I have a story to tell

[tnjazz]

We were quite busy last weekend, with shows for 5 consecutive nights. The highlight of the entire weekend was Saturday night though.

It all began about 2 weeks ago when we were contacted to do a live recording of a band. Very few details were provided, but we were told the venue and the date. The date happened to be on a night we were going to take off (we had 2 nights of video shoots on either side) but hey...a gig is a gig for us remotesters, right?

We were told that the show would be 3 bands and it would be an outdoor setting at a local venue. Both turned out to be true...

Saturday crept closer with no real additional information, but we were told repeatedly that the gig was happening and everything was set.

Saturday morning I get a call that the stage is due to be set up at noon and the band will start arriving between 4 and 6 to soundcheck. It's suggested I get there by 4 pm to set up, because by then they will have the stage built (did I mention this was an outdoor show?)

So I get directions to the venue from the internet. OK, it's in a pretty central location near the highway. I've never been there but I'm familiar enough with the area that I'm confident I can find it.

So nearing 4pm I pack up the truck and head downtown. As I pull onto the street in question I realize it's in a notoriously seedy and run-down area of town. You know those areas - where you should be ever vigilant even in the daytime? Yep, that's where the venue was.

I pulled into the venue parking lot and saw that several members of the band were already there. They informed me that the stagehands had *just* arrived and were only now beginning to build the stage! I said, "OK. No problem." Then I scanned the parking lot and asked the question: "Where IS the stage?"

Oh, it's around the back side of the venue I was told. So I walked around the corner and got the surprise of my life...






to be continued...with photos!

[Yannick]

http://frogstar.soylentgeek.com/wav/twilzone.wav

[classicalrecord]

Originally Posted by Yannick

http://frogstar.soylentgeek.com/wav/twilzone.wav

that's hilarious...

[tnjazz]

Originally Posted by classicalrecord

that's hilarious...

yes it is, and it's eerily appropriate. Listen to the wave file, then look at the pictures of what greeted me when I turned the corner.

this story is just getting started...

[gibsonlp75]

is that the muse side lot???

[d_fu]

Originally Posted by tnjazz

this story is just getting started...

Mooooore... Get on with it...

[stirinthesauce]

Originally Posted by gibsonlp75

is that the muse side lot???

why yes it is

I'll let Dirk fill in the detail but this is one crazy night in a long list of craziness that happened those 5 days of multitracking.

[JonCraig]

i reply to bump & subscribe!

--jon

[big country]

enough with the suspense

[tnjazz]

OK, so here's the first question: who plans an outdoor event RIGHT NEXT TO A FREEWAY ONRAMP?

Yes, that's right. See the road to the right of the stage? That's the on-ramp to the interstate. See the overpass in the background? That's Interstate 40, arguably the busiest road in Nashville.

For the geographically challenged among you, There are three major interstates that converge in downtown Nashville. I-40, I-24 and I-65. I-40 (East to West) and I-65 (North to South) are MAJOR trucking routes.

All three interstates converge within less than half a mile of the venue.

So you might be starting to see why I stood there for about 2 minutes in astonishment before I went back to the car to get my camera.

Also keep in mind the general character of the neighborhood. See the barbed wire at the top of the fence? That's there for a reason...

OK, onward and upward. I go to find the guitar player for the band. He's the one who hired us to record the show. I ask him details and he knows absolutely nothing. Turns out he's been hired to play the gig (it's a wedding reception that is going to morph into an "aftershow" for a sold out show down the street). So at this point the only people at the venue are me and the band, and maybe a couple other folks. AND NO ONE KNOWS A DAMN THING.

So one of the band members sits down with me and we plot out an input list. The band has been playing with 2 different drummers and tonight they've decided to have both playing together. They also have a percussion player. To quote my business partner Jon (stirinthesauce): "I guess tonight they think they're the Allman Brothers..."

Two drummers, a percussion player, electric guitar, bass, 3 vocals, stereo keyboards and an extra channel for a "noise machine"...(WTF is that? They don't even know exactly what it is, but I'm told to save a channel for it.) OK, no problem.

So it all comes out quite nicely to 22 channels, plus a pair of ambients. I'm still not all that sure about the ambients due to the location. Of course if they want the sound of trucks going by I'll be happy to put up the ambients. I plan on it anyway.

OK, so there are supposed to be 3 bands. Who is the first band? No-one knows. Who else is playing? No-one knows.

The stage is built and the stagehands leave.

That's when the sound company arrives...

[SureShotStudio]

wow that sounds familiar.... ........................shitting and pissing in terror ......

[d_fu]

Mooooore.....

[AlexLakis]

Originally Posted by tnjazz

who plans an outdoor event RIGHT NEXT TO A FREEWAY ONRAMP?

A band that wants to get seen by a lot of people!

Good stuff! I hope you'll post some sound clips for us once the story is finished!

[tnjazz]

OK, so the sound company shows up and I've been told that they've been told that we'll be recording the show. So I go to talk to the guy who's setting up the stage. He tells me he's just setting up and that his partner will be there later that evening to run sound. I show him the input list and he says to me

"We only brought a 16 channel board."



Hmmm...OK, this could be interesting. We've got some extra channels that could conceiveably be dropped to FOH. We've got overheads, hats, stereo keys all going to tape. Some of those could be dropped for the live sound. Might not be a huge deal to "trim the fat" (since there's no choice for them anyway - they only have 16 channels!)

Apparently the sound company was not told there would be 2 drummers, so they assumed 16 channels would be sufficient. Oops.

So after these revelations I siit back to collect my thoughts before I start setting up the recording gear.

As I'm staring at the stage as he starts moving monitors around, a thought occurs to me.

"Hmmm...where are the lights?"

[stirinthesauce]

Edit: deleted at the request of revealing too much of the story

[uh2k]

this is awesome...can't wait for more!

[tnjazz]

OK, so where was I? Oh yeah...the lights.

The stage area is right next to the on ramp of the interstate, and there are a couple of streetlights around. In this neighborhood there's no telling if they actually work though. So I decide to be brave and ask the guitar player about it (even though it really doesn't affect me, it would have a serious impact on the show if this wasn't addressed).

Thankfully, he says some outfit out of Chattanooga will be bringing the lights. He doesn't know who they are or when they'll be there though. Hmmm, OK. Well it's 6:30 now and the first band is supposed to play at 7 (or so everyone thinks). Still no idea who else is playing.

Sound engineer #1 has finished unloading the truck and it's actually starting to look like a band stage. There are a couple of speaker stacks and monitor wedges and even a small rolling rack with the FOH console out front. WAY out front. Probably 30 yards from the stage. The speaker spread is pretty narrow, so it seems like this is pretty far away. Oh well, not for me to decide right?

So now it's time to plug things in. Apparently the folks who booked this gig (the wedding party?) decided not to hire out power in addition to sound. So the next 30 minutes were spent coordinating with the man in charge at the venue (I believe he's the regular sound engineer there) to run long extension cords to various power outlets inside the venue and upstairs at the breaker box.

I wish I had taken photos of the carnage.

There were extension cables everywhere. The FOH power cord ran across to the doorway and around the corner, with the connector dangling just off the curb. All it would take would be one drunken stumble over the cable (not taped down) to disconnect the FOH console from the wall.

Luckily I and one of the band members recognized some of the hazards of the power setup and rewired the area so that:
a - there would be no disconnect points on the AC lines anywhere that someone could walk, and
b - the only hazard left was the set up music coming out of the PA.

I wish I had a sample of that. It made me want to dismember someone with a chain saw (talking about serial killings, etc). REALLY disturbing music, and not at all appropriate for a wedding reception.

The sun is setting. It's after 7pm. No other bands in sight. The wedding party isn't even there. The light crew isn't there. Evil murderous music is pumping full volume out of the PA.

I've been there for 3 hours and I haven't even set up my own gear yet.

[travisgarrison]

The suspense is maddening...

[-momo-]

- this is like a remote "mixerman" thread.

I'm hooked.....

[LX3]

I've had a number of these "uh-oh!" gigs, where your spider-sense starts tingling right from the word go. I'm better now at figuring out whether to walk, or stay and see it through. Though I'll often stay for the amusement of seeing how mickey mouse it can get!

The main thing I'd be asking myself at this point though is...

Have I found the guy that's paying me?

(and can I get some cash up front!)

Can't wait to hear how this pans out.

[tnjazz]

Luckily for us the guitar player for the main band was the one who hired us, and he was the only one who was actually there the entire time. So I felt pretty good about the payment aspect - I just didn't feel too good about the way the setup was progressing.

OK, so it's after 7 and darkness is falling. Lo and behold, the guys from Chattanooga are here with the lights! Great, because setup in the dark would not be particularly enjoyable. Their lights are pretty high tech and take a while to set up. They inform us they are only doing lights for the main act.

Sound engineer 1 hears us discussing this minor dilemma and informs us that he's brought some lights with him. Perfect! We'll set those up and use them for the opening bands (and for setup) and let the Chattanooga crew set up strictly for the headliner.

I'm starting to get a little worried though. There are literally orange extension cables EVERYWHERE - running through entryways, up the side of the building...I really didn't want to know what they were plugged into, to be honest. My imagination was running wild with that, but I'm sure the reality would have been worse.

So of course we need separate power for the lights. OK, wire up a couple more extension cords. That's pretty much how the evening went. I plugged the recording rig into FOH and stage power.

By this time it's 7:30 and the streetlights are coming on across the street. The sound company's lights come on and we can resume setting up the bands on stage. So the main band sets up their percussion and drums while we decide what we need to do to get the recording setup going.

Sound engineer #2 (who will be doing FOH) shows up. Engineer #1 was a bit slow and methodical in his setup. #2 is not at all the same. He runs in hyper speed the entire time. Things look like they will be moving quickly. He has the board labeled and is ready to patch the audio lines. I've already let him know we're recording, so he's aware and he will coordinate with us on the setup. We decide to hold off on setting up the recording gear until after the first two bands, since there will be an hour or so break and we'll have to strike the whole stage anyway.

Suddenly, the lights go out. Naturally the load tripped a breaker. Didn't take even 5 minutes. So we're in the dark again.

A few minutes of semi-frantic problem solving at the fuse box (upstairs) and the lights are back on. I don't get a good feeling about this though.

Incredibly enough, the wedding party arrives just as BOTH opening acts show up. The first act is a solo bass player, the second is a grunge-rock type of band (not really sure how to classify their sound) - kind of indie. Neither band is to be recorded, so I can just sit back and wait.

About 8:15 or so the bass player takes the stage and plays about 20 minutes of solo bass. It wasn't as bad as it sounds - there was a good bit of harmonics, tapping and melody in his playing. In fact, a lot of his style and technique sounded like he was playing Chapman Stick. He was apparently friends with the wedding party.

Around 9pm the second band takes the stage. They launch into their first song and someone from the main band comes over to talk to me about the recording and wants to see the rig. Well up to that moment it was just sitting dormant, so I powered it on and show them the setup.

I leave it on and about 30 seconds later...guess what happens?

[Berolzheimer]

somewhere off in the distance a breaker goes "sproingngngngngnn"

[big country]

Originally Posted by Berolzheimer

somewhere off in the distance a breaker goes "sproingngngngngnn"

"paping---gn"

I just ran a spell check

[tnjazz]

Power goes out on stage, lights go off, band stops playing.

Not sure I was to blame for this, but it made me realize we were heavily overloading the circuits anyway and our best bet for staying running was to find an alternate source of power.

They go upstairs and reset the breakers and power comes back. I turn my rig off and go to find the house sound engineer, who has been key in setting up everything (all power is coming from the inside venue).

He tells us the best source of separate power is the outlets in the coffee shop in the front of the venue. They are on a circuit that is not being used so we should be OK.

Band takes the stage again and resumes playing. We pull out one of our own extensions and run it through the chain link fence, along the side of the building, around the corner, above the plate glass window, through the front doors and over to an outlet that is not being used at all. Great! Now my only fear is someone will unplug us in the middle of the show and we won't have enough time to address the situation before the UPS fails.

I power the rig on and settle back to "enjoy" the show. It will be my last few minutes of relative calm before the proverbial storm.

[marty lester]

feel like i'm there puckering right along with ya!
more...more!

marty.

[Yannick]

Just about time for another musical intervention :

http://frogstar.soylentgeek.com/wav/twilzone.wav

[d_fu]

Dirk, please send me an email or PM when the story's done... These bits and pieces are not so entertaning...

[David Spearritt]

Originally Posted by d_fu

Dirk, please send me an email or PM when the story's done... These bits and pieces are not so entertaning...

Doesn't sound like having the whole thing will be any better, frankly.

[Jim vanBergen]

Gee, my gigs merely suck. This is leaning dangerously towards a possible ending of SUPER sucky, such as: "we didn't get paid AND the gear got wet/broken/stolen and my butt is sore and I hate my life and I quit this business" except I don't think it would go there.... I HOPE!!!

So, did you capture some nice truck passes & Hwy ambiance to sell to sound F?X houses?

[tnjazz]

Originally Posted by David Spearritt

Doesn't sound like having the whole thing will be any better, frankly.

Fine. Consider the story over.

Sorry for wasting everyone's time, especially yours Mr. Spearritt. fuuck