i played moscow last winter and my rider explicitly
said: i NEED a PERSONAL monitor to hear myself on stage.
when i came to the place, there was no monitor, but
hey: they had put the loudspeakers at the rear end of the hall, facing towards
the stage!
so i could hear myself...
well, well.
also they presented me with two wireless mikes -
and were surprised when i showed them my looper's output jacks.
when i mentioned the stage rider i started a
confusion about the meaning of that expression - some translation
problem.
a technically gifted man soldered electrical cables
to a cinch plug and with some adapter fiddling finally we had
sound.
i had to fight with the slap delay from the
speakers all across the room, but whatever. the sound you get is the sound you
get.
after the soundcheck i went to the sound guy
just to be nice and somebody translated my thanks to him for doing the
soundcheck and
taking care of everything.
when i started playing, there was no sound.
nothing. i informed, begged and pleaded down from stage - nothing. finally
somebody brought up the sound so i could start.
as i learned after the show and to my big surprise,
the sound guy had gone home before the concert started. he had
misinterpreted my comment as a: you may go now.
later, while packing up, i heard a strange and
pretty strong hum through the speakers and went to the mixing board to find out
what was going on:
somebody had brought up ALL the faders to the max.
only the last two, mains out, were down pretty low. MAN was i glad the person
had been careful with the mains.
he/she could have killed our
eardrums...
i forgot to mention that there was no catering - no
food for me since the morning flight.
once somebody on this list made a comment in the
direction of: "even musicians have to occasionally eat".
i turned this comment around in my head when i
chewed the single pack of peanuts in the hotel room.
moscow is a wild place and i would go there again
anytime. but one thing is for sure: i'd be equipped with a stage rider
in russian.
smooth looping and cristal clear, feedback free
stage sound to everyone - tilmann
