Sorry for the delay, but I have been on tour! Boy do I have some stories! I try really hard not to be that FOH guy we all love to hate… but…
I recently took a job with an R&B band with a string of hits from the '70s thru the late '80s. They still demand good money and travel with FOH, LD & a tour manager. I have done four shows with them so far with a wide range of weird issues along the way.
My first gig, I do the advance and find the venue (a casino in New York) has installed a Meyer Melody system and rented Clair 12 AM's and a couple Yamaha M-7 consoles. Overall, I am happy. I set the sound check for 3 p.m. with my arrival between 1-2 p.m. As with a lot of these situations when you’re relying on someone else — shit just happens. The car never picks me up and I end up riding with the group to the venue for sound check. After speaking with the house guy, I had no reason to expect any real issues once we arrived.
However, I notice the backline company just arrived as well, and thought to myself it might be a good thing since the stage plot has changed a bit. As I enter the venue, I notice the monitor rig is not up either. There are two guys both named Brian working their asses off—so I dubbed them "The Brian’s.” They were audio, lighting, backline and video guys for the day! Needless to say, they were out-gigged and running ragged. I sent my band to dinner, set up backline and mixes with "The Brian’s” and find we’re fast approaching doors. We end up with no sound check — not really a big deal to me — but as I go out to tune the PA I notice for the first time it’s hung behind the stage! Oh yeah, instead of sidefills we could call them rear fills? Yup, the subs flown in the array as well. The casino had "some sight line issues" Oh, and the venue provided five RF mics for my five primary vocalists — mismatched, nice! When I asked about the rider I sent, I got a lot of blank stares. As we are getting ready to start the show, I notice the PA is not in phase (at least with the DVD playing music and videos).
While “The Brian's” work on this issue, all of the right-side PA except the subs stop working. That issue was resolved eight bars into the first song. I never really got an explanation about the issue; maybe I just didn't want to hear it. Well, I hope I never have to deal with that again. “The Brian's” worked their asses off, and I am sure that the three of us were underpaid that day! This past week we did two shows in North Carolina, one indoor and one out. I sent my rider off, promptly got a call from venue "A" — a corporate in a posh country club. We have one opener and some "shared" backline. I don’t really deal with backline advance, so I forwarded it to the musical director.
So Bobby (sound guy for the venue, maybe) tells me about the rig — a lot of mid to lower level stuff, 16 inputs light on the console, no monitor rig…STOP! "So, hey dude, I have a 10-piece band, I really need a monitor rig. I will make some concessions in the house, but I need this rig." I suggest he call the sound company we are working with the following day (big outdoor fest, more on that later). Bobby gets me the monitor rig and even a nice house console. The sound company for tomorrow’s show gets an extra rental — everyone happy?
Back to that, uh, Backline. Let’s talk about Bobby. It seems he is not the house audio guy, but actually the drummer for the opening act! Yup, he didn't rent any backline; he wanted us to use their backline and their band PA. Seems innocent enough, but the backline was way old and beat up with no keyboards (we use six) and no DW drums for my indorsed drummer…well you get it…So, my musical director makes a deal with the festival sound/backline company to bring their keyboards to the festival. It seems the promoter for both events and the sound company owner make their own deal to not rent keyboards for both events. Again, it seems like it’s not such a big deal until you consider all that was involved and the horror of what happened at the festival.
You see, when we showed up at the Country Club gig and saw no keys, the band ASS-umed that was the gig they were being paid extra to drag their keys on a plane from Detroit to attend. So, guess what they left at the hotel 30 minutes away from the festival gig the next day? Oh yeah, you got it! The show was at 6 p.m. with no lights and no sound check. So, no need to be there before 5 p.m. That's when we realize the big fat issue. The limo rushes the two keyboard players back to the hotel with about an hour in round trip travel having the band on closer to 6:30 with the sun started to go down.
Meanwhile, the sound company owner is claiming he made the arrangements with the band to bring keyboards for both nights. (Now, how do you think Boss Hog would even have known about the backline issue at gig "A"? I got him involved on the audio only 24 hours out…hmmm…) Now the promoter is claiming at 5:45 p.m. that people are demanding their money back because the 6 p.m. show has not started. Seems kind of…dirty? Well bro, we are not even scheduled until 6. If people are leaving, I don’t think it’s us.
Now I dig the whole save $ thing. But lying about the gear, implying you’re a rental company when you’re a drummer with a PA, waiting until the last minute to finalize the advance so you can say…"Uh wow, I didn't realize dude…oh well, I guess we will have to go with it" is CRAP! As far as the real PA owner taking advantage of hardworking musicians to save a few hundred bucks? WTF? Have you ever had to travel across the country on an airline with more than a laptop and your carry-on suite case? It sucks! What a DICK! Uh, I am sorry. What a Richard!