hi jon,
i work here:http://www.myspace.com/gleis22
the skaters palace is a bigger place not far away from the gleis 22.
they mainly have hip hop acts there but they book guitar bands from time to time too.
are you doing sound for hot water music there?
i did sound for them a few times in the past. good live band, nice folks and, um, heavy drinkers.
i heard it is sold out already. the skaters palace has a 1400 capacity but the acoustics is not so good.

divorcee wrote:An experience which I remember vividly was at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney (approx 1000 capacity), where house guy informed me I was not allowed to use the compressors or gates, nor was I allowed to patch in any of my own. Needless to say, this is an extreme situation and the house guy in question has a reputation for being a colossal bastard.

I like to think I'm exceptionally easy to work with as a freelancer, but unless I'm mixing the opener on a 5 band bill w/ a huge headliner, I would go absolutely ballistic if this happened to me.

I've only had to pull rank on house guys a couple of times (always as a last resort), being as polite as possible in explaining that THEY work for ME tonight, NOT the other way around.

<convoluted analogy>
The band+freelancer/sound guy relationship is like a diner/waiter relationship. The waiter/house guy is paid to serve you. If the diner/band+freelancer are unreasonably pissy assholes, they get what they deserve. But a waiter who sees the restaurant/house guy who sees the club as "his house" has things backwards.
</convoluted analogy>

My advice, then, to bands dealing with house bros: treat them like you would a waiter. (Unless you're a shitty tipper/send food back compulsively like Marsupialized's former girlfriend.)

odeon wrote:are you doing sound for hot water music there?

Yes.

odeon wrote:i did sound for them a few times in the past. good live band, nice folks and, um, heavy drinkers.

Depending on when you worked with them, it is most likely that their drinking habits have diminished considerably. These days everyone is fairly sedate. Mostly. They are still very nice folks.

odeon wrote:the skaters palace has a 1400 capacity but the acoustics is not so good.

That's ok, it will cover up my inadequacies as a sound guy.

Also, since you are from Muenster, you should tell me where to eat while I am there. And also if there are any old men that used to run studios that have decided to sell off all of their old German and Russian microphones for really cheap, please tell me their names and favorite drinks. Thanks.

Jon

Depending on when you worked with them, it is most likely that their drinking habits have diminished considerably. These days everyone is fairly sedate. Mostly. They are still very nice folks.

good to hear. it was a bit scary to see that the alcohol supported their rocking attitude in the beginning and then seemed to become a major problem for them more and more over the time.

That's ok, it will cover up my inadequacies as a sound guy.

"yeah, you know, the room is really bad and..."
serious: you have been to worse places for sure.

Also, since you are from Muenster, you should tell me where to eat while I am there.

since the show is promoted by greenhell/kingstar booking the catering will be good. big buffet with plenty of vegetarian/vegan and meat options, salads, desserts, soups etc.
if you have the time you should take a walk through the old city core of muenster. plenty of nice cafes, old churches and, due to the huge university, hot chicks studying romanistics or art.
will this be a tour coach/nightliner or a a van/hotel tour?

And also if there are any old men that used to run studios that have decided to sell off all of their old German and Russian microphones for really cheap, please tell me their names and favorite drinks. Thanks.

too late. i have them. btw. it is better to look for churches that get a new sound system. the popes here literally have no clue about the worth of some sennheisers or neumanns.
"oh, you can buy the microphones for 100 euros. i mean they are old, right?"
but i am old too and my favorite drink is single malt whiskey. expensive ones.
you are welcome.

odeon wrote:i work as a freelance soundguy and as a house guy in my hometown.

i work in both positions. do i have a problem now?

The house guy generalisation is just that - a generalisation. I should explain that I work in a country almost exclusively populated by people who make a sleeping three-toed sloth seem positively energetic. The vast bulk of house guys here are deaf ex-roadies with drink, drug and emotional problems, whose job seems to be trying to chat up the barmaid while the bands play.

I am certain that outside the limited scope of my rant there are house guys who take the time and effort to ensure a good mix, regardless of who is on stage. I suppose my advice for bands in these positions is better summed up by matthewbarnhart's restaurant analogy - be nice to house guy and listen to what he says.

to me shows are better in smaller rooms with bands just using their amps and only putting the vox through the p.a.

(waits for everyone to tell me drums also have to go in the p.a.)

that damned fly wrote:to me shows are better in smaller rooms with bands just using their amps and only putting the vox through the p.a.

(waits for everyone to tell me drums also have to go in the p.a.)

At least the kick.

that damned fly wrote:to me shows are better in smaller rooms with bands just using their amps and only putting the vox through the p.a.

(waits for everyone to tell me drums also have to go in the p.a.)

Saw Sunn O))) in a really small place using just their amps and again in a
bigger club through a large PA. The former was much the better gig.

However....

Most of the guys i've come accross have been pretty good. After all if it
sounds shitty it's their reputation on the line. I can think of only one
incompetent idiot but then this trait extended to pretty much everything
else he did too.

b

My first moment of true house-guy douchebaggery happened last week:

Didn't get any advance warning that the 2nd to last band was bringing an engineer. While the last band is setting up for sound check, a dude who says he's with the 2nd to last band starts chatting me up about drum mics, mentioning that he has a particular rack tom mic he wants to use. 2nd-to and last band are sharing a drum kit, so I mic up the rack tom with the supplied mic, and it makes a crazy static-whooshy noise. Probably a phantom power issue, probably a fucked cable of mine. I know. BUT we're running late as it is, so I say "sorry, your mic is fired" and do my normal thing. Let me clarify that at this point, I still don't know this is the sound guy for band 2nd-to-last, I'm just thinking he's a drummer with a new pet mic. He says something like "Oh, i guess I'll have to check it out then." and as I'm re-micing the rack tom, I hear dude's voice over the PA, and I turn around and see him behind the board, and give him a stern "What do you think you are doing? Don't touch that board without telling me first. If you fuck something up, it's my responsibility, not yours."

So, soundcheck for last band is done, and the 2nd-to-last band is getting set. Who's that behind the drums? Not the guy I yelled at. I turn to him and ask "Wait, what do you play?" Then I finally learn he's the bands tour manager/sound guy.

Oops.

Of course I apologize (a few times), and the rest of the night goes fine. Maybe the guy hates me, maybe he doesn't.

On the other end (as a person in a band) the only run-in with a sound guy that I remember is this completely cranked-out engineer making a federal case about me breaking a mic clip during our set. Didn't say a word to him, just reached into my bag of random crap and pulled out a nice shiny new mic clip for him. I think he was trying to shake me down for five bucks. He looked confused.

+1 for checking a band out on myspace before showing up to work.

I've known my sound guy for around 10 years. He also engineers and helps arrange my songs. We recorded our last EP in his bedroom.

Luckily, where I'm from (Indonesia), if you have your own sound guy, you can have him main the board at any venue.

Most of the original sound guys at venues here/ sound guys provided by equipment rentals here are completely untrained, completely uninterested in sound quality, and most of the time are complete fools. If there are trained professionals manning the board, 90% of the time, they tend to be arrogant jerks with one horrible-based sound in their head.