On our last private party job we were deploying a lot of new equipment, and our minds (mine and those of my lovely wife) were concentrated on packing those things that we had never taken to a job before. Our kit is a tight fit in our Toyota Sienna, and the final load-out is always a complicated affair, with everything having to fit in just so.
We arrive at the venue four hours early, after eating a late lunch, and start the load-out onto the dance floor. Generally, we take the "odds and ends" in first, along with the piano and sound stuff, and only then haul in the tubs that contain "the book" (nine hundred arrangements). Once all of that is done, we then concentrate on setting up the stands and lights, the power system and the basics of the sound system.
Last of all for the sound system is the calibration of the mikes (which only takes a minute or two, along with one person to play the horn, in this case me). So, I start with the usual trouble mike, between Trp I and Trp II, point my clarinet at the windscreen and play - nothing. I ask my wife if the gain is turned up, and she says that it is, halfway. I ask her to boost it a bit and try again. Again - nothing.
I walk back to our "sound board", and only then do I see the problem. Our Yamaha "sub mixer" board, which feeds all of our horn instrumental mike output into one channel on the main PA head, is not there.
All of the microphones (rigged by me) were present and accounted for, with the cables run back to where they would have plugged into the Yamaha board. But, the board itself and the cabling to the PA head (set up by my lovely wife using a color matching system on everything) was simply not there.
Lucky for us, our house was only an hour away and we had more than two hours to spare. I completed the setup while she drove cross-town through the entire metro Houston area to the house to pick up and retrieve the board.
While this was happening, I was in a panic because I could not find the "long" sound cord to allow for the FOH right hand speaker cabinet to be rigged without an unsightly cable running through everything. The discovery of that cable occurred only moments before she would have left the house with the sub mixer; it was under the bag containing my formal wear.
Early on, I have tried to systemize my loading, performance needs, and so forth, this in order to ensure that all of the hundreds of things needed for a performance (and they range right up there) are at the gig when they need to be.
Aside from the obvious (horns, music, clothing, stands), you have to plan around the normal "things that go wrong": Among them:
• Not enough black ties/some other clothing item. This is the responsibility of the sidemen, but not one that I'll let slip by (presentation is important with about half of our clients.) So, there are six spares in a compartment in the "gig bag" (which only gets brought to jobs) Also included are six pairs of pantihose in black (three different sizes), for when a girl singer has a collision with a sharp edge just before going on stage. And socks - three pairs of black socks.
• Neckstraps. I've actually had one break during a gig (an over the shoulder one for the baritone) so I had a head start with this one. I keep one alto/tenor and one baritone Hyman style strap in my alto case cover (which generally only goes to jobs). Using a Hyman, narrow though it may be, beats using a pair of wire coat hangers twisted together, which is what I did when my baritone setup failed.
• Reeds. This should be a no brainer for any sax player, but I've had some of the best guys I've employed turn up with one reed (which they then managed to break) for a job. I have a "medium" assortment of clarinet, bass clarinet (and tenor in a pinch), alto and baritone sax reeds in my Yamaha baritone case, kept below the flute case in its slot. (I also dock them for the price of the reeds from their pay out at the end of the job.)
• Flashlights. This is an old sound guy recommendation, and one that you ignore at your peril. Fixing a sound problem in a darkened venue is no treat, and having a few small bright flashlights on hand makes it very easy to do. We have recently "restandardized" on the new Eveready triple LED lights powered by two AA batteries, a lot of light output over a broad area in a small package, and they burn a long time. They are scattered about over several "containers" (sound system cables, mike box, "the SOTSDO bag" (a carry all administrative briefcase) and in my baritone case. Real life savers.
• Cabling. I have a rolling microphone stand bag that has two large pockets, one at each end. Into these pockets go the long speaker cabinet cables. Since we would never use them at a rehearsal, and only occasionally at a job, they are kept in a container that only goes to jobs.
• The cooler. One of the items in our contract is a supply of ice water to be provided with glasses. Occasionally, the venue staff overlook this one, so I keep a small cooler with bottled water in the vocalist area, that way ensuring that no one dries up while we are waiting for the water to arrive.
Never in a million years did I think that I would be carting around a selection of pantyhose as part of my musical life, but on more than one occasion, they have kept one of my girl singers from going out on stage with a big white blotch showing on her legs. There's always something waiting around the corner to bite you, and thinking ahead helps.
I have an extensive checklist of what to bring all accumulated on my PDA, but sometimes when we are in a rush it doesn't get used. So, keeping the emergency stuff as part of our "go bag" for jobs ensures that, if the normal performance stuff is transported to the job, so too are the emergency items.
However, one thing you cannot plan against, as I discovered about three years ago on a downtown Houston gig. I let my wife park the van (we were at a downtown hotel with limited on site parking, and a three stage path to the ballroom, hard to negotiate with our gear) on the street, and she promptly did so in a valet parking zone.
Even with that, we almost made it out to the van after the job before it was towed. We saw it from the front steps of the hotel, way off in the distance, but by the time we had walked there it was off to the impound lot. So, now I park the van and she does the setup instead. A lot cheaper in the long run...
