We were setting up for a street festival with an average attendance of about 5,000 people, and it was one of those gigs where I was wearing two hats. In addition to providing sound, I was also the fiddle and keyboard player for one of the bands on the bill. Makes for a busy day…
So, two hours before show time, the negative rail in the power supply for our main FOH console (an Allen & Heath GL3000) blew. We called several places trying to get the replacement parts we needed to fix the power supply, with no luck. And we were carrying neither a spare power supply nor a backup 32-channel console. So with an hour to go before show time, we had to pull the 24-channel Mackie board that was running monitors from side stage and set it up at the FOH position. In addition, while I was troubleshooting the power supply for the GL3300, a bumblebee flew up the sleeve of my shirt and stung me under my right arm, which made life interesting once the show started. I won't bore you with the musician stuff, like the keyboard that decided to start sending two non-musically-related notes per key forcing me to play all the stuff on one board while furiously changing patches manually mid-song.
By the time the set and finally the gig were over, my arm was a mess and I still had a power supply to fix back at the shop. But it's still a blast to know that when the going gets tough, we can execute a backup plan and make it look seamless to the customer.
Jerry "Mako" Turnbow
Owner, Sound On Site Audio
St. Louis, MO
