In Regards To Live Sound Reinforcement Being A Service Industry

11-24-2007, 03:48 PM

Let me try to be diplomatic here, even though I only speak for myself.

I agree with you [JRL] entirely that this is a service industry. We are indeed here to help the artist, and to do our darndest to give them an excellent show.

However, I have found it to be true in my experience that, when discussing show production, everybody is at the mercy of everyone else. I can make the artist have a really awful show by neglecting my job in various ways. In precisely the same way, the artist can make my job impossible if they do their job poorly, or simply neglect it.

I too have sometimes given thanks for Myspace, because it has given me an idea of a band's needs when the band themselves never let me know. This happened about a week ago for me - the bands didn't advance the show at all, and it was a good thing that I'd dealt with a couple of them before, as they definitely have some "non standard" elements.

There is a point where I would say that "I am paid enough to do an excellent job on your show, to the extent that I am able. I am not paid enough to babysit." I think that's the point in this thread. I will always do what I'm able to do, but if everything has been set up one way, and then a band shows up that wants something totally different (plus, I need four more channels to mic up the talking llama), and they didn't advance the show in any way, they obviously don't know what they're doing - and need to learn. As arrogant as that may sound, I simply find myself with less and less patience for idiots and lamers as I get older.

...and the other thing in my mind is, at least implicitly, that a band that doesn't take any sort of trouble to advance their show can't really care that much. I'll try to take care of them as I'm able, but I'm not going to try for any miracles. I will definitely bend over backwards for someone who's actually trying to work with me, though.

I'm just sayin.'