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Re: OT: My worst looping gig...
On 6 okt 2007, at 01.06, Tilmann Dehnhard wrote:
> 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..
Ha, ha... reminds me of a gig in Bangkok. This wasn't live looping
music though, we were a trio performing alternative rock with a touch
of electronic dance music à la KLF (live guitar, live vocals and some
canned back-tracks on DAT). We sound-checked at the venue at day-
time. It was hot as a sauna because it was a huge metallic stadium
and air coolers were not run during empty daytime to save money.
Anyway, we were going to sing live with acoustic guitars at night so
the sound check was crucial. The sound man couldn't find the correct
frequencies to kill off by EQ in order to fight the horrible feedback
inside that huge box. So I walked over to his booth and together we
solved it and marked up with gaffa tape were he should put the
faders. Fine - "See you tonight, then". Off to hotel for shower and
food. A guy from the record label drove us back to the venue at
night. It was packed with people and as soon as I plugged in an
acoustic guitar the air just came alive in horrible screaming
feedback tone. Ok, blinded by the white stage lights I plugged it out
to give the sound man five seconds to correct the faders according to
our tape markings on the mixer. Tried it again, same howling
feedback. The lead singers had the same problem with their mics. I
catched a sudden glimpse of the sound man, 40 meters away, and oh-my-
god it was a different guy standing there now trying to figure out
how the system works! We played the electric set but had to cut down
the concert "for technical reasons" and walked, depressed and angry,
out into the backstage area. And guess what, comfortably installed in
our backstage room was my sound man, now smoking grass and offering
our cold beer to a bunch of girls he had invited from the street.
Phiew... Before we even got a chance to start yelling at him he
cracked up widely: "Hey, guys, I'm your best friend, so I have helped
you to get the party started! (stupid grin)". Communication breakdown.
Greetings from Sweden
Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)