I played only my AM church gig yesterday (I took the PM gig off).
This gig was not good. The tunes were a weird mix mash of oom-pah songs with a generic latin tune in the middle. I don't think they hung together well. Things we did in rehearsal (introductions and endings) did not make it upstairs to the service. Plus, the charts weren't very good--one was in the wrong key (untransposed) and another needed editing (some rhythmic things that didn't fit).
Worst of all, though, was our sub sound guy, who had all kinds of trouble. He couldn't unmute some of the stage microphones, and he got yelled at my the senior minister because he couldn't turn on the lights. The biggest problem was that he couldn't make the headphone amplifier work, so the electronic drums and electric bass were inaudible for everybody on stage (including the drummer and bassist). They were also muted in the horn monitor. Unfortunately, they were coming through the main PA, so had to play in time with the piano, but ignore the slap of the drums in the house. Not fun. It was a wreck. The latin tune, in particular, was an unnecessary challenge.
I heard that the husband of one of the vocalists was so angry with the sound that he went down to the tech guys after the service and flipped them the bird. Wow!
Obviously, nobody was happy. I bet there'll be hell to pay this week in the staff meeting. Maybe it will finally be enough to get things running more professionally.
davidbfreemanmusic.net
