Members Dogoth Posted January 25, 2015 Members Share Posted January 25, 2015 Most weeks now I spend as the audio guy for a fairly high end country saloon/dance hall (with mediocre musical bookings). Thursday I loaded in a 4 piece that I'd worked with once before. Sound check (before the doors opened) went fine. Showtime comes and the electric guitarist is performing poorly (bad tone, dynamics and many many wrong notes). Set two and he's WORSE! (a good friend was with me in the booth and we were laughing our butts off with remarks like "Oops wrong key again" or "Hey the song ended a bar back" :-). Suddenly he takes a dive and lands on his rear. Watching closer it's obvious he's REALLY loaded. Next song he falls back taking out his second guitar & stand with him and disappears behind the curtain We call security (don't want anyone to get hurt). The rest of the band is aghast and turns the room over to the DJ. That's the end of it for the night. Next day, I see their gear is still on stage so I set out house microphones & IEMs and go about other duties. An hour later I get a call that the replacement band is on their way and they will be there within an hour (the place is already open - yikes!). Kicked butt, changes out bands, gave my best guess as to a sound check and started only 5 minutes late. Woah what a CF (can I say that here?). After a couple of songs I get a reasonable mix and have it pretty much dialed within 1/2 hour. Turns out they were a better band than the one they replaced :-). Not sticking up for the drunk guitarist but, I'd have just docked their pay and allowed them to finish the weekend (as long as they all stayed stone sober :-). Emails flew about this incident but not a word about how the audio guy did a crack job of a difficult situation. Good thing I know that system & room inside out. Wonder what they'll do when I'm gone. (Our new management is the worst :-). Had fun regardless. The replacement band was quite good. The drunk guitarist was a sight to see (we should have gotten video :-). This probably belongs in the "great stage crashes" thread but it just happened and I thought I'd share. Cheers JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members trevcda Posted January 25, 2015 Members Share Posted January 25, 2015 Such is the life of the unsung hero that is a sound tech. If it had all gone in the crapper they sure as hell would be looking at you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted January 25, 2015 Members Share Posted January 25, 2015 I know the feeling, get crapped on when things don't go well, and when you pull a show out of your rear end no kudos. Life is too short for this kind of crap IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pro Sound Guy Posted January 25, 2015 Members Share Posted January 25, 2015 Remember the drunker you are the better they sound Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted January 26, 2015 CMS Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 We hear it all the time: "I play better when I've had a few drinks". But it NEVER ends at "a few". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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