Mix Live Blog: 3 Days, 3 Shows, 3 Cities, 2 Bands: Where’s My Pillow?

15/08/2024 9

Doing three shows in three days isn’t that unusual, even when they’re all in different cities. Heck, I’ve done five shows on five consecutive days in five different countries, then proceeded to do 11 more in a row, but that’s a tale for another time. This past week, however, was the first time I’ve done three shows in three days in three cities with two different bands.

August 1, NYC to Kansas

It started on Thursday, August 1, with what was supposed to be a leisurely flight from New York to Kansas City, leisurely because it wasn’t a show day. How it became possible for the flight from NY to KC to take four and a half hours I’ll never know (only an airline can try to explain that), but at least it gave me time to create a console show file for the DiGiCo Quantum 225.

I’d be mixing Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks on that console on August 4 and, having never used it before, tapped into the offline editor program so that I could create a new show file ahead of time. As is often the case, the offline editor is available only for Windows, so I’m forced to run Windows under Boot Camp on my Mac. The editor works fairly well and to DiGiCo’s credit, the editor looks exactly the same as what I’d later see on the console—but the graphics in the editor are wonky, and I couldn’t resize the window in a manner that would allow me to access the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the screen.

Nonetheless, I was able to get the “grunt” work done—such as naming channels, creating Control Groups, setting up gates and compressors on channels that require them, and routing effects—though I could not for the life of me figure out how to patch the outputs of the effects into channels. In the editor, I was seeing a max of 48 channels before adding the effects returns (six stereo pairs), and I was concerned that I had maxed out the channel count; I’d later learn that the channel count could be increased under the “System Structure” menu tab. If I was lucky, my file would read without a problem.

August 2, Bonner Springs, Kansas

Our show is at the Azura Amphitheatre, and we have a special guest: Carl Palmer and The Return of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. There’s a lot of gear involved, including more than a few video walls that have to be constructed on site, so load-in is a crisp 9:00 a.m. Ouch.

The day goes smoothly except for one minor technical difficulty; three audio techs, including myself, couldn’t figure out how to route PFL to the headphones on a Midas Pro6. In fact, the entire Midas Pro Series are the only consoles in the universe where you can’t plug in a pair of ‘cans, hit “solo” or “PFL” and hear audio. For this, Midas engineers should be locked in an iso booth and be forced to listen to William Shatner singing “Hey Mr. Tambourine Man” for five days. Eventually, I got the headphones routed, but I have no idea how I did it. Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks were on fire (not that I’m biased); if you saw that show, you saw something special.

August 4, 1:00 AM (post-show)

I check into my hotel knowing that the alarm is set for 3:00 AM. I’ll be traveling from KC to Manistee, Mich., for a show with Blue Öyster Cult that night. Taking a look at a map, you’d see that Manistee isn’t near anything. The closest airport is Traverse City (TVC), 75 minutes from Manistee, and there ain’t no such thing as a direct flight from Kansas City to Traverse City. Pretty much anything coming into or going out of TVC connects through Detroit (DTW).

3:00 AM

My alarm sounds. I hit the snooze button, but only once.

3:45 AM

I’m out of the hotel, driving a rental car to the Kansas City airport (MCI). Ugh.

4:15 AM

We arrive at MCI and drop the rental car. Fun! It could be worse—it could be SFO, where the rental car returns are in a different ZIP code from the airport. Have I mentioned that if one thing goes wrong, we (I’m traveling with Richie Castellano, who is in both bands) probably miss this gig?

4:30 AM

I’m just getting to airport security, mentally shifting gears into the BÖC world. I have people heading to Manistee from five different locations: myself and Richie from KC, three from NYC, one driving from Chicago, one from Denver (he arrived last night), and another from the Washington, D.C., area. One of the BÖC crew texts me to let me know he’s at the airport, waiting for cartage to deliver our fly gear.

5:15 AM

My phone rings. Whatever it is, it can’t be good. My crew guys call to inform me that our cartage company won’t make it to the airport in time for the flight. Apparently, they thought that the delivery time was 8:00 AM, but that’s the time the flight departs. I’m on my way to the gate at MCI, trying to think of a way to avoid disaster.

I wake up St. Roy (our travel agent) to see if it’s possible for the crew guys to go to Traverse City later in the day. That idea is out of the question because there are no seats to be had on any airline from NYC to TVC. Apparently, it’s a big vacation destination. Who knew? They’ll have to tell the cartage company to abort, and get on the plane as planned sans equipment. This means no guitars, no pedalboards, no wireless systems, no drumsticks or snare drum, and no vocal microphones. Yikes.

5:30 AM

It’s too early to call people so I start with emails to the promoter, the local backline company that will be providing our gear in Manistee, the band members who arrived the night before, and the one band member who might not have left his house yet: “We won’t have our instruments. We need three guitars, straps, maybe a few guitar effects pedals, drum sticks. What can we do?”

6:00 AM

I’m on the plane and hoping for sleep but it’s not likely under the circumstances. Maybe there will be a miracle.

8:50 AM, Detroit

We land at DTW and I get a text from someone (I don’t recognize the number) asking what size drum sticks we need. This is a good sign.

8:57 AM

I get another text asking if it’s okay for “Andy” to reach out to me. Sure, even though I have no idea who Andy is.

9:10 AM

I get a phone call from Andy (a backline vendor based in the Detroit area) asking what we need. I didn’t realize I already knew him from previous BÖC shows. He works with the vendor who is providing our backline for the gig and has the personal cell number for the owner of the company. As I expected, the truck with the backline was packed yesterday and is already en route, so no possibility to augment the existing backline order. I also reach out to a friend who lives in Ann Arbor and has a ton of gear. But that’s 3.5 hours away, and it’s a reach.

9:40 AM

Good news: I check my email and learn that the band member flying in from the DC area was able to take a guitar and an amp simulator with him.

10:00 AM

My flight from DTW to TVC is delayed, but only by 15 minutes. Andy will send a driver with the gear we need to meet someone from the casino halfway between Detroit and Manistee. He’s sending guitars, a few FX pedals, patch cables, guitar cables and a bucket of drum sticks. Looks like we’ll have a show. C’mon on, we always have a show.

11:35 AM

We land in Traverse City and meet some of the other band members. Thank you, God, the casino is providing the ground transportation so we don’t have to rent a car and drive. One of the band jokingly tells the crew, “Take it easy today. I’ll load all of the gear into the van.” ☺ By 1:15 p.m. we’re at the venue.

4:48 PM

The additional instruments arrive at the showroom and the band starts working on their sounds. I’m mixing this show on a Midas HD96 (which does not have convoluted headphone routing; maybe they learned something), and there’s a BÖC show file from February already loaded on the desk. Cool. Normally, I’d have a dirty channel and a clean channel for Danny Miranda’s bass, but his Fractal processor was part of the gear that wasn’t delivered. I double-patch the bass DI to two channels, leave one clean, insert one of the HD96’s internal processors on the other channel, and dial up an amplifier simulator to give Danny some grit. By 6:00 p.m. it sounds like Blue Öyster Cult.

8:05 PM

The BÖC show starts. You gotta’ love casino shows. Start early and don’t play too long.

10:42 PM

Heading to bed for a nap. The alarm is set for 2:45 a.m. so I can get back to TVC airport for a 6:10 a.m. flight to Detroit, then a connection to Omaha. I’ll have a show with Jon & The Band Geeks in La Vista, Neb., just outside Omaha that night. Surely, I must be crazy. I am, but don’t call me Shirley.

11:22 PM

BÖC’s management calls to make sure everything went okay. Thanks for waking me up.

August 5, 1:22 AM

My phone rings. It’s an automated message from ADT informing me that the backup battery for my home alarm needs to be replaced. Are you &^%$# kidding me? Thanks for waking me up. Again.

2:45 AM

My alarm sounds. You gotta be kidding me.

3:30 AM

I’m on my way back to TVC airport. Thankfully, the casino is again providing ground transportation. It’s TVC to DTW, DTW to OMA (Omaha).

11:00 AM

I arrive at the venue in La Vista. My crew loaded in at 8:00 AM because we again have Carl Palmer as a special guest. Have you seen this guy play drums? He’s amazing. As soon as I can, I find the audio systems tech and ask for access to the DiGiCo Quantum 225 so I can load my file and get acquainted. Good news! The desk recognizes my file and loads it. The tech and I do some housekeeping, and I get ready for sound check.

3:00 PM

Sound check. It’s obvious that a ton of money was spent on this venue, which opened in December 2023. The dressing rooms have individual climate control, there’s a laundry room, and even a fitness room (!). It’s also obvious that they didn’t give a rat’s behind what the room sounds like. The venue will make my list of the worst rooms in the United States to see/hear a show. The place has a cap of approximately 1,300 people, and the reverb time is around eight seconds. Seriously. Lexicon called asking for its algorithm to be returned.

8:19 PM

Twenty minutes to show time. I’ve been up for two and a half days with a total of about five hours of sleep. I’m hoping that I have enough gas in the tank to finish the night, which includes mixing the show, plus my TM duties of settling the show, and settling merch.

8:40 PM

The show starts. Having bodies in the room has not helped the sound. I’m not happy.

10:20 PM

The show ends, but the reverberation in the venue is still going. The venue should be ashamed of itself for taking patrons’ money to listen to this acoustic debacle. Somehow the crowd doesn’t seem to mind. They’re amazing, standing up literally after every song. If they’re happy, I’m… relieved.