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Okay, so you've got it up on a chair and aimed at the back of your head so you can hear what you're doing, but what about the rest of the band? Can they hear you? The simplest guess is that somewhere along the line you are being forced to turn up/play harder to compete, and that's where your tone is going. Strictly speaking this can be more of an inter-personal problem than a technical sound problem.
A possible trick is to use a second speaker cab or wedge connected to your amp but facing them. A small bin of higher impedance to fill the 'other' side, your dead zone on stage. The higher Z will draw less power and give less level, but you are only after fill. I run a twin-50 on stage for keys in stereo so I place my other cab in the guitar (&c) backline on the other side to provide foldback for the folks on that side who otherwise can only hear the keys coming back from the far end of the room.
Where is the backscatter coming out of the rear of your amp going? Into a pile of coats or bouncing off the floor and back wall going forward (is it spaced out and laid back enough)?
These days the bands I work with are tending to the 'broken circle'. They practice in a circle so everyone can hear and are trying to perform in a similar way, breaking the circle for the audience, a C, U, or (. As a soundie I try to get them to get their sound right on-stage first, then use the PA to bring it out to the audience.
gk> and don't get me started on (gig) room acoustics.....
It's not often you get the chance to rip the ceiling out of a venue
, but otherwise, if there is a room resonance you don't like, avoid driving it, aim low into the crowd and away from the 'headspace' over the audience. Play on the floor or platform direct into the dancers rather than elevated on a stage, from a corner or skewed rather than in line with the building/space/room.Take it from me, turning up to 'ride over room accoustics' will only give everybody bleeding ears. The harder you drive unwanted reverberation the worse it sounds because it's only throwing your power back at you. (very Zen). 100dB SPL is enough to create dancing excitement; more is a waste. A very common mistake is forgetting to pull back a bit if the room thins out at the end of the night. As the sound absorbers leave the SPL actually rises even before band excitement is a factor.
gk> most of the great engineers used the room as an instrument.
And performing musos have to do the same. And it's a lot easier with the services of a FoH soundie you can trust.
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