I don't like stages much. I've played some great ones, okay, Carnegie Hall, I liked that stage, but for what I do in music I really like having no division between the audience and myself. I understand why things are the way they are with a big PA system and lights, I just don't really enjoy it.
Evolutionary Jass Band had 3 gigs booked at a new venue in Portland Oregon. I was excited to reach out to new territories but also nervous cause we pretty much had our venues down, they understood us and our needs and the fights were already over. Give a sound guy a different set of needs and it's confusing to their regular way of doing things. I've seen the strangest reactions from sound folks. One venue the guy threw a direct box on the floor and yelled "I guess you guys just don't need me" after we said we didn't need the direct box. The best reaction was telling the monitor guys to take the next 45 minutes off and we'll mix ourselves (Jackie O, All tomorrows Parites UCLA 2002). They smiled and said thank you!
So back to our gig at this new venue. I did a research mission to the venue 2 weeks prior to hear a jazz group. It was a big band, a Wednesday night with about 20 people in the audience and the room is a big, bright sounding brick room with nothing damping the sound. They had everything miked including the trumpets and the PA blasting away like a typical rock club. The good ol' cold war. The Berlin Wall 'O Sound! Separation of observer and observed by 10,000 kw of power through massive JBLs. People were holding their ears, for a jazz band.....
I don't make music to hurt people. I make music to help ease this life. I play loud but not that loud.
So we got our email requesting us to specify our microphone needs and telling us to be at the venue by 5pm for a 10:30 pm show so we could sound check.
Fuck that. We drove back from Seattle that day. We figure 8pm was plenty of time. Dis-respectful? Hindsight being 20/20, we owe that club an amends for being so late and they had a right to be pissed. On the other hand our request was simple. 2 overhead mics and a vocal mic and we'll play on the floor. They replied that's not the way it's done.
Ego gets involved. We are the artist. We request an open mind.
We get to the venue and the good ol' cold war heats up again. My man starts putting mics on everything. I let him know this is not acceptable. He lets me know our request are not acceptable and to trust him. I let him know 'listen, our concern is that it'll be too loud. I just saw this big band here 2 weeks ago and my ears were bleeding and you were doing sound that night as well, all due respect, I just don't want that!' Things get tense, voices get raised and somehow we come to a compromise. Yes, I'm a control freak sometimes, but I'm tired of being controlled by people who only seem to be concerned with the importance of their job. Ego vs. ego.
The show went well, the next show went better and by the third show 6 weeks later the sound man approached me and said "I get it. Your band really doesn't need much at all. Thank you."
I didn't feel like I won or anything, I was just glad that someone in this world could open up like that. I get it. It's hard to be vulnerable. It's hard to be honest and open to new ideas, especially when things have been done one way for so many years. And people want to feel useful. That I respect too. It was never my intent to say "oh, we don't need you so go piss off", it was to say, "hey we have different needs, here they are, can we work together?"
Evolutionary Jass Band had 3 gigs booked at a new venue in Portland Oregon. I was excited to reach out to new territories but also nervous cause we pretty much had our venues down, they understood us and our needs and the fights were already over. Give a sound guy a different set of needs and it's confusing to their regular way of doing things. I've seen the strangest reactions from sound folks. One venue the guy threw a direct box on the floor and yelled "I guess you guys just don't need me" after we said we didn't need the direct box. The best reaction was telling the monitor guys to take the next 45 minutes off and we'll mix ourselves (Jackie O, All tomorrows Parites UCLA 2002). They smiled and said thank you!
So back to our gig at this new venue. I did a research mission to the venue 2 weeks prior to hear a jazz group. It was a big band, a Wednesday night with about 20 people in the audience and the room is a big, bright sounding brick room with nothing damping the sound. They had everything miked including the trumpets and the PA blasting away like a typical rock club. The good ol' cold war. The Berlin Wall 'O Sound! Separation of observer and observed by 10,000 kw of power through massive JBLs. People were holding their ears, for a jazz band.....
I don't make music to hurt people. I make music to help ease this life. I play loud but not that loud.
So we got our email requesting us to specify our microphone needs and telling us to be at the venue by 5pm for a 10:30 pm show so we could sound check.
Fuck that. We drove back from Seattle that day. We figure 8pm was plenty of time. Dis-respectful? Hindsight being 20/20, we owe that club an amends for being so late and they had a right to be pissed. On the other hand our request was simple. 2 overhead mics and a vocal mic and we'll play on the floor. They replied that's not the way it's done.
Ego gets involved. We are the artist. We request an open mind.
We get to the venue and the good ol' cold war heats up again. My man starts putting mics on everything. I let him know this is not acceptable. He lets me know our request are not acceptable and to trust him. I let him know 'listen, our concern is that it'll be too loud. I just saw this big band here 2 weeks ago and my ears were bleeding and you were doing sound that night as well, all due respect, I just don't want that!' Things get tense, voices get raised and somehow we come to a compromise. Yes, I'm a control freak sometimes, but I'm tired of being controlled by people who only seem to be concerned with the importance of their job. Ego vs. ego.
The show went well, the next show went better and by the third show 6 weeks later the sound man approached me and said "I get it. Your band really doesn't need much at all. Thank you."
I didn't feel like I won or anything, I was just glad that someone in this world could open up like that. I get it. It's hard to be vulnerable. It's hard to be honest and open to new ideas, especially when things have been done one way for so many years. And people want to feel useful. That I respect too. It was never my intent to say "oh, we don't need you so go piss off", it was to say, "hey we have different needs, here they are, can we work together?"
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