Last Night's Gig: outdoors. In December.

[bitflipper]

I had some reservations going into this one, partly because we'd be opening for another act and there'd be the stress of quickly tearing down, but also because it was outdoors. In December. Like, seriously?

But we took the gig anyway, based on the venue's assurance that the stage was heated and that they've been doing this for awhile. And somehow managing to get patrons to pay to sit in the cold and listen to music.

I did not change into my usual stage clothes, preferring to keep my sweatshirt on. But it actually worked out OK. The stage and seating area were indeed heated with large radiant fixtures. It was a little cool, but not to the point where fingers stiffen and voices shake from shivering.  After a couple tunes I forgot we were outdoors.

The biggest issue was with their PA. We do not use amps on stage other than monitor wedges (and my plan is to go completely silent in 2025, once I convince the others that in-ears are better than wedges) and run everything into the board and the mains. In order to pull that off, I have invested a not-insignificant amount of $$ into our PA. With everyone going through the PA 100%, I can confidently mix the band from the stage. Plus, adjusting the overall volume of the whole band is as easy as turning up or down the radio in my car.

Most places we play where there is a house PA, their hardware is over-spec'd and they can easily accommodate us. Not last night. Theirs was a hodgepodge of garage sale reject speakers with a few higher-end pieces. When I met the sound guy and told him about our setup, he was, um, a little displeased. He said they'd just had two monitors repaired after being blown out from running bass through them, that the mains wouldn't do much better, and who the hell told you this would be OK? 

I told him to roll off the low frequencies on the monitors, since that range would be augmented by the mains. He gave me a look that said "wtf do you know about any of this? Can't you see *I'm* the one with the iPad?". So I just let him be. In the end, the audience did not get what I'd call a high-fidelity experience, but at least we got some compression out of the overloaded system that made up for the lack of any intentional compression. Plenty of compliments from the crowd afterward, which I chalked up to lowered expectations.

I took some comfort from the headliners - friends of ours - sounding just as bad albeit twice as loud, and the audience didn't seem to notice. Seems I was the only one there who was disappointed. A post-gig cheeseburger cheered me right up.

[Bapu]

[craigb]

Brrrr!!!

[Gswitz]

Sounds like it was worth doing.  Glad it wasn't too cold.