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Tent Roof Collapsed, Torrential Downpour, Gallons of water on our FOH sound gear.


sventvkg

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Interesting wedding we did not play on Saturday. It was at the Bridge building in Nashville where they have events every weekend at least. I guess per standard there's a tent set up on a rooftop area and in fact you go right through the doors and you're still "inside" because the tent is connected. Just feels like another room where of course they have the band set up..Us. They have AC units piped in under, over in areas. Well we get some nasty torrential downpour weather and Flash flood warning sirens are going off. It's starting to leak in areas so we secure the electrical strips and use our backdrops to try to stay some of the water dripping under the tent threatening to drench our subs and gear. We hadn't yet started and all of sudden I'm talking to my drummer in front of his drums and stage left is where the FOH is set up,,,Kinda right to the right of me but behind, right next to the keyboards really..Anyway, It's raining so bad we can't even see across the river looking at the Batman building in Nashville..We're next to LP field right on the river, almost underneath the walking bridge...Anyway, all of a sudden my drummer goes "Oh My God, Oh My God", Really loud and I look over to the soundman just in time to see the roof of the tent go out and about 50 gallons of water come down and just take him out, the X32, Laptop for lights, racks etc etc!!! We ran over there and I pulled my pedalboard out to the center of the room..we all unplugged the board really fast and placed it upside down, started pulling wires, keyboards away from the area, got the power all unplugged etc...It was a nightmare..Needless to say lots of our gear got completely ruined. Lights fried, Brand new x32, laptop, racks of wireless transmitters airport extreme etc etc...To the venue's credit they are a reputable establishment and have insurance. They got on it right away and will be paying for all the equipment but still..In the meantime we have to rent gear for this weekend...Thankfully none of my stuff got messed up beyond repair. My personal gear was a little wet but I dried it off and it's fine..My backpack with my cloths, personal stuff etc was sitting in front of the sound area and was completely soaked as was all my stuff in it but it's dried out. My Pedaltrain bag and gig bag for the bass got pretty wet. my bass on the stand somehow escaped the wrath...

 

Anyway, just thought you'd all get a kick of it:)

 

 

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Wonder if a GFI circuit might have saved anything in this case? Glad they had insurance and went to bat for you guys. I can't even imagine how I would deal with it. On the other hand, I was running sound outdoors last Saturday at the Governor's mansion and we did get some rain. Had a bunch of trash bags with me to protect my equipment in case it rained. (That was predicted.) After the rain left, I was able to get everything up and running quickly. Tony Exum Jr and band was excellent as always. (What a bunch of wonderful jazz musicians!) (Our rains tend to be short showers this time of year.)

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The insurance people came out to the soundman's place with all the gear today, inventoried it all etc. They are being very prompt and will be cutting us a check very soon. None of my personal gear was damaged thankfully and i'm glad we did business with a reputable company who takes care of things in a prompt courteous manner.

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We've had a very strange summer in which the occasional afternoon thundershower has been a daily event for nearly a month now. And was so strong a couple of Sundays back that flash flooding on the street where I live resulted in several homes being flooded out. A river of mud running down my street! Luckily, my home was spared.

 

But we're playing an outdoor wedding at the Lake this coming Saturday. Fortunately, the weather prediction is that this series of storms should not be taking place over the next several days. So hopefully it will be dry. But after reading this post, I'll double check the tent and insurance situation with the venue just in case!

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Jeeze, I cringed when I read that! You are really fortunate that the venue did what they did for you. Many would have made you struggle for a very long time to get even a greatly reduced coverage of your damaged gear. Our gear is covered by our own insurance and they tried insist that we get exact replacements (with gear that is no longer in production) and then promptly tried to cancel us, until they got an official looking letter from an attorney generals office. It's good to know people sometimes!

 

One thing I did was grab a spare gig bag and stuff it with Harbor Freight tarps, plastic sheeting and plastic bags along with some gaffers tape and keep it right next to the board at all times. It's cheap, light weight, doesn't take up much room and won't break, so there's no reason not to ever have at hand and preemptively cover gear. And by Murphy's Law, pretty much guarantees that I won't need it, simply because I have it. That way I am always ready for adverse weather conditions. Or to paint a room, should the need arise!

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I always have a couple of tarps with me, even for indoor gigs..sometimes I need to load-in when it's raining cats and dogs and not all the gear (speakers, organ, leslie) has covers.

 

But when I play an outdoor gig, I always have some of those heavy-duty draw-string garbarge or recycling bags with me. You can throw them over a speaker real fast and pull the string shut while it's still on the pole.

 

Of course, none of my protective measures would have helped in this situation. Sventvkg, glad the venue is treating you right. This could have been a real nightmare for you.

 

Wes

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I always have a couple of tarps with me, even for indoor gigs..sometimes I need to load-in when it's raining cats and dogs and not all the gear (speakers, organ, leslie) has covers.

 

But when I play an outdoor gig, I always have some of those heavy-duty draw-string garbarge or recycling bags with me. You can throw them over a speaker real fast and pull the string shut while it's still on the pole.

 

Of course, none of my protective measures would have helped in this situation. Sventvkg, glad the venue is treating you right. This could have been a real nightmare for you.

 

Wes

 

 

This is a good idea and when I start running my own band again, I'm going to do this. Thanks!

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