Category Archives: Gig Logs

Losing My Cool

I get frustrated when problems that could have been avoided crop up and make us all look dumb.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

To be fair, it wasn’t a nuclear-detonation sort of event. Here’s what happened:

I was working an evening that involved Someone You’ve Heard Of. There was a choral performance that involved playback, and I was hands-on with that to make the FOH engineer’s life more manageable. (I handled pressing go, stop, and trimming channel levels.)

No problem, right? Easy.

Where things didn’t work out is that we had two stages going, and the schedule got a little mangled. Along with that, there was no communication about exactly what was supposed to be happening in the moment. In theory, one stage was supposed to be resetting while the other was playing, but nobody was “riding herd” on that, so the stages were starting to interlace their performances: The main stage would do a tune, then the second stage would jump in and do one if we didn’t seem to be getting to the next tune fast enough, and so forth.

This worked out to a point, and then crumbled a good bit. It seemed like the other stage wasn’t ready, so we went ahead with a tune…and then, suddenly, “Stop! Stop!” (The second stage had started up.) I yanked down the music fader and ended playback. A beat of silence, as both stages had now pulled themselves up short, and then, “Go playback.” A few seconds in, and the second stage started AGAIN.

“Stop! Stop!” said the stage manager. “STOP!” said someone in the choir, turning to look at me like I was a doofus. As I yanked my fader and cut playback for the second time, I made a clear gesture and facial expression of exasperation.

I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have lost my cool.

…and there’s no “but” coming here. I’m not going to defend doing something I shouldn’t have done. What I am going to do is to explain why it happened.

As I’ve gotten more experienced, I’m finding it more difficult to gladly suffer bad planning that leads to shoddy execution, or just shoddy execution in general. I especially hate it when that shoddy execution makes apparent idiots of me and the people around me. I double-especially hate it when, as in this case, such a thing happens at what should be an event featuring varsity-level execution from everyone. This was a high-dollar, high-powered production, and a simple lack of someone (anyone) being willing to actually manage the two stages led to all of us looking like amateurs. It was near chaos, done live in front of an upper-crust audience.

Un.

Effing.

Acceptable.

I used to be better at hiding my emotions. I was more stoic once. I don’t know if that’s good or bad in general. When that intersects with the amount of pride I take in doing this stuff in the best way possible, I sometimes react poorly. When I’m caught off-guard, that’s more likely to happen.

I don’t want to lose my cool. I want to be a rock. I’m not a rock, though, and I internalize things easily. As such, I lose my cool sometimes. It’s not a great thing, but it is a thing.


Rusty Halos And Screaming Feedback

Your biases can kick your own butt.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

I am sometimes hired to go in and fix things.

Such was the case with a recent event at a small but classy amphitheater. The show promoters had brought me in because of severe problems they had encountered on the previous attempt. A year earlier, the show had been badly marred by persistent feedback issues, and there was a real (entirely founded) concern that the house crew was simply not up to the task.

“The monitors were SO LOUD,” it was said to me, and I was sure I could make things better. Firstly, I would be sure to run things at a reasonable volume – and the rest would surely be academic.

Thus, I got the gig. Then we had a site visit. At the end of the visit, I made a plan: I would take some of the realtime workload off the house FOH engineer by running monitor world. They had all the loudspeaker hardware we needed, so I’d just bring a console and a split. No problem!

The day came, we patched in, and started line checking. Everything was fine, although I felt like I had to be “on the gas” to get a reasonable amount of SPL from the wedges. Nothing truly weird there.

The first act was a couple of tunes in when the trouble started. Feedback started building up, getting progressively worse until a mic on an acoustic guitar blasted off with a shriek that drove the input into clipping. I quietly rolled my eyes at the FOH engineer, thinking that they were winding things up without any necessity. At the same time, the lead performer got on the mic and asked for the gains on everything to be dropped. I did so, not believing that anything was wrong with monitor world, but definitely wanting to make an audible change for the purposes of keeping everybody calm. I mean, hey, FOH was not to be trusted. (This is a general rule. If you’re on monitor duty, FOH is the problem. If you’re on FOH, monitor beach is at fault. If everything is fine for audio, look out! Somebody in lighting is about to screw up.)

Anyway.

Things did indeed settle down, so I thought, “Now we can get monitor world back to where it’s supposed to be. The performers will be happy to hear themselves again.”

*Screeech!*

“Geeze, FOH…” I thought.

The stage manager asked me if there was anything I wanted to relay up to the FOH mix position. “Yeah, let’s pull the whole mix back 6 dB.” Everything seemed okay. I tried to get things back to normal in monitor world, and *Screech!*

Holy crap. The problem was on MY SIDE of the equation! As realization dawned, my brain actually started to work. There was no way that FOH would feed back in that frequency range, unless they were running at a ludicrous volume. It was monitor world. It couldn’t be anything else than monitor world. FOH was just fine…I was the idiot for the day! I had given FOH a “rusty halo,” which is the assumption of continuing inadequacy after a bad experience. Sometimes people deserve a rusty halo, and sometimes not. This was a definite case of “not.”

I’m still not sure quite what happened. The only explanation that seems at all reasonable to me is that the powered wedges we were using somehow underwent an unexpected increase in onboard gain. How that was precipitated, I can’t really guess, though the monitors that seemed to be giving me trouble were exposed to heat and sun until shortly before the trouble began. (A general cooldown of the components in the boxes seems like a farfetched reason to me, but that variable does correlate with the problem appearing. Correlation is not necessarily causation, but still.)

It was revealed later that the monitor wedges we used almost always seem to do something strange to the house crew. We say that it’s a poor craftsman who blames their tools, but if your tool is inadequate or dangerous then you can’t possibly do your best work. My guess is that the personnel at the venue are perfectly adequate to their tasks, and faulty equipment is their downfall. The same thing happened to me as what I imagine happened to them: They had things working perfectly well at soundcheck time, and then the wedges launched themselves into orbit. “The monitors were SO LOUD” had just become part of my own reality, which leads me to believe that I encountered the same issue as they did the previous year.

In the end, though, the important lesson was that I didn’t take the appropriate actions at an appropriate speed, because I was assuming that my side of the mix could not possibly be at fault. No! Your side of the show can ALWAYS be the problem. Look. Listen. Consider. Act.


Gig Log: Muralfest (May 19, 2018)

Expected and unexpected coolness all around.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

Job Type: Annual community event.

Venue: The South Salt Lake Art Factory parking lot.

Load-in: Art Factory events are great, because you can drive a van-o-gear right up to the very spot the stage will be in. I can’t think of any reasonable way that a load-in could be easier.

Load-out: Especially quick because of Patrick Chase, the A2 on the show. He knows the rig, knows how to stay organized, knows the pack order in the van…I’m not opposed to training people and explaining things, but when the hour is late, an audio human wants the process to go fast. That’s what I got! Oh, and just like load-in, being able to pull the vehicle right up to where all the bits and pieces are sitting is fantasteriffic.

What Went Well

  • Unexpected FOH: The staging company, J&S Productions, wanted to use the show as an opportunity to demo their custom-built PA. I figured that giving it a try wouldn’t hurt, and thankfully, the J&S guys were very happy to have their system tuned flat. Patrick and I got to work half as hard, leave a bunch of gear in the vehicle, and got paid the same. No complaints there.
  • Whistle A Tune: As I mentioned, we got to tune the FOH PA extensively. I also got to tune monitor world to a flat target, which is a rare treat that makes my life much easier when the band is on deck.
  • Pixie And The Partygrass Boys: Working with fun bands is the best. Everybody is there to have a good time, from the stage on out.
  • Bear Shark Duck Snake: Apparently, the key to getting hilarious songs out of bands is to stick them in a van for five hours while denying them access to the radio.
  • Unexpected Job Offers: Jon, the venue manager from OP Rockwell, was on hand to sit in and play some washboard. After load-in, he lays a question on me: Would I want a residency at the very venue that I just mentioned? Well…YEAH! We decide to talk through my scheduling issues to ascertain if all the craziness will be navigable. (Spoiler Alert: I took the job.)
  • Weather: It clouded up at one point, but didn’t rain in any real way. Winds were light. That’s a recipe for a very pleasant outdoor gig.

What Could Have Been Better

  • Whoops, Wrong Knob: Midway through the show, Jon needs some more of the upright bass for better “groove lock-in.” I get on the gas until Jon gives me an approving look. There’s just one problem: I’m SLEDGEHAMMERING Andy (the guitar player) with bass, because I’m confused about my very own monitor layout. Duh. Hold on, let me fix that…

Conclusion

I love it when a plan comes together. I also love it when the plan gets halfway thrown out, and comes together even better than I expected.


Gig Log: IAMA LCS (May 4, 2018)

What matters is if other people enjoy the show.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

Job Type: Recurring concert series.

Venue: The South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society

Load-in: I couldn’t get my regular spot, because I was very early and a bunch of folks were there for another event. I did remember that using the stairs is a terrible option, and so I walked the gear around on the sidewalk instead. I felt much less tired afterwards – no data on any time differential, though. As happened for the previous LCS, I had setup help come in at exactly the right moment to cap things off.

Load-out: Many hands continue to make light work, and my new technique (which is to pack and load out progressively, rather than to pack everything first and then load everything out) feels pretty good. It might be faster, or it might not – although I’m pretty sure we set a load-out record on this go-around. I’m learning that LCS teardown is more about me managing the process than being hands-on with gear all the time.

What Went Well

  • Working with old friends: The first act, Pat And Roy, were folks I remembered well from my Fats days. They know me, I know them, and both parties are aware of what the other party needs. Shows with people you’re acquainted with are like a good open-house gathering with a jam session attached; You get to be comfortable and enjoy yourself.
  • Making new friends: Whenever an act says, “that was some of the best sound we ever had,” that’s a great feeling. It’s an especially great feeling when it’s your first day with that group. I will also say that it’s quite amazing how just getting the basics right (showing up, having your monitor rig tuned somewhat sanely, generally giving a hoot about the goings on) will get you a long way towards getting the “best sound ever” nod.
  • Yes, you can do a big, bluegrass band unplugged: There were a LOT of instruments and open mics up on the deck for the second act, but there weren’t any real problems. We had a couple of short feedback chirps at one point, but nothing that had to be battled with over the course of the set. The key, of course, is a great band that knows how to be a band before a PA system gets added. All they needed was a bit of “fill” from monitor world, where the foldback blends gently with the acoustic output of the instruments. Screaming-hot monitor gain is the gateway to many problems, so not needing that kind of setup fixes lots of issues by way of prevention. The same goes for FOH, of course. There was no call to be ear-splittingly loud, especially because the basic blend was already there from the performers themselves.

What Could Have Been Better

  • Why doesn’t this feel better than it does?: For all the good points of the show, I must admit that I spent my entire time at FOH with the sensation that I was struggling with it. In hindsight, I think that my real worry was how the overall sound of the show wouldn’t “clean up” to my liking. I was really keyed into all the room reflections I was hearing, while trying to be ginger with both volume and EQ. I eventually got to a pretty good place, but it took me a long time to get there – and even then, I didn’t feel that I had a truly crisp, defined mix going. (To be fair, I think the only person who was even a little bit unhappy was me, so…)

Conclusion

This was the close of my second season with the IAMA LCS, and I’m glad to be coming back on for a third round.


Gig Log: Samba Fogo – Ouca (April 24 – 28, 2018)

Fire, dancing, and a swanky theater. Can you beat that?

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

Job Type: Recurring, multi-day, single facility.

Venue: The Jeanne Wagner Theater at The Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, a high-dollar facility that is VERY classy. The stage is cavernously huge, with a full fly-system and a ceiling height to match. The new toy this year was an automated raise/ drop controller for the grand drape. I didn’t get to play with it, but it was cool just being around it.

Load-in: I got in the van to leave, and the danged thing wouldn’t start! Fortunately, my dad has one of those “tiny package, huge current” jumpstart kits, and that got me on the road. Once you get let into the facility, the load-in is actually pretty posh; These folks have big doors that a cargo van can definitely wiggle into. I got the gear indoors, then clambered back into the van to park it, and…click. Nothing. (I had, of course, swiped Dad’s jumpstarter, so I impressed the technical director and one of his assistants by giving myself a jolt and going on my way.) Even with all the drama, I managed to be early.

Load-out: I love the Rose Wagner, but I hate where they put it. Or maybe I hate where they put the things around it? They’re right behind a large, popular nightclub, and that means the back alley – which is already a bit tight – can get even more constricted with VIPs who park there. With Samba Fogo, the approaching end of the show run means that I start silently reciting things like the Serenity Prayer (sometimes with more or less cursing), readying myself to “just deal” with whatever situation crops up in the back. Of course, the last time around was pretty darn okay, as was this iteration, and I had plenty of help getting everything buttoned up and loaded. I’m pretty sure we actually set a record for the elapsed time to pack up and go back home this year. That’s even including my standard, 800-point turn to get the “cargo ship” turned around in the confines of the alley. I got help with that at the end too, which was very nice. Maybe it was only a 600-point turn this time. (Seriously, the van feels very unwieldy in downtown Salt Lake…)

What Went Well

  • It’s Samba Fogo!: Who wouldn’t want to work with high-energy Brazilian dance? There’s fire involved, such that the local authorities have to come out and approve the action. There’s a big ol’ drumline that can make a TON of noise without any help from electronic doodads. There are performers in the finale who (I think) are 7+ feet tall in heels and headdresses. Folks are happy to be there. It’s a complete package.
  • SC48 Automation: I have mixed feelings about the Avid SC48, but if I’m going to do snapshot automation it’s a great choice. The snapshot system is generally easy to understand, has crossfading available for many parameters, and also features a “scoping system” (defining what is or is not automated at any given point) which is both easy AND very flexible.
  • It’s A Snap(shot): I also have mixed feelings about snapshot automation, especially because my style of mixing lends itself to working on the fly. At the same time, snapshots allow the console to keep track of piece-to-piece changes for you, which is very helpful when you’re doing something like working blind: This year, a midstage curtain was closed for certain pieces, meaning I didn’t have visual cues as to what was being played or not. In such a situation, I say, “Let the console do the remembering.”
  • Hooray For The ACS: I don’t find the SC48 control surface to be all that great – mostly because I just don’t prefer physical surfaces anymore – but it does have a big, beautiful display called the ACS. The ACS puts a lot of power and information right in front of you, with an intuitive, mouse-driven interface that’s great for getting things done in a hurry. (I will admit to liking the fact that the physical surface is large and impressive-looking, but that only goes so far.)
  • Uncompression: Samba Fogo gets the whole prep-time thing absolutely right. We have a full-on tech day for sorting out audio and lighting issues, then another night for a dress rehearsal, and THEN we do the shows. We have time to pick at things and sort them out, instead of trying to just throw it all together at the last moment. I have a very soft spot for people who refrain from compressing a show schedule, because it makes my life so much happier – and helps me to do the best job possible.

What Could Have Been Better

  • I Miss MY Console: It might seem heretical to show partiality to a $2000 mixing desk versus a $30,000+ unit, but familiarity is a big deal. I’m unashamed to say that I definitely prefer an X32 to an SC48 when it comes to “features in common,” again, mostly because familiarity stops me from having to go hunting around for things. Oh, and honest-to-goodness remote capability is a big deal for me. Especially in a large facility, I really, really miss having stupid-easy remote control over the mixer. (Troubleshooting gets tiring when you have to run back and forth between the stage and booth.) And yes, the Avid runs plugins, but all I need them for is to engage functionality – like parametric output EQ – that an X32 simply has available as a built-in feature.
  • Did You Ask For Directions?: On our tech day, I wasted a whole bunch of time by not asking for help. I was 100% sure that I was running console outputs directly to the patchbay – but I wasn’t! I erroneously assumed that the snake I was running from was connected to the console…when it had nothing to do with the console at all. I would have been told that in 10 seconds if I had asked a house tech, but did I? Nope. I eventually yanked a couple of console outputs, jammed in a pair of short XLR cables, and then ran adapters to the bay. It was an incredibly roundabout way to do something that would have been easy if I just used the patch as intended. The upside is that I’ll probably remember that little misadventure forever, so it wasn’t a total loss. One of my strengths is that I WILL find a creative way to get things done. My weakness is sometimes going that route inappropriately.

Conclusion

Samba Fogo is a high-class gig that I lucked into, and I’m hoping to keep it.


Gig Log: Talia Keys And The Love Album Release (April 21, 2018)

Being part of the big party is pretty fun.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

Job Type: One-off special.

Venue: The State Room, which is very arguably THE premiere Salt Lake City venue for “human scale” shows.

Load-in: Parked on the wrong side of the building, but I discovered the fact after I paid. Whoops! Not too much gear, though, so carrying it in through a fire door wasn’t a big deal.

Load-out: Moved the vehicle to the dock, and everything was so much easier!

What Went Well

  • Eating at the cool-kids’ table, metaphorically: A lot of people who would appear in a “Who’s Who Of Salt Lake City Live Music” were either playing the show or working the show. Most of them I had met, and it was excellent to be introduced to those I hadn’t. I may also have gotten on the State Room’s call list for crew. (Maybe.)
  • Eating at the cool-kids’ table, literally: Talia invited me to partake of the goodies in the green room, which is a very generous and classy thing for an artist to offer (especially when you’re ancillary crew and not a “must have this person for the show to happen”). I was overjoyed to discover an abundance of raspberries and blackberries, two of my favorite things in the world.
  • Collaborative environments: As I just said, I was an ancillary. I was there to multitrack the show for the sake of posterity and video, but if I hadn’t been there the actual gig would have gone on just fine. With that in mind, the courtesy and help I received from both the cast and crew (especially Adam, the A1) was stellar.
  • Well equipped venues are the best: I didn’t have to bring a split, because The State Room’s main stage box already has one. No muss, no fuss, no “figuring it out,” just plug, play, and go.
  • Hooray for digital: The aforementioned split went to my digital stagebox, which then had an AES50 line attached and run to the backstage area. This got me out of the way of everybody else – mostly, with one connection and one easily run cable.
  • This is a low pressure center: Not being directly part of the “live loop” meant that it was a very “chillaxed” evening for me. I got to just sit back, hit record, and dial up a quick mix for myself to enjoy the show. It was about as close as you can possibly get to being paid just for showing up.

What Could Have Been Better

  • I just remembered: We got part of the way through setting me in the upstage right corner before I remembered that I had brought my stagebox for the purpose of staying out of the way. Duh! Luckily we only lost a few minutes to that brain cramp.
  • Accidental displacement: I ended up in a back room that was supposed to have been the dressing room for the aerialist. She ended up having to share with some other folks, which wasn’t horrible but also not what was expected. Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that…

Conclusion

It was my very first time at The State Room, and I got to experience it in grand style at a killer show. I don’t think you can top that.