It’s hard to believe that another year is disappearing into our collective rear-view mirror and, in three months’ time, we will be marking the fourth anniversary of the Covid shutdown. The shock of March 15, 2020 seems like it was just here, but that year also fell behind us as we drove headlong into a bleak 2021 only to speed through to 2022 and zip into 2023. We are not traveling a straight and narrow path, and the route we have taken has been filled with many obstacles, twists and turns, but we are keeping steady on as we accelerate into 2024. It has often felt like we are being driven by a drunken, if not reckless, driver who only seems to speed up when we get to the dangerous curves, but again — while it may be wild ride — we thankfully are still on the road.
Chain, Chain, Chain
The good news is that in 2023 the touring world was back. The supply chain, while not perfect, is recovering, and in 2023, after placing an order in 2022 and waiting for six months, I received my DiGiCo Quantum 338. In December of 2023, I received a shipment of Shure PSM1000s for an order that I had placed back in December of 2022. In 2023, tech wages went up and inflation went down, although we may not really feel the benefits of these transactions until well into 2024. While we may feel that we are speeding into uncharted territory regarding many pressing issues, the stretch of highway called 2024 may turn out to be an “everything old is new again,” type of journey.
Immigration is bound to be a hot topic in 2024, but then again immigration has been a hot topic for many years, and 2024 marks the 100th year since President Calvin Coolidge passed the historic immigration law of 1924. Be aware that this was not the first — nor last time — our immigration policy was amended, and it seems as though we just keep packing baggage in the trunk of this fast-moving vehicle and toting it around with us as we speed through the yearly borders.
Baggage Claim
Speaking of baggage, 2024 may bring us the trial of a former president for insurrection. While this may seem unprecedented, it’s just more baggage packed in our collective trunk, and I suggest reading an article in the December 2023 issue of the New Yorker magazine recalling that in 1867, Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, was to be tried for treason. It’s written by Jill Lepore and titled “What Happened When the U.S. Failed to Prosecute an Insurrectionist Ex-President.” Just so you know, as my first disclaimer of 2024, this is not a raging polemic as found in most media outlets these days.
I get it with baggage. It’s hard to get rid of things and one never knows when a certain item might be required. Anyone that has been on the road for any amount of time is aware that no matter how you pack, you always come back with more than you started. Baggage accumulates, and we tend to carry it around with us until it weighs us down. Even then, we feel hard pressed to lighten our load. With that said, by entering 2024 we are now in an unfamiliar area, but still travelling on the same one-way highway. While we may not be able to change the actions that take place around us, we are able to change how we react to these events.
Those Last-Minute Gigs
Some of the events that keep popping up around me are the “Last-Minute Larrys.” These are the people who call and need to put together a show “tomorrow.” In the past, I always viewed this as a challenge, but as we cruise into the New Year, I have taken a different approach. It doesn’t matter how large or small the event is, because as soon as we rise to the challenge it becomes our responsibility to make it happen. Considering that once we agree to be the hero and save the day, all the ingratiating “I don’t care what it costs,” or “I’ll do whatever it takes” promises turn into negotiations; therefore, I have become very wary of accepting these jobs.
Knowing why a client would be calling last minute is a crucial bit of information I need to garner. As I said, I enjoy a challenge, but I need to know why I am being recruited at the last minute. Usual answers are “my sound company pulled out unexpectedly,” or “my sound company’s truck broke down,” or “my sound company overbooked and left me hanging,” yada, yada, yada. Recently, I received a call from a church pastor who needed to hire me to provide an audio tech and a little gear. He had recently installed a new system in his church consisting of a small d&b audiotechnik line array, wedges and mics, including six hanging choir mics and an Allen & Heath console. The company that installed the system sent an engineer to do the church’s first show, and the tech apparently did less than a stellar job, which is why the pastor was in need of a tech to run his next show. It seems that the company, while not knowing how to mix, also did not know how to install a system because — after a bit more sleuthing on my part — he admitted that a couple of the choir mics might be broken.
He was a nice enough guy, but he didn’t have much of clue regarding his sound system. It also seemed odd to me that a couple of his brand-new choir mics would be broken or that the company he had initially hired couldn’t return to make things right. As nice as he might have been, I never expected to get the full story regarding his dilemma. I told him I didn’t feel comfortable sending a tech to work on a system that, more than likely, had more problems than just a few broken microphones. He explained to me that he was desperate, and he said that if I helped him out, it wouldn’t matter what the cost. Of course, that sentiment lasted only until I told him what it would cost. That’s when he asked if I could possibly do it for less. There’s a good chance he didn’t need an esoteric response to his predicament, but I explained to my “Last-minute Larry” that I was traveling into an unknown future at a very high speed, and I was doing my best to dispose of any burdensome baggage rather than accumulate any more. He called me a jerk and hung up. Maybe he had no sense of humor. Maybe he had no sense of history. Either way, my trunk was full.
Oh, and Happy New Year, to one and all!
Contact Baker Lee at blee@fohonline.com.
