Ever have the sound guy...

[JeffTD]

Institutionalized hatred of musicians rearing its ugly face.

I don't get how the fuck it happens. Sound guys surely all started (or at least MOSTLY) started as musicians, right?

I don't get how anyone, especially a musician, who spends time with musicians by being in bands, going to shows, eventually maybe producing with/recording with musicians could still have a lot of love and respect for all of them. What retardedly cool part of the world do you live in where almost every musician is an awesome, respectable dude with his shit together and is automatically deserving of praise? Very few of the guys I've been in bands with/shared the stage with/produced for have been anything close to that description. The vast majority of them are unorganized, unprofessional, unrehearsed douchebags with poor hygiene, unrealistic expectations, serious issues with punctuality, and an uncontrollable god complex.

Shit, most PEOPLE are like that - why does it surprise you that most musicians are like that, too? Surely you started as a person?

As stated before, most shitty sound guys are failed musicians/producers - it stands to reason that my first paragraph reads like their CV would.

Cant we all just get along and equally hate everybody?



But seriously I'd be willing to bet there are far more shitty bands than soundmen.

 

[ForgotenWarrior6]

Cant we all just get along and equally hate everybody?

Im with you. haha

 

[ahjteam]

I'm available for hire if someone is complaining about the house guys

 

[GarethSE]

Yeah, most of them are like that, but occasionally you get that diamond in the rough who turns out to be a legend, and douchebag soundguys aren't gonna make it any easier for that diamond to shine.

 

[abigor731]

i remember on my very first gig ... that soundguy was such a douche, makes me angry everytime i think about it, that guy blamed us for the shitty sound, because of our "shitty" equipment (tama swingstar/sabian aax, rg370 into windsor/marshall 1960 - of course not top-notch, but c'mon it was in a fucking youth club shithole with like 50 people)

 

[PhilR]

I had to do it myself once. We were hosting a hardcore show at our studio and for the last band the meatheads in the crowd started getting out of control. Lets just say that bodies were flying, booze was being thrown everywhere and it took 3 people to defend the actual PA gear and the last straw was when a bunch of guys smashed into one of the speaker stacks and sent it flying, resulting in the mounting hardware being ruined, a few items that were behind the speakers being smashed and very nearly totalling the speaker itself. At that point I decided enough was enough and flipped the breaker on the mains supply. I don't mind moshpits and people having a good time but when a few idiots start disrespecting the venue to the point that expensive gear is being ruined thats where I draw the line.

Anyway, another story. At a local venue a 5 band metal show wasn't going so well. The "promoter" was the usual "I don't understand it, I posted this on Facebook and at least 30 people said they were coming, so why is nobody here?" type and about 3 people actually paid in on the door. When the headliners went on the venue landlord went to the sound desk and pulled the plug, saying that as nobody had bought any drinks in over half an hour it wasn't worth carrying on. What a douche. My friend who was doing the sound has since refused to set foot in the place and most smart promoters are avoiding it now as the owners are a pair of alcoholic fuckwits.

 

[GarethSE]

This is why I hate hardcore shows and hardcore kids. Behaviour like that seems to be REALLY COOL to them. Remember playing this show with a local band who I will not name and shame (COUGH CROCUS COUGH UTTER WANKERS COUGH) who's entire on stage act seems to revolve around running into each other as fast as they can and breaking shit.
They ended up breaking a PA speaker, a mic and the one (shitty) monitor the (shitty) venue had.

Fucking hardcore kids.

 

[PhilR]

This is why I hate hardcore shows and hardcore kids. Behaviour like that seems to be REALLY COOL to them. Remember playing this show with a local band who I will not name and shame (COUGH CROCUS COUGH UTTER WANKERS COUGH) who's entire on stage act seems to revolve around running into each other as fast as they can and breaking shit.
They ended up breaking a PA speaker, a mic and the one (shitty) monitor the (shitty) venue had.

Fucking hardcore kids.

In my case, it was the older ones (as in, well into their late 30's) that were the worst.

The ninja-kickers really get my fucking goat though. I remember how the singer from Martyr Defiled very narrowly escaped getting his head beat in for pulling that shit on a dancefloor once. He was giving his "it's just how I express myself" schpiel to a 6'5" moutain of a guy when the guys girlfriend pointed out that he had actually kicked her in the face and should probably fucking shut up.

 

[ratsapprentice]

That dude from Martyr defiled is a twat.
I saw them support Despised icon, he told the crown to put their middle fingers up in the air, I felt embarassed to be there.
And he holds the mic like he's about to have a load blown over his face.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

The only thing super bad that happened to me when in Liverpool across the pond. Sound guy was an hour late (stateing he was trying to get money for some other gig), setup everything in an hour (so count it,we are 2 hours late at this point because of sound company).

We start playing, no monitors.

Mokay, so I bend down to look and he didn't bother to plug them in. :facepalm:

That takes the cake for me personally as far as unprofessionalism goes. I've never had anyone else rub me wrong.

I marvel at the guys who scoff at getting told to turn down though, as someone who has been a spectator for the past 3 years usually if your being told to turn down, it's for good reason so turn your fucking shit down and shut the fuck up.

I also never mind the cut off when it comes to time, nobody wants to hear the local band play the same song 8 times over the course of 45 mins. Either shut the fuck up between songs or get the fuck off when it's time to be done. The average metal band FYI can only do 5-6 in a half hour because of all the bullshit in between songs. 7 if they crank right through them, but that' incredibly rare.

 

[bryan_kilco]

No shit? It was the headliner. It's their show! Maybe you need to check YOUR ego instead of telling us to check ours.

But that headliner should have been at the venue HOURS before doors even opened and had their gear staged and mic'd and soundchecked and ready to go before the first band even set foot on stage!!

I don't have any horror stories after about 10 years playing shows. Sure some PA systems suck and some soundguys arent great but I've never had a major issue yet.

 

[GarethSE]

Went to a local gig recently at a bar that is tailored towards a musician based crowd, free-jazz type night.

Went down to lend a cable to my mate and he told me about the owner asking for it to be turned down because.... he couldn't hear what the other person was saying on their mobile phone?
At a live music bar...?
That frequently does metal nights....?!?!

It certainly wasn't too loud. It was loud enough to feel vibrations through the entire room but it was crystal clear and beautiful, you could hear every nuance.

The mind boggles.

 

[bryan_kilco]

*can't stop thinking of Back to the Future when Marty's band gets on stage at school and the judges tell him to stop because they are too loud*

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

But that headliner should have been at the venue HOURS before doors even opened and had their gear staged and mic'd and soundchecked and ready to go before the first band even set foot on stage!!

...which is, naturally, the sound guy's fault

 

[AHChris]

Had a really big problem with a sound guy once... We played at a small open air festival and the stage was rather big so we asked about some kickdrum in the monitors. He fiddled with some knobs and nothing happened. We asked again, he cranked the knob some more, still nothing. After a few minutes of trying to get some bassdrum in the monitors we finally decided to start the gig, because we didn´t want to lose stage time. No bassdrum at all on stage, which would have been fine, but that dumbass sound guy obviously found the "mute" button for the bassdrum he had somehow engaged the whole time in the middle of our set and switched it off without adjusting any levels. Suddenly we had incredibly loud bassdrum hits on stage with almost killed my hearing and blew me behind my amp since the PA and the monitoring system were very good and generously dimensioned and had the power to rip your face off. Had ringing in my ears the whole next day...

 

[Russtopher]

I will say, there's a club that we used to play at (and hope to play at with our new band) that's had the same 2 brothers running sound for nearly 10 years. They're great guys, and yes they're part time musicians/studio owners Very laid back, and I don't think we ever had one issue with them as far as sound quality/communication is concerned.

We played there something like every other week for about 2 months straight, by the 3rd show they basically said "yeah just get everything up there, we know your layout and sound, we'll get you taken care of" and it was damn near perfect.

From what I've found, though, is that those types of guys are unfortunately too few and far between. I'll also say, that we've always made a point to introduce ourselves to the soundguys any time we played a new club, and thank them once our set was done. I can imagine that a lot of soundguys are jaded after too many experiences with bands who think that they don't need to help out or work with the crew in any way, shape, or form.

 

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

Only bad experience I had was when a soundguy knocked over a guitar of our leadguitar player and had it almost fall of stage if it weren't for the fast reflexes of our leadguitar player and not apologize for it.

 

[jangoux]

Well, I think the worst one was when my band played on a festival, we did the soundcheck, went home to take a bath, and when we came in, the amp settings were ALL changed. Like, volume at 1 , gain at 1, mids at 8..on a 5150

The other nice one was on my band's last gig...my wife was complaining about their stage monitors being too quiet (in fact they were QUIET) and when i turned to the sound guy, he was backwards to us, drinking a beer and flirting with a chick. I screamed my lungs out at him, which turned with a pissed off face at me, and later, he complained to the event promoter that I was 'rude'. Fuck him.

 

[arv_foh]

But that headliner should have been at the venue HOURS before doors even opened and had their gear staged and mic'd and soundchecked and ready to go before the first band even set foot on stage!!

...which is, naturally, the sound guy's fault

naturally. even if at said show the headliner might've showed up 15 minutes before doors (for whatever reason) and said "we'll just do a quick check before we play" in order to not fuck up the show for everyone else... wouldn't be the first time it's happened

The other nice one was on my band's last gig...my wife was complaining about their stage monitors being too quiet (in fact they were QUIET) and when i turned to the sound guy, he was backwards to us, drinking a beer and flirting with a chick. I screamed my lungs out at him, which turned with a pissed off face at me, and later, he complained to the event promoter that I was 'rude'. Fuck him.

If you screamed at me at a gig, I'd probably tell you to go fuck yourself too. We don't have this magic sixth sense that tells us how the monitor mix is on stage. Or one that reads your minds and tells us how you want the monitor mix. How do people not realize that being nice and not being a dickhead is the way to get things you want?

"hurr the soundman should have our attention 100% of the time, he doesn't have to piss, eat, or talk to other people during the show like a normal human being"

 

[drew_drummer]

I marvel at the guys who scoff at getting told to turn down though, as someone who has been a spectator for the past 3 years usually if your being told to turn down, it's for good reason so turn your fucking shit down and shut the fuck up.

That aimed at me?