Audio Engineering

I feel like I’ve been taking a few too many political jabs on here, need a nice benign post about something nerdy. I announced a few posts ago that I had left the production company I had been working for and that I wasn’t traveling anymore. So what am I going to do now?

Well, for one I’ve been sucking up to friends’ bands to let me engineer for them. So far I’ve succeeded in doing one show for my friends Berry @ The Whistler here in town. It was a great experience and I think I could get used to the role of freelance engineer for multiple bands.

The idea of showing up to a club, having the grunt work done, and getting to just do sound for a band I love is tempting, so I’m trying to keep that going. Plus it gives me experience in situations I won’t get myself into touring with a production company where I always know the gear, have days of pre-production time, and have money to throw at problems rather than ingenuity.

I guess this post has no real purpose but to reaffirm my dedication to doing as many club gigs as is possible. Of course I need to take into account the fact that MY BAND will be playing more when David returns from China and that I do have a day job to hold onto. If you, gentle readers, know of acts looking for someone to make them sound pretty to the crowd or to sound pretty on stage (FOH or monitor engineer), send them my way!

Oh, and one other thing. . . .subscribe to my blog via RSS if you’d like. You can have it sent to whatever reader program you use. Just an idea.

Credit goes to Adam Klavohn for refreshing my memory on this one. You all remember the video game for Sega Genesis where Beavis and Butt-head’s collective mission was to assemble a GWAR ticket that had been broken into pieces and scattered?

Well, I must have done something right because just two days ago the forces of the world assembled a GWAR ticket for me. . .onstage no less!

I’m sitting at our warehouse on Tuesday and my boss says, “Oh yeah, we need to put together a monitor system for a show tomorrow at the Canopy Club.” To which I reply, “Which show?” Expecting to hear, “Umphree’s McGee”, “moe.” or some other hippie dippie bullshit, I was surprised and thrilled when the single word signifying our long dormant rock masters dripped out of my boss’ mouth: “GWAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I dropped everything, knowing that if things weren’t just right for these masters that I might be putting my, nay, everyone’s life at risk. After laboring for AT LEAST 6 hours. . .things were in place, all was calm. . .and then. . .

All kidding aside, these guys were really cool. They were kind enough to tarp off all of our speakers and gear and were totally nice. The pictures are relatively weak because their ENTIRE SHOW consisted of strobe lights and thick fog/spraying blood. I had a ton of fun and it was a really great time being a part of a large INDOOR show instead of getting all of our stuff dirty and “beer-y”.

I really felt like I had reached the pinnacle of my audio engineering career. That is, until I found out I’d be doing ANOTHER fraternity party which I am currently sitting at. Oh well, oh well. I take solace in the fact that I pleased the interstellar masters of rock, and maybe they’ll even come to this party and spray down the entire crowd with human slave blood and alien ejaculate. That and my bros over here just ordered me some pepperoni pizza.

Peace out sound bros.

For instance I’ve been sitting outside at a beer-soaked frat party for about 10 hours. The first act consisted of 4 members of the fraternity, a bass player with no bass amp and several other atrocities. This was annoying. The headlining band is a pretty solid jam band from Denver, CO. Those of you who know me personally know that this wouldn’t be the first thing on my latest mix tape. However, through the bro-fights, bro-hugs, bro-jams, bag tournaments and beer showers I still manage to be cordial AND enjoy my work.