Gig Report: Feb 21st

The Sweater Friends

Marci Thorne

Colby Stead

Another "chillaxed hang out" show.  Solid turnout.  Had some weird moments when I got a mic too close to Marci's guitar.  You wouldn't believe the nasty sound that guitar strings against a mic can make - especially with lots of gain applied to the mic!  After fixing that problem, everything else ran well.

Gig Report: Feb 20th

Larusso

By Tonight

Tate Law

A Cassandra Utterance

Blackhounds

Big night - 160 folks.  I wish Larusso could release a CD every month! :)  Loud night, overall.  Felt like I got the monitors right for ACU, but I don't think I got enough meat into their FOH mix.  Was glad to have Blackhounds in the room again, but I fear that my mix didn't really do the songs justice.  (A compromise here, a compromise there, and then some cool little moment doesn't really come out the way it should.)  Hit the console's internal limiter VERY hard throughout the evening.

Despite the issues that popped up, the evening seemed to go down well with the crowd and the performers - and that's the ultimate measure of a night.

Gig Report: Feb 19th

Peter Harvey

Sarah Songer

Joe

A very relaxed night.  Sort of a "family hang out" affair, when it all came down to it.  Felt pretty good about the mixes.

Gig Report: Feb 17th

Salt The Wound
Psyopus
Burning The Masses
Alas The Dreamer

"Bailout" show, because another venue canceled.  Pretty much a "no issue" show.  I've been surprised lately at how metal bands have started solid self-regulation in the area of stage volume.  There's lots of energy in the low-midrange and low frequency ranges, to be sure, but the critical "get the vocals out there" midrange areas seem to be less "trafficed" by heavier bands at this time.  Almost all of my highest SPL ratings are coming from indie rock and power pop music, at the moment.

Gig Report: Feb 14th

The Resistant

Dethrone The Sovereign

The Average

Sons Of Perdition

Arm The Children

Solidly attended show.  Mixes happened with minimal fuss.  When you win, you win. :)

Gig Report: Feb 13th

Mason Jones & the GT's

Centrevol

Milquebus

Arienette

A decently attended show that lifted my spirits.  Had a bit of a struggle with Centrevol's monitors at first, but their set appeared to come off well in the end.  Pretty smooth the rest of the night, although I felt like I was chasing Arienette's keyboards around more than usual.  (Sometimes this happens when I'm being extra picky about a mix, and start to fret over a small detail - which is a good thing, because it means that the mix is going well enough for me to be worried about the little bits.)

Gig Report: Feb 11th

Centrevol

Ben Johnson

Milquebus

The Precinct

Show ultimately canceled, due to Centrevol being out of commission (Pete strained a vocal cord).  Yikes!

Gig Report: Feb 10th

Centrevol

Burnt Orange

Cubworld

Milquebus

Very light audience for this night.  Centrevol had the drums up front, seemed to work just fine.  Had some up and down moments with the mix during the night, felt like there were times when I just couldn't get the mix to settle down, and was chasing things around in a circle.

Gig Report: Feb 7th

Mike Boothe's Show N Prove Emcee Battle

YZE

The Bad Apples

Pretty decently attended show.  The DJ, Kool Kel made my life incredibly easy by handling all the playback from the stage.  This was another night with wireless being carried by the performers, and I felt like the mics just couldn't handle the SPL created by some of the emcees.  Still, I think everybody went home happy.

Gig Report: Feb 6th

Fearsome Poet Group 

Birds Without

Jason Perucca

To The Death

Okay show, not much audience, couldn't really get the mix to settle down for Fearsome.  Ironic, because I usually feel like I can't get a handle on Birds, but this time around seemed to be relatively easy.

It's not good to blame one's tools, but I think the acoustic properties of Underground can really bite you, with only a tiny bit of provocation.  Especially when the room is fairly empty, the "low midrange garble" leads me to build mixes where the drums are swamped in an ocean of guitar roar, and the vocals are pushed as hard as I can push them.  My theory is that the intelligibility killing low mid buildup (and the fact that the room reverb smears every transient into elongated mush) makes for situations where you can hear that something is present in the mix, but not actually hear what it's really doing, musically.  The only way to get separation is big differences in apparent level - and that makes for LOUD.  (It also means that something inevitably gets sacrificed on the altar of something else...)

Gig Report: Feb 3rd

The Test Dream

Rumiaz

Cody Rigby

Avenue

Milque Bus

I'm wanting to call the attendance for this show "light," but it was a bit better than light, actually. Sort of light-esque.  20 people actually isn't too bad.  No real audio problems as I recall, and had a chance meeting with a fellow Conservatory graduate.  Pretty okay. :)

Gig Report: Jan 31st

The Tedronai Project

Garrett

The Skaficionados

Decently attended show, pretty much went without a hitch.  Had the bass for Tedronai a bit lower than normal, as per Ky's request.  I think it went over well, both on stage and in the house.

Gig Report: Jan 30th

She Rides and Guests

Well attended show, could actually hear the vocals most of the time(!)  Blake did a great job getting the show set up and managed.  Was surprised at how mellow the show was, in terms of the overall dynamic.  Everybody there seemed to be friends with everybody else there - which is a pretty cool way for a show to happen, actually.

Gig Report: Jan 27th

Arms Like Yours

Oh Sweet Ransom

As Grace Falls

The Tedronai Project

Very low attendance, but no real audio problems (go figure).  Had a little snafu where the lighting rig being carried by ALY got plugged into the PA system's circuit...it suddenly got rather darker and quieter than what had been hoped for.  After a couple minutes of fumbling for another circuit, the show went on.