Gig Report - Sept. 13th

Stone Vista Media:

Arienette

The Tangerines

Blackhounds

The Dockets

Nathan Scott

Solid gig, reasonable turnout.  Good music from the bands.  Blackhounds is a very ambitious project - lots of cool gear up on the stage.  Experienced the loudest snare drum EVER, which sounded almost exactly like a gunshot.  (For a split second, I thought someone actually had discharged a firearm behind me.)  I didn't have quite enough PA at times, but everybody seemed pretty jazzed about the show's outcome anyway (which is all that actually matters).

Gig Report - Sept. 6th

Krump Academy:

Krump Dance Battle Off Finals (canceled)

Saint City

Young Mindz

Ill Fede

This was, essentially, another "bail out" show performed by the Hip Hop groups.  Crowd was very light, as there was no time for promotion.  All three groups performed well, though.  I think I need to rethink my mix strategy for Hip Hop, as I tend to push the vocals a little too hard (and thus obliterate the track in the background.)

Gig Report - Sept. 5th

Krump Academy:

Krump Dance Battle Preliminary Round

Saint City

The run up to this gig was pretty impressive.  Krump dancers were e-mailing the promoter with their commitments, and the City Weekly did a very nice write up in advance.  The outcome, though, was ironic (and tragic.)

A grand total of one (1) Krump dancer showed up, but two important industry folks (one from utahfm.org, and one from Catalyst magazine) DID show up.  So, here was a chance to really make an impression on the local media - and nobody was there!  Luckily, there was something salvageable about the night, as Saint City and members of Young Mindz performed a "bail out" set to the industry folks, and the few audience members that did actually come down.  At the very least, Saint City got some personal attention - but what an opportunity missed for Krump!

Venue/ Show Runner Database

The "open source movement" has a big place in my heart, and so I'm trying to "open source" the venue as much as possible. In the spirit of that idea, I'm making our database available to the public so that someone can, maybe, get some use out of it.

Here are the caveats:

-It requires OpenOffice. You can get OO here: http://www.openoffice.org/

-I can't really support the thing. I'll certainly try to answer questions as they may arise - but remember how much you paid for the database. :)

-There's some "fake data" already entered so you can get a feel for how things are meant to work by default.

-I very much encourage you to customize the database to your own needs. Right now, the database is built very closely around what I want - but I think it could be modified and extended in various ways without too much grief.

-I certainly don't mind getting credit for the original design if you like it and find it useful. If you dislike it, DON'T TELL ANYBODY I MADE IT. :D

-I wouldn't really characterize the design of the database as user friendly. I wouldn't really characterize it as user unfriendly. I would probably call it "user selectively-antisocial."

-Try (as much as possible) to use the forms instead of the tables - and remember to populate data about bands, promoters, and crew members BEFORE you go into the "Add And Manage Shows" form.

Here's the download link: http://rapidshare.com/files/142440046/Venue_Runner.odb.html  

Best of luck!

Gig Report - Aug 30th

Stone Vista Media:

Arienette
Nate Eye
Birds Without
Emily Maher

A cool night overall, although less well attended than Stone Vista's first date. There were some slightly frenzied changeovers, and I felt like I was constantly riding the "front edge" of system instability. I also think I need to go back to my original method of mixing kick drums, where I actually have some kick in the mid-highs. My "kick drum is all sub" method just eats all my LF headroom, and doesn't seem to actually get me anything cooler than a "more bandwidth" method might. Still, the night was pretty fun for all involved (at least, as far as I can tell). I also reinforced the sound of a bed comforter for the first time ever. Another first! :)

Aug. 30th - Stone Vista Media: Acoustic Night

The folks involved with Stone Vista Media do good stuff, you know.

Gig Report - Aug. 22nd

Self promoted:

Saint City
Young Mindz
Ill Fede

The thing about hip-hop shows is that they seem to bring a crowd that's truly animated. The folks there to see the show are seriously into what's going on, and you can actually have "call and response" between the stage and the house. Great stuff by all the performers. The beats were well produced, and the MC's knew their material backwards and forwards. It got a little bit chaotic with 6 microphones being passed around between different people, but everything stayed reasonably within control - after I figured out who had what mic, of course! I was also impressed by how well the groups treated their fans after the show, by the way.

Gig Report - Aug 1st

Self promoted:

Geppetto

Strange that Geppetto couldn't find anyone to open for them. Surprising because there are a lot of rock bands in the area that want opportunities to play. (I think. I guess. I mean, that's the impression I get.) Nice long soundcheck. I think my mic placement on the guitar cabs was a little less than perfect. Still sounded okay most of the time, but I think I'll try something different on the next go around. Reasonable crowd for only having one band, and highly enthused at that.

Gig Report - July 26th

Stone Vista Media:

Katie Ainge
Kenny Ainge
The Tangerines
The Dockets

Festival style show - no "real" soundchecks except for linecheck and Katie. Discovered that KBM412's are the wrong choice for live sound reinforcement (or, at least mine is. Low frequency feedback gremlins all over the place.) Everything ended up sounding pretty decent, though. (I might have left a bit too much midrange in the piano.) Solid turnout, crowd seemed enthused.

Gear, Part II

Okay!

I went through with swapping out the monitor rig. It's a lot more consistent now, and we have a proper drum fill. (Or, at least, something that resembles a proper drum fill.) Also, everything (at the "rig" level) is now at least being run in a biamped configuration - except the drum fill, which is triamped.

I'm updating the slide show, and I'll post the pictures here as well.

Regards!