Gig from Hell - PA company disaster

philipnz · Post by **philipnz** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:27 am

So my band gets asked to back Todd Sutton, brother of our chick singer Kim and popular kids song entertainer at the Boo at the Zoo. The idea we do half a dozen kiddy songs and a dozen or so of our setlist with Todd up front. Nice and easy, good pay, great opportunity to take our kids yadda yadda.

We had a couple of practices and i put a lot of effort and hours into learning the new songs, one of which i got to sing (captain feathersword anyone?)

Well we set up at 4, they wanted us to use their mic's but then they got short so i used my own shure wireless. soundchecked with a song and it sounded great

The PA company said they'd post a guy side of stage to deal with any monitor issues but he wasn't there when we started playing

Came back on stage at 6:30 pm, the band launched into the first song and HOLY FUCK. My monitor had the keys coming out at deafening volume. I mean so loud the whole band got blown backwards a metre. I couldn't touch a key without my face getting peeled. We spent the first 2 songs tying to get the sound guys attention to turn it down meantime i poked at the keys like i was touching a hot element on the stove

Then their mics started going down. Our next bracket of songs looked like a juggling act as the three of us tossed mics back and forth to each other trying to find one or two that went. Mine was fine. Their ones kept dying. They'd scurry up and take some - we'd hear them click into life and get them back only to have the die a few sceonds later as we tried to sing.

it was a total disaster.

in frustration todd turned to me and said "play "just a girl" with you on BV's while i go and sort it out with them". I threw on my guitar but the rest of the band didn't hear him and launched into "build me up buttercup" which has this awesome piano intro that i missed totally. what a cockup as i scrambled to get back into the song

then after 3 songs the heavens opened and it started raining so the PA got shut down, the rain never stopped, the people fled and the night was thankfully over

I have no idea who the PA company was but it was the worst experience of my life. You'd think they'd have shown up with fucking batteries!!!

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:40 am

I bet they got paid more than the talent, too!!

Vorbis · Post by **Vorbis** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:41 am

Nice.

philipnz · Post by **philipnz** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:50 am

Rog wrote:

I bet they got paid more than the talent, too!!

yeah, we've played many gigs where the PA company gets $3000, the lighting company $2500 and the band gets $1000

sambrowne · Post by **sambrowne** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:53 am

Does anybody know why the people that work at PA companies are always such chumps? The same guys who did all the AV stuff in school (and were a total PITA to work with then) now work in senior positions at some of NZ's biggest PA hire companies, and all without exception were complete dickheads. What is the connection? It's a mystery.

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 11:58 am

I've had very little to do with sound people with my bands, but I found one at an outdoors gig at Ohakea a few years back who were bloody excellent. Most if not all of the rest have been worse than useless. I do mean worse than useless, because most musos like to get 'their tone', whatever it my be and sound guys just love to change the tone to mud. At least I assume they're doing it deliberately, no-one could be THAT stupid, surely?

Lawrence · Post by **Lawrence** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 7:28 am

Phil I hope it wasnt the company I used to work for (who should remain unnamed)

In defence of the sound industry...there are some good people out there, and they would tell similar horror stories about most bands..you know...late for sound check, disorganised, half their gear doesnt work, drum kit sounds like cardboard boxes...in ear monitoring....all without a single written stage plan, monitor scheme, song list, ..oh and can you make my voice sound fatter (

)

The problem on both sides of the fence is lack of education. (yeah I know Im biased)

sgt mukuzi · Post by **sgt mukuzi** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:33 am

sambrowne wrote:Does anybody know why the people that work at PA companies are always such chumps? The same guys who did all the AV stuff in school (and were a total PITA to work with then) now work in senior positions at some of NZ's biggest PA hire companies, and all without exception were complete dickheads. What is the connection? It's a mystery.

because the management are often greedy wankers who put money into a/v after they heard how much cash can be made, the management often have no idea how any of the stuff operates and insist in hireing 22 year olds to do everything!
I have gone for jobs here in Auckland with heaps of experience, heck even live to TV shit and a few companies wonâ€™t even interview me because I make it clear i`m not going to work for any BS hourly rate etc.
Iâ€™m not shy when it comes to telling these guys what I think so perhaps that has helped me avoid a few of the companies your talking about.
Everyoneâ€™s a flipping expert when it comes to A/V here in Auckland in an industry run by sales men. Even guys who are in charge of major theatres here in Auckland donâ€™t know and donâ€™t listen, believe me I have tried to do my bit with these guys but their interested in there position within the company even if they wouldnâ€™t know how to do a stage wash or what the 100htz roll off is for. Its true dude the lack of real knowledge here in Auckland is a shame. Plus the stage managers are so overworked they are nasty to there staff and rely on kick backs from the towing companies to pay there BMW`s off

sgt mukuzi · Post by **sgt mukuzi** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:39 am

Lawrence wrote:Phil I hope it wasnt the company I used to work for (who should remain unnamed)

In defence of the sound industry...there are some good people out there, and they would tell similar horror stories about most bands..you know...late for sound check, disorganised, half their gear doesnt work, drum kit sounds like cardboard boxes...in ear monitoring....all without a single written stage plan, monitor scheme, song list, ..oh and can you make my voice sound fatter ( )

The problem on both sides of the fence is lack of education. (yeah I know Im biased)

Come on man, how can you have faith in the Auckland industry, I have met my share of tools who worship model numbers and company brand names and the latest digital desk but wouldnâ€™t know how to do a full mix on a 12 channel analogue desk or how to plug one in. in Christchurch I was blow away by the A/v techs there, they know there shizzle, perhaps something to do with education. A guy I know who has recently finished one of the music courses here doesnâ€™t know what a minor flat five chord isâ€¦ I am shocked!

philipnz · Post by **philipnz** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 10:55 am

I don't know who the sound company was and even if i did i wouldn't say as it may have been an isolated incident.

i like to think as a band we are pretty professional - we don't drink, we turn up on time, we have good gear we know our way around a stage and what we need.

in this case there were three major cockups
1) somebody did some major knob twiddling after soundcheck
2) the promised side stage monitor liason wasn't there which left us waving our arms and pointing across a crowd ( i HATE that)
3) they had a bunch of dodgy mic's/batteries and i mean a lot of them. at one point the manager turned up backstage with 2 new mics and said "try these but i don't think they'll work" (they didn't)

sgt mukuzi · Post by **sgt mukuzi** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:04 am

come on out em!

are we talking about the goose troop that hung a video wall that fell over 45 mins later.

or the guys who dont know what out put on the back of a P.C the audio comes from.

i dont believe this is about education as most in this industry arnt educated at all in the industry they work in, its about the way these guys are managed. flat mic batterys is really a no brainer
these guys should be shot

sgt mukuzi · Post by **sgt mukuzi** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:53 pm