So tonight, l ran sound at Tempe Tavern. I enjoy running sound there quite a lot- it has a fine sound system, and enough microphones for almost every kind of band coming through the Tempe dive bar scene. I’d go into details, but hey, this is my first entry, and I think I should save some mysteries for later. Suffice to say, I have drum microphones, instrument microphones, vocal microphones, and a couple DI’s. Add that to my rack of amps, my speaker management system, and my mains, and it’s a pretty good start. The icing on the cake is the Presonus board that gets to be the brains of the outfit- and the wireless network that allows me to wander all over the tiny little room, so I have the experience and ability to notch out some of the room’s idiosyncrasies.
Anyways, long story short, I’ve got everything I need in arms reach. Given some of the places that I’ve run sound, I love this room. At a glance, it seems like a nightmare- concrete floors, concrete ceiling, a giant concrete column in the middle of the two mains. But you know what? It’s a fun room to mix! I love dialing it it in, and I love how Bryan, my friend and the head engineer for Tavern, has the default show set up on stage. At first, I was super against it- why in the world would ANYBODY braid XLR’s together to make ghetto snakes? Why not just pull out what I need, run the lines, and then tear down like normal? But then, a year later, I can close out a show in under 3 minutes, if the band is already clear, and that’s with a full count in of my microphones and gear.
Tonight, though, tonight was different. I thought it would a pretty standard affair for a Wednesday night, three bands, a few liters of cranberry juice (no alcohol, I just really love the cranberry juice in bars, and hey, I don’t pay for it, sooooo…) and my usual meal, the BBQ Chicken Salad from the Great Beyond. Seriously, if you ever go to Tempe Tavern, do yourself a favourite, and get the BBQ Chicken salad, it is DIVINE.
My first two bands are pretty good- better than I was expecting for Wednesday night, if I’m being honest. I gotta say, I kinda dropped the ball with them. I was not at my peak performance as a sound guy for the first set, which I’m still pretty disappointed about. You see, I got into sound engineering, as a musician, to make up for those shoddy engineers that we’ve all dealt with- you know the ones, who mix you four beers in and then wander off and bitch at you when you ask for a little bit of keys and vocals in your monitors, only to run outside and smoke a cigarette for your whole set. Well, fuck those guys. But, I gotta say, I sucked for the first two bands tonight.
It wasn’t that I didn’t get a good front of house mix, it was that my monitor mix was rife with little mistakes- my gain structure needed a bit of tightening up, and frankly, I needed to work a lot harder on notching out the feedback on my monitors for all of the vocals in play. What I did do well, in my opinion, (which I *usually* do well on) were the guitars. I, not surprisingly, ADORE mixing guitars. Once I have my drums and my bass locked in, I get to work until I can hear both guitar clearly, and I spend the set following the leads and books. As a guitarist, I get to geek out and I get to practice where I place my microphones, and hear a enormous variety of guitar amplifiers and pedal boards.
Eventually, the first two bands are done. I’m getting antsy, mostly because I’ve had two hours of sleep, and frankly, I just really wanted to get home. But you know what? I just wasn’t ready. Really, I wasn’t. I mean, as a sound engineer, it was a pretty simple project. 1 guitar, 1 bass, 1 freaking huge drum set (which, sadly, I didn’t have enough microphones for, so I end up mic’ing the kick, snare, and the middle three toms. Sidenote, I’m really excited to working at Rogue so I can start practicing with overheads and high hat microphones!), and three vocals up front.
Alright, 4 piece band, I think to myself. This will be ok, as I look at the Mesa 212 cab, happy that it’s not another half stack in a tiny little reflective room that I can have my vocals compete with. I’ve got a Galien Kruger short bass stack, with a direct out, but it’s not a 8x10 Ampeg cabinet that shakes the walkway to Walmart, 5 miles away. Well, what I’m getting at is that my first experience with the band is great- their gear is matched for the venue they’re playing. I ADORE that, because when I don’t have to freak out about the stage volume for a band, and it’s not a levels competition, do you know what I get to do? I get to mix. I get to actually sit down (or stand, or walk around the room, or whatever) and pull out the best and clearest sounds I possibly can, to polish the live sound of this group of awesome dudes from another state of mind and physical realm.
I run through my normal line check, streamlined since it’s the last band of the night- I just need to see signal, essentially, and then I’ll have them run through a chorus and tell me what they’re missing in their monitors, or what they need removed, etc… it’s basically a 2 minute jam to make sure the rest of the set runs great. And you know what happens first? Their singer, clearly unhappy with my failure to clear the feedback for the previous bands, SCREAMS as loud as he possibly can when I get to his line check. The energy is palpable, at this point, and I take the opportunity to notch the fuck out his vocal and we get the feedback cleared. He swings the microphone in front of the monitor. Hell, he points it directly at the cone. And you know what? We’ve cleared the feedback, and everybody that is left in the room is paying attention. Oh, also, this is the part where I can tell that it’s going to be a fun set.
We finish the line check, I ask them to play me a chorus- my usual fare, as it lets me see a band at high energy, more often than not. What I’m not expecting, however, is the majesty that this band produced at my inquiry. They launch into a chorus- equal parts Lamb of God, Gojira, System of a Down, Mastodon, Between the Buried and Me, and pretty much every metal band that I have loved in ages; but with their own magic, their own style, and I'm in love. I’m floored, and this is before their set even starts. Needless to say, I key in super fast while they’re playing, and I make sure every single nuance of this band is crystal clear. In the years that I've run sound, I find that I mix the best when
They announce themselves when I give them the all clear. They are Hydraform, a metal outfit from Denver, Colorado, and is Tempe, Arizona ready? Clearly, as my jaw had not yet returned from my prone stance at the short chorus I had heard, I was not ready. But I hopped back over to my lights, and prepared for one of the best shows I’ve seen at Tempe Tavern.
Hydraform, in a word, was enthralling. To the point that I’ve begun this blog to capture their magic, and here I am, unable to describe with words the experience that has been shared with me. They were an amalgam of all of my favourite aspects of heavy metal and hard rock- crystalized into this tight, fascinating gem. I would do them a disservice to continue speaking of them. But… fortunately, I am a somewhat capable sound engineer, and by the end of their set, they were happy enough with my skills that they gifted me a copy of their album “Dark Adder”. Suffice to say, the album is going to be on repeat for me in the very near future, and I am going to be spreading the word as much as I can about this band. They were incredible. In all seriousness, I would rank their performance up there with my major label experiences- it was a dynamic, emotional rollercoaster, and I cannot wait to see them again.
Here’s their Facebook page
and some of their videos-
Anyways. I’m a sound engineer and a guitarist. I love music. I think I’m gonna start writing about it.
Here we are, blog 1. The Hydraform, my new favourite band, from Denver, Colorado.
