Busy Week Ends

First week of classes, two band rehearsals and two gigs. Busy week. I set up on stage at Spittoono in about 45 minutes. That's got to be the fastest kit setup yet. I only used one floor tom and didn't bother with the splash cymbals or the cowbell. The sound guy helped with the drum mics. He actually had them all set up and plugged in before I had finished arranging everything.

I'd never heard of Spittoono before playing at this self-proclaimed outdoor "redneck festival". Spittoono XVII was in fact "successfully redneck". They come up with a new adverbial slogan every year. The signs on stage sum up what this is about: a non-profit event benefitting various charities. Why "no coolers"? With the whole thing being free, that's where they make their money for charity: from food, beer, and t-shirt sales. The pic at right shows us setting up on stage. The drums were on an elevated platform. I don't really think it's as much for show as it is for the practical reason of letting the drummer see the other band members on stage. So that we can get our endings right. Even though we practiced the songs beforehand, the songs can get a bit transformed during their live performance. A head nod from the singer is usually what signals the last verse. And I need to see that to finish off the song with some kind of bass crash cymbal combination at the right time.

So here we are doing our thang. Looks like this might be "Castle on the Cumberland", our lead off number for this gig. A Hoodoo Hounds original in fact. It starts off with just an acoustic guitar. I come in on the second verse with just the kick drum. Then I do a half-measure fill to start off the third verse which is the harp solo. The woman in the pic is who we were backing, subbing in for her band, Tanglewood. And that's who's on the playbill. We may get invited back next year as ourselves, but I guess it depends on what the organizers thought of our sound. On stage we sounded quite good if I do say so myself. The monitors, which I guess can be hard to set up right, sounded great. The difficulty lies in setting the right levels. The band needs to hear each other to cue changes from, but if the monitors are too loud they feed back into the mics. The resulting feedback is most annoying. So to get this right you need a sound check. Being the first large band on stage this drew out to about half an hour. I'm not kidding, a grueling half hour of "check one, check two" and so on. They had me banging on the drums to the point of annoying just about everyone in the band — they were looking back at me with this questioning expression: "what ARE you doing?" To get the drum mic levels right, you have to monotonously hit the drums, each one in turn, until the sound guy gets it right. There were two sound boards in play, both guys talking to each other over walkie-talkies. And the result? After all that, the sound was disappointing to say the least. Every time I'd kick the bass drum you'd get this buzz. Not on stage but in the audience where it matters more. I don't know how the sound guys managed this after the extensive sound check, but they overdrove the bass drum output. They still hadn't gotten it right for the band coming right after us judging by the major feedback whistles I heard. Maybe they got the kinks out later I don't know, but being a school night we left fairly early. The next day I heard that local residents complained to the cops that the whole thing was just too loud.

Complaints about the Spittoono PA system aside, I think we played a decent set. Good selection of songs and I think performed fairly well. No major screwups. Maybe we'll do it again next year, we'll see. Meanwhile, the very next night (last night) we played 356 again. The sound setup last night was the reverse of what it was at Spittoono: I think we sounded good out in the audience but I had a tough time hearing the vocals in my monitor. This is rather annoying because for better or worse I tend to cue off the vocals. As a drummer I really should be counting but I have to confess to playing more by feel than by measure. On "Sho'nuff" I do try to count, but I can still get lost and/or the band changes things up midstream, so hearing what the band is doing is important. And when the monitor craps out, it makes playing more difficult. Still, I think we managed to play pretty well through the first two sets. The third set was "tired". Just not the same vibe as the first two. We had some sound problems to begin with, so there was a good 10 minutes of standing around doing sound checks. Sound checks that late into the night are I think a momentum killer. I think it put the audience and band off. I think it may be fair to say we struggled through the third set. Maybe two gigs in a row is a bit much for us.

Now I think it's time to take a break. Today is relax day for me. I still have to unload the gear, then it's a day for doing stuff around the house. Someone was taking pictures at 356 last night. If I can get one or two, I'll post 'em.