caegh
July 26th, 2001, 04:33 PM
One of the first gigs we played was at a moderately popular nightclub in Washington D.C. (it's called the Velvet Lounge, it's part of the U. street club circuit).
We'd been recording for a while, and putting on some shows, but not too much. We weren't really comfortable looking for any serious shows (honestly, we just weren't ready), but the event promoter heard some recordings and contacted me. I was kind of nervous about the whole thing, but the old ego got in the way there (it's damn hard to say no to someone who just paid you a compliment like that, to say nothing of the idea of playing a cool venue like that so early on). We ended up taking the show on two weeks notice (yes, cringe). We practiced like hell and had a pretty good set lined up (short, but tight).
The big night comes and we pack up and head for D.C. I was nervous (everyone else in the band has had varying levels of performance experience, but this was basically my first time on a real stage in front of people I didn't know) but confident... We'd sounded really good practicing, and I was feeling good about the whole thing. We got there right on time to set up, an hour before they started the show (1 hour recorded dance music, one live set, 1 more hour of recorded music) and that's when things started going to hell.
The sound guy (the house was supposed to run sound, plus we didn't have anyone) wasn't there. He didn't show up until well after the music was playing, so we didn't get a sound check (!!).
We set everything up while people were dancing, and I kept having to argue with the sound guy (who was drunk, which was even better) about how things should be run. He was pretty used to running a couple of vocal mics through the PA and maybe the keys. We had some decent amps (a Marshall, a mesa boogie bass amp, and some other guitar amp I don't remember- all borrowed) but I wanted to mic all of them and run everything through the pa, for a couple of reasons.
Also, I had my own mixer there because I was running my mic (a little nicer then the Shures they had) through a FX processor, my keyboard, and a computer (for a drum sequencer, and some synth stuff) into that so I could control that part of the mix from stage. He ended up talking me into not mic'ing the big amps (just the smaller guitar amp). I was pretty nervous by then, and I just figured he'd be right because he had the experience... I didn't really think about it as much as I should have. As you can imagine, everything sounded terrible. The stage was fairly small, and enclosed. All we could hear were the two large amps. No vocals, no keys, no drums! The monitors just couldn't compete. I can't even guess what the audience could and couldn't hear.
We had a tune we play for a sound check, and even during that, it was pretty obvious things weren't right but I just panicked (believe me, I feel like an *** now for not just stopping for a few minutes and trying to fix everything) and kept on going. I did get off stage in between a couple of songs to talk to the sound dude, but it was already too late. With out going too much in the dismal details, we pretty much bombed our way through most of the set as best we could and then went home. I found out later it was the largest turnout they'd had yet for that particular event because it was the promoters birthday party and they'd hyped us up a whole lot. Basically, we got to suck in front of a whole bunch of people.
The moral of the story for me is that outside events (and inexperience) *****ed us, but it was entirely our fault for not being ready to handle that kind of thing.
The only up side I see to the whole thing is that I imagine I learned more from that gig then I would have from 10 pleasant ones. There's nothing like public humiliation to engrave a lesson in your mind. http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/smile.gif
We'd been recording for a while, and putting on some shows, but not too much. We weren't really comfortable looking for any serious shows (honestly, we just weren't ready), but the event promoter heard some recordings and contacted me. I was kind of nervous about the whole thing, but the old ego got in the way there (it's damn hard to say no to someone who just paid you a compliment like that, to say nothing of the idea of playing a cool venue like that so early on). We ended up taking the show on two weeks notice (yes, cringe). We practiced like hell and had a pretty good set lined up (short, but tight).
The big night comes and we pack up and head for D.C. I was nervous (everyone else in the band has had varying levels of performance experience, but this was basically my first time on a real stage in front of people I didn't know) but confident... We'd sounded really good practicing, and I was feeling good about the whole thing. We got there right on time to set up, an hour before they started the show (1 hour recorded dance music, one live set, 1 more hour of recorded music) and that's when things started going to hell.
The sound guy (the house was supposed to run sound, plus we didn't have anyone) wasn't there. He didn't show up until well after the music was playing, so we didn't get a sound check (!!).
We set everything up while people were dancing, and I kept having to argue with the sound guy (who was drunk, which was even better) about how things should be run. He was pretty used to running a couple of vocal mics through the PA and maybe the keys. We had some decent amps (a Marshall, a mesa boogie bass amp, and some other guitar amp I don't remember- all borrowed) but I wanted to mic all of them and run everything through the pa, for a couple of reasons.
Also, I had my own mixer there because I was running my mic (a little nicer then the Shures they had) through a FX processor, my keyboard, and a computer (for a drum sequencer, and some synth stuff) into that so I could control that part of the mix from stage. He ended up talking me into not mic'ing the big amps (just the smaller guitar amp). I was pretty nervous by then, and I just figured he'd be right because he had the experience... I didn't really think about it as much as I should have. As you can imagine, everything sounded terrible. The stage was fairly small, and enclosed. All we could hear were the two large amps. No vocals, no keys, no drums! The monitors just couldn't compete. I can't even guess what the audience could and couldn't hear.
We had a tune we play for a sound check, and even during that, it was pretty obvious things weren't right but I just panicked (believe me, I feel like an *** now for not just stopping for a few minutes and trying to fix everything) and kept on going. I did get off stage in between a couple of songs to talk to the sound dude, but it was already too late. With out going too much in the dismal details, we pretty much bombed our way through most of the set as best we could and then went home. I found out later it was the largest turnout they'd had yet for that particular event because it was the promoters birthday party and they'd hyped us up a whole lot. Basically, we got to suck in front of a whole bunch of people.
The moral of the story for me is that outside events (and inexperience) *****ed us, but it was entirely our fault for not being ready to handle that kind of thing.
The only up side I see to the whole thing is that I imagine I learned more from that gig then I would have from 10 pleasant ones. There's nothing like public humiliation to engrave a lesson in your mind. http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/smile.gif