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Fun gig this weekend. Full rig


StratGuy22

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50th birthday of our bands old sound guy. It was a lot of fun. Our singer was pretty sick and his voice was really hurting, so our keyboard player and I helped out and sang a lot more than we usually do.

The manager of the bar is an old friend, so we got her up to sing a few. She sang:

Crazy Train
What's Up
Sweet Child O Mine
Bobby McGee
Zombie

Here's a video if Bobby McGee, a song I've never played. I was checking our other singer for the chords, and also checking on the lights, a little too often.






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Thanks!! We don't get to use the hazer much. We might chance it at our next community center gig. Even just to test it out.

I know at the one school it got out of hand, but what happened was this.

The alarms went off, which notified a contact at the school, and the fire dept. Then that person contacted the fire dept to let them know everything was ok, and that they were going to reset the alarm and air the place out. So it wasn't an automatic Fire Dept on the run as soon as the alarm went off. Kinda of an inbetween person who would make the confirmation one way or another.

We have to find out if the community center has a similar policy.

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I'm setting up my light rig in my basement for some more programming. I want to do more organizing. I was in a hurry and used the iPad setup where I have the scenes grouped into the following, sets of 25 scenes.

Verse
Chorus
Solo
Finish

I need to reorganize them in a new bank for my foot pedal. Basically pedals 1 - 10 would go like this.

1: verse
2: verse
3: chorus
4: chorus
5: solo
6: solo
7: solo
8: finish
9: big finish
10: blackout

So I just have to sit down and take the time to reorganize that bank. Then I won't be stumbling so much and going for the big scenes all the time.

A bit of reatraint will add to the flow, tension and resolution of the songs.

:)

Also I have all the lights on the band set to 100% amber/50% white. I want to get into a bit more colored front lighting on the band.

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StratGuy22 wrote:

Thanks!! We don't get to use the hazer much. We might chance it at our next community center gig. Even just to test it out.

 

I know at the one school it got out of hand, but what happened was this.

 

The alarms went off, which notified a contact at the school, and the fire dept. Then that person contacted the fire dept to let them know everything was ok, and that they were going to reset the alarm and air the place out. So it wasn't an automatic Fire Dept on the run as soon as the alarm went off. Kinda of an inbetween person who would make the confirmation one way or another.

 

We have to find out if the community center has a similar policy.

 

We use a hazer at almost every show. What I find helps is when you give the venue a week or so heads up that you intend on using haze at your event. Either the venue is familiar with haze and they have a policy to deal with it. This usually means making some sort of adjustment to the alarm system to accommodate. A few of the venues we frequent will disarm the alarm and assign a staff member to fire watch.

The other response we get from venues is that they are not familiar with haze and they are concerned about the alarm system. It is a legitimate concern. I usually will explain to them what haze is. Tell them it's not a thick smoke but a subtle atmospheric effect that you don't really notice until the lights fire up. It adds depth and dimension to the stage. I will also tell them that it is on nearly every major rider and every major production from concerts to musicals uses haze.

I will offer to work with them and offer to bring my hazer down to their venue at a time when it is empty. Tell them that we will notify the appropriate authorities that we are doing a test a stay in direct contact with the local authorities. Then haze the crap out of the room. If the alarms don't go off you're good to go. If they do go off, no harm done as everyone will know its a false alarm before it comes in. 

In ninety-five percent of the venues we ultimately get permission to use haze.

 

Neil

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That's a really good idea Neil. The problem is, the place is run by a bunch of ass clowns. But the head ass clown is having health problems and has stepped down, so your idea might actually work. The person in charge now seems to be a lot better.


I think I'll give it a try, because it would be awesome to use haze in the venue, we play there a lot.

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It's a touchy issue, thats for sure. The trick is to let them know that haze is something that is used at most major events, without making them feel out of touch. Many of the old guard think haze is the same as fog/smoke and that it's going to be so thick that you can't see the person beside you. 

Interestingly one of the bigger venues I work from time to time has a no haze policy after an issue with the alarms a couple of years back. Someone didn't follow policy and the alarm system wasn't disarmed before the show. Ten minutes into the show the alarms went off and even though management was immediately informed why. They could verify on the control panel that it was the stage sensor that triggered and visually see there was no thermal related smoke. They decided to evacuate the room any way.

After that event we had a no haze policy, until they brought in a big name national country act. The artists LD blew a gasket when he found out there was a no haze policy. They were supplimenting our lighting rig with 125k of automation and LED screens. As soon as they realized there was no haze the LD ordered all the supplimentary lighting to be loaded back on the truck. He gave me a copy of the contract and pointed out the section that stated they would be using haze. He also pointed out the section that stated any violation of the contract could result in the artist cancelling the performance. I was instructed to find the individual who sign the contract and bring them in for a meeting with the tour manager. the production manager and the LD. Lets just say the meeting wasn't pretty. It wasn't just the haze, there were several issues that management had dropped the ball on and the haze was the straw that broke the camels back.

After the show I was called in to give the management a rundown on how we could safely use haze in the venue without a repeat of the alarm issue. Funny thing is I had been telling them for months that there was a safe way to haze the room. Unfortunately it took some real fireworks to get their attention.

 

Neil

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I must be real lucky in the venues that we play. The haze issue hardly comes up. I only had a problem once at a Hard Rock Cafe in Pittsburgh. Between dealing with the venue and the band the whole evening was a nightmare.

I had a hazer but the jugheads in this band also brought an old school smoke machine. So you can only imagine what haapened when those fools were setting it off every 5 seconds. The fire chief alomost shut down the show.

I never thought about the use of haze in a contract. Im going to check with the band next week to see if we have that in there.

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I use my smoke machine (water based) in my house, in my basement for when I'm programming scenes.

In the video you can see me bumping in some haze. I forgot the fans I sometimes use to help contain it to the stage area. This was a bar so they often are set up for smoke it haze. That's a good idea, on how to talk to them about it. The moving heads add so much and it's just a shame to not be able to use it at the biggest local venue that we usually play at.

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