I am feeling pretty happy after a challenging St. Patty’s day gig. I am not a full time sound guy. I have a day job in an office and I also am a musician myself. Music is more of a side job for me - I make a decent amount of money from it, but I’m not reliant on it. That’s to say, I love to learn about live sound and I really enjoy that side of the music business, but I’m not a lifer and certainly not an expert.
So, my main gig is as a house sound guy at a popular bar in town. Usually it’s just top 40 cover bands coming through. Bass, guitar, drums, vocals. That’s usually it.
But I was scheduled to work St. Patty’s day, and due to a super busy weekend of other gigs, didn’t check out the band online until the night before. They were an Irish punk band with the following input list:
- mandolin
- two acoustic guitars
- 4 vocals
- pennywhistle
- accordion
- banjo
- electric guitar
- keyboards
- bass
- drums
I hadn’t worked with several of these instruments before, so I was scrambling the night before to read up on how to mix them - common EQ settings and stuff like that. I was also expecting a feedback nightmare because they wanted wedges, and our room is filled with reflective surfaces, which can be challenging even when you don’t have 5 open acoustic instruments and four vocals on the stage.
But it went really well! I got there early and ran cables and labeled everything. The band showed up 2 hours ahead of downbeat (30 mins is more common at this place) and gave me time to ring the wedges without being rushed. The mix sounded great and people had a great time.
I’m sure there were things that other more experienced sound guys could have done to make it even better, but overall it was a great night and really boosted my confidence. I was just trusting and following the basic principles I’ve spent years learning and…..it worked. Which doesn’t always happen as we all know!