Show Reviewed
by Phil on May.04, 2009, under Blog
A few months ago, I was listening to the radio in the mid-afternoon. The DJ announced a show that had just been booked for Columbus, and the 9th caller would win a pair of tickets. If you’re like me, you want to win, even if you don’t know the band or care that much. Of course, I was the 9th caller. That show was Saturday, and uh, it was incredible!
If you follow my Twitter, you may have saw that I hated the opening band. They had no melody to their songs. There was just nothing that sounded like they were trying to speak to me or get my attention. It was more about ‘look at the wierd sounds I can make with this pedal” and “see how crazy of a guy I am?” I almost left then.
Then, the headliner came out on stage. They immediately claimed the stage, not by some antics, or pyro, or cute little saying, but by picking up a guitar, counting off the first song, and just delivering MUSIC.
The mix was great. The Newport in Columbus, OH is loud, reverberant, hollow sounding, and it’s not easy to make bands sound good in there. I get frustrated when Ihear a lot of excuses from church guys. “This room is so live, you won’t need to mic anything.” I also hear, “We’ve worked on the audio system, but this room is just really bad sounding.” Good audio engineers know how to work with the bad sounding rooms, the live spaces, the lack of top-of-the-line gear.
I honestly think that church audio engineers should go see a rock show once a month. Church bands should go every other week. What can you learn? What do you hear? What makes a good band and why are so many bands sub par?
All that being said, I think church pastors, staff, administration should go ONCE A WEEK. You should see what your church is competing against. But, I guess that’s for a different blog.
May 5th, 2009 on 3:35 pm
i might have a little trouble getting expenses for a concert a week for my band and for the whole sound and production crew once a month approved in my budget request.
but i agree that seeing/hearing it done well helps us raise the level of our game-play.
good post.
May 5th, 2009 on 3:37 pm
btw, your logo looks real nice.
May 26th, 2009 on 11:18 pm
I love the idea of tech and band going to concerts. It helps to get out of your environment and see different ways of doing things. Great idea.