Mixing live set for various club settings

[PELicanWord]

So I wasn't too sure where to put this... I have a live set that sounds great on my home setup, in headphones, etc. When I go to gigs and do shows, sometimes it sounds great, other times it sounds shrill and the low end makes the speakers "fart"... very not cool.

What am I experiencing here? Crappy club setups? Varying levels within my live set? The club I giged at recently had a very good setup, yet the sound was terrible, and the soundman was cool but

[RawDepth]

I am afraid the world is full of wanna-be soundmen who are not very skilled. It is also full of cheap PA systems that look cool but really are not.

A lot of nightclub house systems are mismatched, over abused, poorly maintained, barely working, well aged, piece-meal systems that some fly-by-night soundman or DJ sold them years ago. And now some other poor sap must try to make it work for another night.

I try to avoid those types of clubs because they can ruin an entertainer's reputation. Audiences tend to percieve your talent and the stage production as one single entity. They don't know any better and don't care to either. If the sound sucked, they go away thinking the whole show sucked. In the long run you are better off paying the premium for a good sound company.

[surflounge]

Pity the poor soundman

[Remoteness]

A band is only as good as the soundmen they keep.

[jude]

so true!

[mixedupsteve]

Pelican,
Are you basing the claims about the sound on what you hear in the monitors or what the audience tells you? Are your levels changing alot during the show?