Tour Talk

In the late nineties, the blues rock band I was in got a private party gig outdoors at a golf course. We were told there'd be a stage, but there was really just a grassy little hill. We set up anyway. Well, the party started out well enough, but as the night wore on, it started to rain in a very fine mist that was not bad enough to chase any of the drunks-- er, fans away. But it was wet enough to start wrecking havoc with the equipment. As a trombone player, it wasn't an issue for me. But for our lead singer/guitarist, every time he'd lean towards the mic, he'd get a little static jolt that got worse each time. Eventually, he'd had enough.

Yeah, we left earlier than scheduled despite mild objections. They kindly still paid us the full amount, so I really can't complain.

Moral to the story: water and electronics don't mix. THE END.

Yep. You shoulda checked the weather first and you also should've packed up as soon as you felt a lil rain.. or continue indoors.. somewhere.

Man I would hate to think of subjecting all my gear to any rain at all.

Here in Arkansas, the favorite saying is, "If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes." As I run sound for a lot of local festivals here, I take that to heart and keep plenty of tarps and elastic bungee straps in my van at all times. It has saved my equipment on quite a few occasions. First thing I do when it starts sprinkling is turn all the monitors face down as they are aiming more face up than the other speakers (actually that's the second thing, covering the mixer and power amps happens immediately). Since the monitors aren't as expensive as the mains, they are fine lying face down while I tarp the mains (quickly) and then get back to the monitors last. I can happily say that I've never had equipment damaged because of rain. Now, spilt beer is another thing.

We played a gig in Carefree Arizona in the desert in January. Power from Honda portable generator. It got down to 30 degrees, freezing soon as the sun went down! I had an all-metal Travis Bean bass, so played the gig with gloves on. They put a propane heater in front of the lead singer and guitarist. Piano player cussed a lot. The audience had a campfire and hot food, coffee, so they were happy. We were just damn cold.

When I was a kid starting out playing bass (about 13 or 14, when this story happened) we jammed across the road at my drummers house. We'd jam pretty well every evening. Well...it's an older house, and the sump pump went, flooding the basement. It got to the point where there was almost 2 feet of water in the basement.

Being kids, and VERY stupid, we just got a bunch of wooden skids from the apple orchard across the road. Then, we made little wooden piers in the basement for our gear, and ran all the wires through the spars in the floor joists above us. We had a walk-way built from more skids, and a couch for our buddies to sit while we played. We also made a skid and some styrofoam insulation into a raft, to get from the middle of the staircase to the jam room. We all got shocks a plenty, so it was nice when 3 weeks later the basement was back to normal.

Looking back on it, I'm suprised none of us were truly electrified!!!

I'm much older and smarter now...

Cheers!

May not of been smart, but I'll bet it was fun!

Moral to the story: water and electronics don't mix.
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