a reason and he just pooped all over me, and even though I'm renting, that rig is MINE and nothing like that should have been done without consulting me. He says without any trace of apology, "I was just doing what they told me to do." I said, "They told you to disconnect my awesome sounding setup and suck the life out of my tone after raving about it? Thanks a lot, dude," then I stormed off. Not like I can go back and do the whole show over again.
So now I realize that no matter how much respect someone else on the crew gives me, when bands are sharing equipment, there is always the possibility of someone coming along and wrecking it. Yes, the show still went on, and yes, the crowd enjoyed it. That's not the point. I'm just sick of the attitude that it's OK to do things to the bass player that they would never do to anyone else in the band. So now when another band is using my gear, instead of getting to relax and go eat after standing up there 2 or 3 hours soundchecking and rehearsing, I will have to stand up there for another hour and babysit my rig and make sure some dope doesn't screw me again, no matter how much the sound crew liked my setup. Lesson learned.
I had to play upright, so I had a bunch of pedals I had to bring, and I decided to forego the REDDI so I could bring a smaller suitcase, and I brought a Countryman that I figured I'd run through the speaker out of the SVT rig the backline company brought for me. Didn't have to use my Countryman because they had one for me. The first night went great...the FOH and monitor guy were excellent and loved the speaker out DI. The next night...not so great.
Why? Because after we did our soundcheck, the Vogues came up and did a soundcheck, and the sound tech told the cable runner to run a second DI and mic line for the Vogues' bass player and run it into the SVT's input. So what does this idiot do? He disconnected my speaker DI, ran the Vogues bassist into the second DI, took my own personal speaker cables that I brought specifically for this purpose, and ran one into the amp and cab and ran the other from the DI out into the SVT's input! A freaking speaker cable! And then he switched out my line with his when the Vogues were done. No speaker DI for me. All this dope had to do was unplug my cable from the SVT's input and plug his in. Done.
I didn't even think for a second to stand guard over my setup while they were setting up because of the positive reaction of the two main sound guys who loved the speaker DI. But they threw an idiot into the mix and he screwed everything up. So all I know is that the rig sounded a little noisier than it did the night before, and I didn't realize he had done that until it came time for the switchover.
I lost it on the guy. I told him that -I- was the headliner's bassist, not the Vogues' bassist, and I had set that rig up that way for a reason and he just pooped all over me, and even though I'm renting, that rig is MINE and nothing like that should have been done without consulting me. He says without any trace of apology, "I was just doing what they told me to do." I said, "They told you to disconnect my awesome sounding setup and suck the life out of my tone after raving about it? Thanks a lot, dude," then I stormed off. Not like I can go back and do the whole show over again.
So now I realize that no matter how much respect someone else on the crew gives me, when bands are sharing equipment, there is always the possibility of someone coming along and wrecking it. Yes, the show still went on, and yes, the crowd enjoyed it. That's not the point. I'm just sick of the attitude that it's OK to do things to the bass player that they would never do to anyone else in the band. So now when another band is using my gear, instead of getting to relax and go eat after standing up there 2 or 3 hours soundchecking and rehearsing, I will have to stand up there for another hour and babysit my rig and make sure some dope doesn't screw me again, no matter how much the sound crew liked my setup. Lesson learned.
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