Another night as a house soundguy... Sigh.

[Roboburger]

I dunno how to make the lins appear, but if you click on the 'More from Roboburger' link on the page, you can see links to all four parts of the gig.

When they were four minutes into their silence, the bartender walked over to the soundboard, where I was standing, hands at the controls, and smiling. He thought that was hilarious, that I was standing at the ready waiting for them to make a sound.

y'see, a douchenozzle like that WANTS confrontation for the two things it gets him- If he gets a rise outta me, then he can stand in judgemnet and say "HA, the fat old guy doesn't get it." and if I do anything negative, he has SOMEONE ELSE to blame. "Oh, the Fat Old guy ruined my show because he's old and jaded!" Never give a douchenozzle someone to blame other than himself.

When the set was over, I smilied and helped them load off the gear. That pissed him off the most. See Part IV for "the Coda of Sadness" I can't wait for it to get back to him that his show is on YouTube.

[iC]

So roboburger,
i'm curious about your house manager's position in all this? i assume you're the stage manager, as well as FOH, thus you're reaction as well (video commentary withstanding)? I mean, i've mixed my fair share of avant performance, but this appears to be more of a highjacking of the stage by the "lead" "singer".
Is it me or does the bass player looked pissed and confused about the situation?

[chris harris]

y'see, a douchenozzle like that WANTS confrontation for the two things it gets him- If he gets a rise outta me, then he can stand in judgemnet and say "HA, the fat old guy doesn't get it." and if I do anything negative, he has SOMEONE ELSE to blame. "Oh, the Fat Old guy ruined my show because he's old and jaded!" Never give a douchenozzle someone to blame other than himself.

I don't know.... if it was a band with legitimate buzz, or a touring band, and they brought in enough heads that the door money would pay me for the night and the promoter wasn't going in the hole to cover expenses, I'd have just gone to the bar during their set. But, if this is some local opener or some unknown band with their 7 guest listed friends standing there thinking about how much cooler this will sound when they tell the story later, I'd have put up the house music about 45 seconds into the opening silence.

If my getting upset and giving them the boot was something that they were hoping for or something that will somehow "validate" their "art", that's fine. I'm not gonna get riled up. And, they probably wouldn't be playing many more shows in town. Everybody wins!

[segaface]

I'm just in to part IV, and I'll say this- I've not witnessed a more horrifying spectacle. Cripes.

Andy

[CraigM]

After watching Parts 1 and 2 it is clearly evident that they were puposefully just wasting time. Someone must have done a good job of pissing them off or telling them to hurry up and play or something. I wasn't there so I can only go on speculation. Also if I thought something was so horrible I wouldn't waste a bunch of time narrating a youtube video about it.

[kdarr]

"i might as well jutht... lie down an'... THLEEP."

I can't help but wonder how much NyQuil this douchebag ingested before taking the stage.

Just got to Part IV... oh man... he starts "rocking out". Pathetic.

[<|>]

[Nick Sevilla]

It's no 'Complete', but Sister Circuit is the next hot shit from Atlanta.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBLrpPicEXU

I finally see the light.

And it sucks...

Wow...

Just wow... I cannot wait for some "label" to come in a bleed them dry of their "creativity"...

[Scodiddly]

I want that 28 minutes of my life back!!!

Wow. I have met that personality type before, though not quite to that extreme. The really sad part was that the bass player stuck around. Any decent bass player would have left, taken the other guy (on the right, who made the weird noises) with him, and gone to some other bar to see a real band.

[treble king]

"You have 3 more minutes"

I LOLed.

[Roboburger]

So roboburger,
i'm curious about your house manager's position in all this? i assume you're the stage manager, as well as FOH, thus you're reaction as well (video commentary withstanding)? I mean, i've mixed my fair share of avant performance, but this appears to be more of a highjacking of the stage by the "lead" "singer".
Is it me or does the bass player looked pissed and confused about the situation?

After the Frontman threw his tantrum, spent the rest of the night sulking, and even at one point as the headliner was playing and people were enjoying the set, Brandon moved to the middle of the crowd area, stood fast and sneered at people having a good time. He then flicked a lit cigarette at the frontman of the headliner in the middle of the song. I don't take to that behavior too nicely.

I walked up to him, he ignored me. I put my hand gently on his shoulder in a non-threatening manner, looked him in the eye and stated. "Flicking Cigarettes is Bullshit- I wouldn't let anyone do it to you during your set, either. Cut it out or you're outta here." To which he just sneered at me. Then went out baqck to sulk some more.

I approached the other two fellas in the band. I have witnesses to this. I politely asked if there was anything that I or the club did to warrant his venom, and they both humbly apologized for him, stated that the club had been very nice, and that he pulls that crap all the time. They thanked me for the loadout help again, and for the fact that I had found the drum machine wall wart on the stage post-tantrum and calmly brought it outside to him to hand it to him.

[Roboburger]

I don't know.... if it was a band with legitimate buzz, or a touring band, and they brought in enough heads that the door money would pay me for the night and the promoter wasn't going in the hole to cover expenses, I'd have just gone to the bar during their set. But, if this is some local opener or some unknown band with their 7 guest listed friends standing there thinking about how much cooler this will sound when they tell the story later, I'd have put up the house music about 45 seconds into the opening silence.

If my getting upset and giving them the boot was something that they were hoping for or something that will somehow "validate" their "art", that's fine. I'm not gonna get riled up. And, they probably wouldn't be playing many more shows in town. Everybody wins!

My opinion, and it's only mine, is that when it's their showtime, it's their showtime. They can do whatever they want up there, as long as it's not unsafe or damaging. If your front man wants to SHIT on my stage, I'm cool with it, as long as I can lay down a layer of dropcloth or whatever, and it isn't flung around (that's consistent- dealing with someone's feces is unsafe). If you wanna do 40 minutes of sneering silence, that's cool by me, I won't judge you. I don't care if you're a local band or a headliner. I will stand at the board and mix whatever you got, try to help you get your sound out there, and then help get the next band on.

I've done noise rock in this town for years- Some amazing, some worthless garbage (IMHO). What made this performance bad is that the guy wouldn't stand by his work when it was done- A real noise rocker would've been proud to do his set for nobody (probably wear it as a badge of honor), instead of getting mad at me for asking his band to play on schedule, instead of blaming me for their poor performance attendance. instead of saying "I didn't realize that that was our set! This is not fair." which he said to me.

I try to take the perspective that I am not the ultimate arbitrator of what is 'good' or 'valid', and just do the job I was hired to do, and that I agreed to do- Help a band set up and get comfortable, augment any sound they make to fill the room as tastefully as I can, get them off the stage, and stay close to schedule. That's exactly what I did here. Most bands really appreciate my work, some think I'm a dork. Whatev.

[Roboburger]

Also if I thought something was so horrible I wouldn't waste a bunch of time narrating a youtube video about it.

I will say this in all honesty- I have a weird sense of humor, bordering on shitty. I didn't think the episode was Horrible, I thought it was funny. perhaps that's cruel... I dunno. Maybe in a few days I'll feel like a jerk for pissing on the kid. Probably not.

I definetly would not have made the video if he wasn't such a pretentious tool.

[iC]

I like your FOH attitude. Well done.
I too have mixed many avant performances in venues ranging from The knitNY and The Kitchen to small non-existant back rooms and empty warehouses. I DO know that all venue management i've dealt with would be blacklisting this guy.
I worry for anyone who becomes their tour manager.... To have to cover the artist's ass in these moments (the argument that adolescent tantrums is not what the band was booked for) can be so demeaning.

[Gentleman Jim]

CraigM wrote:

After watching Parts 1 and 2 it is clearly evident that they were puposefully just wasting time. Someone must have done a good job of pissing them off or telling them to hurry up and play or something. I wasn't there so I can only go on speculation. Also if I thought something was so horrible I wouldn't waste a bunch of time narrating a youtube video about it. Rolling Eyes

As someone who has been involved with live, club-level music for 22+ years, I have to respectfully disagree. This very minute somewhere there is a band who is stalling, trying not to go on stage to an audience they wish was bigger. They didn't try hard enough to get friends or fans there, and now they're thinking that if they can just go on 20 minutes from now the place is going to be noticeably fuller. This of course means that the whole show would run 20 minutes later; the end result may be that the band scheduled to play last will be rushed on or off stage because someone down the bill felt entitled to a bigger audience. That's some selfish BS.

I've played in bands, I've worked as a stage manager for a 1000 capacity club, I've done stage managing on tour, and in my old age I do sound Saturday nights at a local club (asburylanes.com) for fun and a little bit of extra cash. Tonight I'll be mixing 4 bands starting at 9:30; the club wants bands finished at 1:30. That doesn't leave a whole lot of room to not rush anybody all night. Usually what happens is the bands that have their acts together have a great time and we're all New Best Friends. The band that showed up 15 minutes before their stage time, didn't bring a bass amp, needed to restring their guitars before they played, and then complained loudly about how crappy the monitor mix was between each song while not giving any indication of what could be done to make it better (an actual band from a couple of months ago - I wish I remembered their name) doesn't like me or the club so much. And the feeling is mutual.

Lastly, in this day and age, if a band doesn't have an audience it's the band's own fault. I'm sorry, but with email, myspace, eventful, facebook, mass text messaging, ubiquitous cell phones, photoshop, high quality home computer printers, and the fact that cover charges to see bands haven't kept pace with inflation: if you play in a band and can't draw 30 people, you're either a friendless jerk, or in a terrible band. Probably both.

I stand with Roboburger.

[kdarr]

My opinion, and it's only mine, is that when it's their showtime, it's their showtime. They can do whatever they want up there, as long as it's not unsafe or damaging. If your front man wants to SHIT on my stage, I'm cool with it, as long as I can lay down a layer of dropcloth or whatever, and it isn't flung around (that's consistent- dealing with someone's feces is unsafe). If you wanna do 40 minutes of sneering silence, that's cool by me, I won't judge you. I don't care if you're a local band or a headliner. I will stand at the board and mix whatever you got, try to help you get your sound out there, and then help get the next band on.

You are a champ and a gentleman, Roboburg. Your attitude towards handling other peoples 'art' is absolute nobility.

I would have wanted to shut these guys down the moment I realized they were wasting everyone's time.

Of course, in the club I work at the bartender or the club owner would have asked me to anyway, haha.

[<|>]