💾 Archived View for midnight.pub › posts › 1911 captured on 2024-06-20 at 11:53:58. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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I ran sound for a stage at a local festival (most of which was in a mall), yesterday, and the first two acts were just so heartwarming to hear and watch. Add to that crowd response, as well as how glorious it was to see a mall teeming with people despite most of the store spaces being closed/empty. I even said to the crowd at one point, "You know, if we'd all just keep coming here and *pretending* it was vibrant, merchants would likely return."
But then a later act had a bass player that insisted he needed to be louder than he should be, leading to my having to turn up others to keep the overall sound balanced, and that led to my wife constantly telling me that other event organizers were getting frustrated with me for that act being too loud... and I since I've never done "sound" before (I just happen to have equipment, and wanted to donate my time and the little I do know to a "cause"), just staying on top who/what was on what channel, then changing acts in and out, wires getting messed up over time, etc... that was about all the stress I could handle. I was honestly ready to march to those organizers - one in particular - and scream, "IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, THEN *YOU* FUCKING FIX IT! I'M NOT THE ONE THAT HIRED A BAND WITH A BASS PLAYER AND SMALL DRUM KIT PLAYER IN IT FOR A SPACE FOR WHICH ONLY MAYBE THREE PEOPLE PLAYING DELICATELY/TASTEFULLY WAS APPROPRIATE!"
Anyway, I got over that, but due to the stress I wasn't as friendly with people in that band as I'd liked to have been, and my allegiances is much more to musicians than to goddamned "organizers", making the regret even worse. So I hope to bump into them again and "make good", because they were wonderful people, even if too boisterous for that stage in that event.
Then a high school buddy and I - my wife joining in here and there - got busy performing the stuff from our day that we like, and that went *extremely* well - people our age applauding vigorously, people dancing, people in states of amazement that anyone still played what we did (e.g. a fair amount of "Moody Blues"). A girl from our kids' generation asked to sing some "Fleetwood Mac", my buddy and I trading off pulling off stuff on the spot mostly correctly. Her parents were damned appreciative, getting lots of great footage of her.
Apart from that "organizers" stress, the day was the mathematical inverse of how things are online. I get online too much, and I swear the world's going to end tomorrow, if not sooner... and I"d be ecstatic about that. But what I witnessed "in person" yesterday reminded what utter bullshit online spaces are by comparison. Waaaay more than a little is missing online regardless where you go, and seeing people as selfish morons is therein like falling off a log....
weird, I formed a somewhat online/offline parody since leaving social media (took a couple years after having left, probably) to where I volunteer at clubhouse, online after - or - don't volunteer at all, stay home, online sparingly - or - at home, just not online. I came around to the concept/term AFK, which I didn't think I'd ever relate to much.
Nevertheless, the sound issue sounds shitty, which my best bud B probably could have helped with, as he has done pro sound checks/stagehand "gigging" for 20+ years, and goes between Kansas City, St Louis (where he's at) and Chicago a couple times a month, and he would have had it rigged up "listenable" in no time. Though he's there, doing that, you're there, doing that, so...ya know.
later