my first show with this lineup

[jrmy]

I should be heading out the door, but just figured I'd post it out there somewhere... the band's playing tonight in this incarnation for the first time (as a two piece). We spent pretty much all weekend finalizing the backing tracks and ironing out the last kinks. For the first time in quite a while, I'm actually nervous about a show. I forgot what it's like to play with a band I really care about! Zoinks!

Anyhow, I'm off. If you're the luck-wishin' type, wish me luck. Nothing like a rainy Monday show to draw the crowds in...

[htsamurai]

RECORD IT!
FO'SERIOUS! I WANNA SEE THIS!!!
break a few legs yo, just make sure they're not your own

[starcastic]

Good luck! Have fun!

[ohsojayadeva]

i can't wait to hear about this!

[1,2,3, Pull Out!]

Rainy Monday there is better than a snowy (!) Monday here.

[smile_man]

So how'd it go?

[jrmy]

Thanks for all the good thoughts, yo!

Short answer: the show went shockingly well, and the technical problems I was expecting / dreading didn't happen (or at least, not the way I was expecting). We had a turnout at least three times as big as I was expecting, and all of the bands were totally cool!

Long version: we got to the venue around 6:30 and loaded in with no probs (note: not having either a guitar player or a drummer makes for light work!). There was one other band there, Many Birthdays - the touring band from Texas who put the show together - so we chatted while waiting for the soundperson to get there. The guitar player from MB is something of a pedal-head too, and she had just gotten a Holy Grail, so she was integrating that into her board. When the soundperson got there, things were running a little late, so we opted out of soundcheck to make things easier for the bands with more equipment.

After a while, I realized that there were actually a whole bunch of people at the club - we had been so wrapped up talking to friends, we didn't notice the place filling up. The first band, 3D Mystery went on. Total sensory overload! They played wearing masks, and the lineup included the standard bass, 2 guitars, drums as well as a whole buncha keyboards and a theramin. Stylistically, I'd have to make up a description like punk-prog-synth rock. Wild!

Then, after a kind-of-long between sets equipment change, The Brother Kite went on. Man, what a gear-pr0n-fest. TBK are kind of "jangle-gaze" - walls of guitars with walls of reverb and Beach Boys vocal harmonies on top. They pulled it off perfectly. And they scored points for the singer's guitar of choice: a 6 / 12 doubleneck SG! Oh, and the bass player had a totally sweet Mustang. Lots of tweed-y Fender amps, too.

Third up was Many Birthdays, from Austin, TX. This was the end of their first week on the road, and I thought they were pretty darned tight. Dancy, punky fun party tunes with a synth / guitar / drums / bass & more synths lineup. The drummer was really ON, which always makes me happy.

And then us - our not soundchecking came back to bite us in the ass, as there were all sorts of technical troubles getting the backing tracks through the house speakers. The soundperson was supposed to record the show, but she was having all kinds of problems with her recording computer - finally, the house manager told us that we were going to have to cut our set short and time was ticking, so we just jumped into it. I don't think we've ever played the set with such short pauses between songs before! We couldn't hear any of the backing tracks through our monitors, but the subs under the stage made it more than clear where the beat was. And luckily, I had a separate amp playing my click track for the sections when it was just me, so that was good. All told, we only had two gaffes, and neither of them were trainwrecks, so we considered that a major victory! Not to mention the fact that as many people stuck around as they did... definitely not the full crowd that was there for TBK, but more than enough to make us feel all giddy with joy.

So there it is! No recording this time, but that's all right - the next show will be better. We're going to have more time to prepare now that the backing tracks are basically done, so we're going to be integrating a couple of Kaoss pads and an additional synth-drum setup for extra fun - so THAT'S gonna be the show to record.

Oh, and at the end of the night, a bunch of people came up to look at my board, and I repped Devi HARDCORE. The guitar player from Many Birthdays was talking about how she had just bought her boyfriend his first Zvex - when I told her how much the US and Cherry Pop cost, she was shocked at the affordability!

So there ya have it. Now if I could just figure out a way to get my kid to sleep in later than 6 a.m., I'd be 100% set for the next weeknight show!

[archlilim]

Sounds like good times. I'm always nervous about tech probs, and running laptops into the PA has always been a fear as well as how the system is going to handle the two horns in my band with delay and wah pedals. I'm glad it mostly worked out for you.

I love when all the gear heads assemble to comment on tonez, I'm definitely representing the SG most of the time. But my 4MS Noise Swash seems to define my board. Sound guys and other band members are usually just like wtf .

[1,2,3, Pull Out!]

My band has played at our school a bunch of times and the science teacher was in charge of the mixing...you wanna talk technical problems...

[jrmy]

Yeah, it was fun times. Being a bass player who plays more melody lines than low basslines, I'm used to getting the "wtf?" from soundpeople. But playing with backing tracks was a completely new thing for me - I had played live with drum machines before, with 50/50 disasterous results, so I think I was a little primed for worry going in. I'd still like to bring our own monitors next time, but we'll see...

Oh, and the Noise Swash looks INSANE.

Re: 1,2,3: Science teacher mixing live sound: yeah, that's classic "not getting it" reasoning. "Well, uh, the PA uses electricity... which is governed by laws of science... so make HIM do it!"

[1,2,3, Pull Out!]

Exactly! And then you get thing like: hmmm your pedals seem to be oscillating for some reason, better mix you real low until you fix that

[jrmy]

True... but the sad thing is, I've gotten that with "professional" soundpeople plenty of times as well. "Hey dude - every time you clicked on that one pedal, it got louder than the rest of your stuff, so I just pushed you down in the mix." "But that's because it was supposed to be a louder part of the song." "Oh, sorry dude. My bad."

Actually, I lie. They almost never apologize for that.

[Ghost Hip]

I fucking hate bad sound guys. Most of my fuzz tone is scooped midrange and this punk 18 year old guy was mixing and thought it'd be genius to boost the mid range... I wouldn't have been too upset but we were recording it....and the drums and bass were barely audible.... it sounded like I was by myself in the recording with the cymbals making a phase shifter effect over it all.

I've also gotten the "hey that pedal gets way louder and feeds back, you might want to fix that." As if I don't know my own fucking rig. It's just hard to believe they can be so closed minded when most people who mix for my band grew up in the grunge era of "soft and loud" dynamics.

[1,2,3, Pull Out!]

It's as if they can't comprehend anything that Led Zeppelin wouldn't do.

[bigchiefbc]

Being a bassist is especially awful with soundguys, because almost everyone thinks there is only one way to mix a bassist.

Only one time in my life have I ever had a positive experience with a soundguy. I took him aside right at the beginning of soundcheck and explained to him exactly the tone I go for, and asked if he was OK with that. He just responded, "Hey man, I'll tell you what, have your singer play your bass for a few and let's walk the room together." He was really cool, and involved me in the mixing process. When we got to the tone I liked, he said, "OK, that's where its staying."