I thought it might be nice to start a thread on the topic of real-world performance: stagemanship. Many people on this forum are, or were, gigging professionals, weekend warriors, occasional giggers, you name it. So there's a world of experience that we, as a group, can draw on. And if we shared a bit of that experience here, we might be helping The Youth--and the young at heart who ARE going to play in bands--find their way through the blues world.
I'll start if off not with a specific story, but with a general point: part of the profession of being a gigging harp player is learning how to set up, soundcheck (or line check), and break down your equipment in a way that adapts to wildly different stages and--crucially--wildly different amounts of time in which to complete those actions.
So, for example, I've played club gigs that ran from 10 PM to 2 AM, where we arrived at 4:30 PM and had to be finished with our soundcheck by 6 PM so that the music room could be used for dinner service between 6 and 9. (The opening act ran from 9 to 9:45.) This particular gig was in Philly. Sterling Magee and I lived in NYC. So we'd load in at his place at 2 PM--it was a two hour drive--and we wouldn't return to his place until 5 AM. (Gig was over at 2 AM, but money had to be collected and stuff packed up; we'd leave Philly at 3 AM.) The length of the call is incidental to my main point: we had 90 minutes to load in and soundcheck. That's a good solid bit of time and puts no pressure on a harp player.
On the other hand: most festivals involve you doing NO onstage setup until the act before you has played their final note. Then you give them about 90 seconds to catch their breath; the soundman's assistant pulls mics away from their backline (amps), and they start to haul their shit off the stage. One professional judgment call is: When can I begin hauling my own amps onstage in the midst of all this madness? There's usually 15 minutes for the changeover, but sometimes there's less than that. 10-15 minutes is typical. 30 minutes in exceptional circumstances.
Usually, though, it's a mad rush, and you need to do three or four things at once, or in extremely rapid sequence.
In addition to setting up my own equipment--two amps, delay pedal, mic, cables from pedal to amps, plus the delay pedal charger--I need to figure out where I'm going to set my harps. I now carry a tray that screws onto my vocal mic stand. I also ALWAYS make a point of adjusting the mic placement vis a vis my two harp amps. Sound guys respond differently to this. Some guys don't care; they've got enough to take care of. Some guys, especially in clubs, are prickly: I'm stepping over the line into their part of the stage-business. The problem is, most sound guys have no idea how the mic location vis a vis the amp changes the sound. They tend to put their mics dead center on top of the cone, which can be a little too crunchy. I like to go slightly off center. Bad sound guys don't even check to see where the speaker cones ARE. On more than one occasion, sound guys have miked parts of my amp grillcloth that don't have a speaker cone anywhere nearby. So it's crucial to check this.
Finally, when your festival set is over, you've got to hit the ground running the moment you've played that last note. You need to break things down as rapidly as possible. I start with my mic, harps, cables, and delay pedal. Next, if the sound guy hasn't already done so, I pull the mics away from the harp amps, unplug both amps, put the cables quickly but carefully in the back of the amps, and carry the amps either to the side of the stage or straight off the stage. I don't put on amp covers until a couple of minutes later; that's one thing that doesn't need to be done in the first rush after the set.
Be wary of soundmen tripping around the stage behind you if your mic cable is plugged into something (such as an amp) back there. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, back in the mid 90s, a soundguy tripped over my mic cable and actually ripped out out of my mic, just before the set. It pays to be paranoid.
I once did a pick up gig with this guitarist/vocalist from RI who was sort of a cross between a BB King and Jimmy Reed influenced player and had done a few pick up gigs with him and he usually had some OK players, but one night, he had this drummer who didn't have a high hat cymbol setup with him, which is REALLY unusual for any drummer, especially a blues drummer.
I asked him why he didn't have one and his answer was, "I prefer to get the tone out of my other cymbols." That was one answer that made me scratch my head, but I thought to myself, "OK, let's just do it and see what happens."
This guy was a classic drummer from hell because regardless of whether he carried a high hat or not, right off the bat, his time was, to be polite about it, God freaking awful!!! I couldn't help but think to myself, "Somebody get this fool a metronome or get another drummer."
The gig was 4 sets long from 9 PM to 2 AM and trust me, this was freaking TORTURE!!! Thank goodness I didn't have to drive home and got a ride from the bass player who lived nearby me because within minutes of getting paid and into his station wagon, I was out like a light, feeling both mentally and physically exhausted and if I had to drive, the 2 hour drive from the gig would've felt like 2 days.
I've done a few gigs in Newport, RI where a few clubs had some really tough load ins where you had o take your stuff up a flight of circular stairs and those are pretty brutal load ins, and they're even worse at the end of the night.
One night, I played a club in Avon, CT, where the area has people with an income level higher in one week than most people make in a year, and the crowds don't seem to react to anything one way or the other (classic bluebloods where showing emotion of any kind is beneath them) and to make it worse, they had a sound guy who forgot to close up the curtain behind the bandstand, which would absorb some of the volume, plus he had to interrupt us seemingly every other tune to make adjustments and what pissed me off even more was that this fool had gotten there an hour and a half later than he was supposed to for doing a sound check, and we were forced to wait for this fool before the club owner would allow anything to get started, and the sound system was so basic, why the heck did anyone need a sound guy (when the sound system is as basic as a Peavey PA head that any fool can run, why have a sound guy). The guy was one who could be classified as "someone well qualified to screw up a free meal."
Even tho this gig was on a Wednesday night and paid better than most gigs paid on a weekend night, I never bothered to rebook it because it was just far more hassle than what it was worth. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Summary: The PA is not an instrument and the sound man is not a musician in the band. Great topic and I'll detail a story later (after I purge the Brown Eyed Girl ones).
Last Edited by on Oct 19, 2010 11:59 AM
.....If there is raucus dancing and/or fighting right in front of your mikestand, put one foot on the base and that same knee on the pole part in case some jerk crashes into your mike, driving it into your face. ----------
a round base mic stand is what i swear by every time. never had one knocked into my face. but it is amazing how someone reacts when a solid base is slammed into his shins. i had a guy harassing me and the band many years ago. we'd booked a friday night at a dyed in the wool goat roper country bar nearly a la blues brothers. management wanted to change his clientele by adding a blues night. this one character- drunk, big hat, $200 "cowboy" shirt, dinner plate belt buckle, kept yelling for different country artists even though we'd told him on a break between sets that we played blues. during the second set i was at the mic singing and this guy jumped onto the stage and made a grab for the mic i was on. then he suddenly fell down with very sore shins! rolled off the stage and laid there yelling at me. i never missed a beat, the band kept playing, and 2 of his buddies basically dragged him back to their table. a while later the bouncers escorted them out. i was nervous the rest of the night, figured these clowns would be waiting with baseball bats out in the parking lot- or worse. we never did book back there even though the majority of the crowd was really great.
as far as the logistics of setup/teardown, we've done shows with other bands, benefits, competitions, etc, and in the duo it's not so bad. i handle all the setup of 2 amps, chairs, mics, harp, even plug Jo's guitar in and hand it to her. simpler that way! if we're doing a gig where we bring the p.a. it's about 20 minutes from pull up and park to sound check.
i try to be a team player with a bigger band, tote stuff in, set speakers etc etc. and afterwards i help load out. i don't care much for the stereotype of the harp man as a lazy so and so who walks in 5 minutes early, blows some harp, and gets paid and gone right after. a band is a team effort. i'm a team player.
we once played a joint near dallas texas. the rhythm guitarist brought the p.a. but forgot the head! so he blasted for home- 40 minutes away- to get it, meanwhile we made do with my bullet mic and princeton amp for vocals. that was a gig where we had the stage until 11 sharp. we had to clear off so a trash disco dj could taker over the dance floor and the clientele could get their moves on. all night the manager would walk by and just stare daggers at us. end of the night he tried to pay us half; the leader of the band toughed it out and we got paid. BUT when we went to load our cars, 3 of the 4 cars each had a flat- cut by a knife. hmmmmm. wonder if we can book there again???
i had co-founded a band and we ended up hiring a very hot young gal to sing with us. her husband was a jealous type. she and i did some pretty sexy songs where we traded verses and the crowds loved it! not so her husband, who tried to run me over one night in the parking lot. missed me by a couple of feet. the thing was, to me it was all business on stage. i was not a threat to him. crazy.
we had 3 nights at a marina/restaurant/bar one weekend. friday set up in the restaurant, play quiet. saturday lug everything upstairs to the bar. play loud. sunday lug everything onto the deck. play in direct sun from 4 to 8. 102 degrees when we started. did i mention the nearly 1/4 mile trek the long way around from the shore, around the front, to load in the back of the place? and no, we couldn't store our gear any place there so we loaded up every night. we were on the calendar for a return date but the place burned down to the water line a few weeks before our next gig there.
Here's a war story for you. Early 1990s. Two year gig at one club, every weekend, in our small town. Bass, piano, guitar, drum machine, and me on harp. Enthusiastic dancers every night, the kind of gig I love. A dancing audience beats a listening audience every time. But, I digress.
Here's what happened one Saturday night:
The dance floor was packed. We played on a small stage, two feet above the dancers, barely room for us and the equipment.
I was taking a solo. As I usually did when I got a solo, I stood on the lip of the stage, head back, eyes closed; getting into it. Suddenly something grabbed that valuable portion of my anatomy above my knees and below my belly button. An unplanned note flew out of my harp. I opened my eyes and found a woman's hand where it shouldn't be. She continued dancing with and looking at her dance partner; quite the trick.
I slapped her hand away and continued my solo. She noticed neither the grab nor the release, or, if she did, wasn't letting on. Did I mention this club served alcohol?
The guitarist and bass player couldn't stop laughing. The piano player did his best to get through the song; he had to, he was the singer. It was towards the end of the set; we ended quickly, took our break and joked about what happened, as musicians do when everything is going well.
Later on, I thought about the inescapable differences between males and females in matters like this. The whole incident was a lark to me. But turn the actors around (female harp player, overenthusiastic male fan) and that fan would quickly be carted off to jail, facing a charge of sexual assault. I understand that. But I hadn't the slightest intention of charging this drunk fan. Truth be told, I was proud I had inspired her to show her appreciation of my music in such a dramatic fasion. I only wish my wife were as understanding.
I was playing a wine bar gig with an acoustic trio in south Florida. Half way through a solo, something caught my eye. Walking in the door was a black guy, about 280 pounds, wearing a dress and blond wig and smoking a big cigar. Turns out is was Clarence Clemons, sax player for Bruce Springsteen. We found out later that he'd lost a golf bet and had to go out drinking in drag as a result. He was pretty cool, down to earth.
Whenever someone wants to crash the stage and sing with us we tell them that our Public Liability insurance will be void - usually keeps the more sober away.
Of course we have a 'very special clause' in the insurance to allow for pretty girls and talented singers!
A friend of mine was playing a gig at Chet's Last Call in Boston, it was a snowy night and Chet's is on the second floor with a nasty load-out down the back stairs. Well at the end of the night everyone was feeling pretty loose having enjoyed a smorgasbodrd of substances both legal and illegal for which Chet's was infamous back in those days. So one of the guys hanging out drinking with the band offers help with the equipment by braving the snow and getting the band station wagon. Nobody knew the guy but it sounded like a good idea at the time. So they threw him the keys. He never came back, and they never saw the station wagon again.
ok, wine bar/cafe, upscale place in midcities d/fw. we'd played a few little gigs there, pay nice, members got wine if they wanted, even some nice snacks from time to time. we were hired to play for a church single's mixer at one point. we go in, set up, start on time, there's a crowd there, nobody is paying the slightest attention to the band the entire first set. we were playing fairly quiet so as not to disturb any conversations. took a break. about halfway into the second set a few gals get up on the dance floor and shake it, just a little. by set's end there's a crowd dancing, men and women both, and having an apparently good time. took a break at set's end. third and last set, the place went pretty wild- guys trying to swing and break dance, gals tossing bras around, shoes flying off, just general mayhem! my guess is, the wine finally kicked in. we tried toi end the last set and a gal grabbed a big bowl and took it around, filled it up with tips, and dumped it on the stage in front of us. so what else could we do? we kept playing! the tips added a real nice bonus to an already decent night's pay. when the night was finally over i had a few phone numbers in my pocket to boot. never underestimate the power of wine in a room full of fairly conservative churchgoers.
At one time I was carrying around two 4X10 amps, one for harp and one for guitar, a pa system, guitars, harps and all the assorted cables and such. I learned early on to carry an extra EVERYTHING. Had a gig in a restaurant one time that we almost didn't get to play due to lack of AC outlets. I only had one powerstrip with me. NOBODY else had even one. Now I carry an extra one of those too... ---------- myspace
I played in an old time stringband for about 2 years and we had a weekly gig at a local joint. At one point we had a group of young street kids come in, the bar owner got nervous and started talking about not letting them stay but she relaxed so they bought pitchers of beer with loose change and sat right up front. this bar didn't have a stage just an area at the front by the window. the kids started dancing like nuts and going crazy. We thought it was great....until they started sweating and the smell hit us. Man it was harsh, but they were having such a blast it was worth it. Afterwards we chatted to them and asked how they heard about us etc...then packed up and headed home.
Turns out they showed up faithfully from that night on for 2 months and we got to know a few of them well, good kids actually, then they stopped coming. Then out of the blue a couple months later two of them show up and say we inspired them to start a band so they went to a place here in Toronto called 'Sketch' that is a drop in center for street kids that has art supplies and musical instruments and recording stuff for them to use and that's what they had been up to . They wanted us to open for them at their upcoming CD release. So of course we said yes, we were kind a touched by it all.
It was in the basement of this real dive and the place was jam packed with mohawk punkers and goths and all sorts. We set up and from the first twang they loved it and went crazy. It was a real shift from the older mellow crowd we were used to and it was a real blast for us to see a room teens go nuts while we played. We played our hearts out and loved the craziness of an old time band opening for a punk rock group. Then the main act played and were pretty darn good too.
Anyway, ya never know who will walk through the door and how you might move them or how they might impact you. That was years ago but I sure remember them and never judge too quickly.
