Open Mic photo

[superblonde]

Here is a photo of my first open mic as duo on 4/20 (“no relation” to the other 4-20)

Posting it to encourage the other crazy people out there. The fellow guitarist I play with is slightly crazy too, I am sure she would admit this.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

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[Anonymous]

Looks like a great place, hope you guys had fun! My wife and I did it in the past and have been thinking about it again.. who knows?

Now go and do it as much as you can!

[AlleyCatRocker1980s]

Good Pik 🙂

Practicing Guitar

[Doug Marks]

Nice vibe.  Good picture.

Metal Method Guitar Instructor

[superblonde]

It’s a swanky place to be sure. Best thing is that the bar shares open space with the next door Thai restaurant (same owner), one of the best Thai eats in the area. Normally they host jazz nites and just started the open mics there.
That eve we were the first to go on. After us there was a banjo guy who shredded. Eclectic mix of local artists, many of them pro or nearly. There’s a grand piano behind me in the pic. Some players tore that up too, with vocals on top.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[superblonde]

A local musician was talking about some job web site where he got some odd music-related jobs so we looked it up on his phone and I saw the venue name of the local open mic place. A posting of their “need a sound guy” job. The place stopped the open mic a few months ago because the sound guy had 2 other jobs and couldnt do it anymore, plus it wasnt bringing in enough people anyways (thats what the bartender told me a while back). So the web site had their current job opening.. the pay: $10.43/hr “must be available for all fri & sat shows”.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[PaulWolfe]

superblonde wrote:

So the web site had their current job opening.. the pay: $10.43/hr “must be available for all fri & sat shows”.

What is the minimum wage in that particular area?

[superblonde]

good point paul.

it’s a small biz so it would be $10.50 minimum. not sure why I remembered that number? Just looked it up in the site again and it says 10.50, so thats random, must have confused it with another number in my head, weird.

OK here is the quote. What also surprised me is the 15 hr/week.. I guess there is a lot of pre- and post- show time spent for a sound guy. I dunno, to me it seems that sound guys are often hanging around smoking or chatting, not ‘working’..

* is looking for someone who has exceptional engineering skills and doesn’t mind showing them off. We are looking for a part time sound engineer to work closely with our bands to make them sound great. We have a regular schedule of music that we host that includes Friday and Saturday nights as well as some events held during the day on the weekends – may include an occasional Sunday. This is a great way to make some terrific contacts and get paid for what you like to do.

* is a beer manufacturing facility that includes a tasting room and music venue. We are looking for a part time sound engineer to work with bands and operate the sound board during shows. May include some MC/host duties. Currently we host music on Fridays and Saturdays with some occasional Sunday hours. The 16 x 16 stage is fully equipped with sound, mics and lighting. We have been told that the stage is one of the largest inside a music venue in *.

NO. OF OPENINGS
2

WORK SCHEDULE
Fri-Sun

HOURS PER WEEK
15

WAGE/SALARY
10.50

PER
Hour

QUALIFICATIONS
Must be fully versed to operate a multi-channel sound board and capable of mic-ing and balancing music in a large venue space for optimal sound

It would be neat learning job if the space werent an echo chamber – not that I know anything about micing instruments or mixing anyway. it is a warehouse with cement walls half filled with beer vats(silos? tanks?).. the previous sound guy always used to joke that the best sound in the place is outside the loading dock door (where he would always hang out to smoke). the PA is massive and hung from the ceiling, the sound guy would crank it to ear splitting levels because “thats the only way to overcome the reverb, gotta push the air really hard” (which I dont know is true or not, maybe it is).

(btw the place I am talking about here is not the place in the original photo above, but nearby..the place in the photo has stopped & started open mics multiple times in the past few years, apparently unable to make their $$ goals on it.. and they arent helped by being kind of jerks to the musicians so never had many repeat performers or customers, even tho the ambiance is great.. a month or so after I took that original pic, they closed it down because “someone spilled a martini all over the mixing board” I was told.. which is believable because they just didnt have a professional attitude about what they were doing, they would let people sit drinks anywhere, even on the piano..)

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[PaulWolfe]

Massive PA for a VERY large building or massive PA because people like to look cool? I’ve know quite a few guitar players who want a Marshall 100w amp and 4×12 cabinet for their basement which is overkill to a stupid degree.

In fact recently I was reading a discussion of the After Hours video by Ozzy with Randy Rhoads. It seems someone noticed that Randy’s amps weren’t mic’d and questioned the lip sync aspect. But this was filmed in a small public access TV studio so a 100w Marshall wouldn’t need a mic in front of it for amplification or recording.

You mentioned the sound guy using ear-splitting volume… he must be a guitarist! 🙂

[superblonde]

worse than a guitarist..he’s a drummer 😁
The equipment is the venue’s tho (it’s permanently mounted), the sound guy doesnt bring stuff in, as far as I know..
‘Massive’ is just relative to me though.. the web page of the place says it’s occupancy is 105 seated or 250 standing. I dont know what their equipment is.. I remember the sound guy saying it was some kind of bazillion watts “no one needs this kind of volume”, but, solid state power / amp class is different than what it was in the past, thats what I hear..

I’ve always wondered about the real dB levels of the early rock and 70s generation, it must have simply been much lower. Those stories about the beatles not being able to hear themselves, or bands having stacks and stacks of cabinets etc.. I’d guess that an off the shelf fender mustang IV combo amp might blow them all away in terms of volume.

the sad news is that my fellow guitarist, from the original picture above. she told me the last gig with that band we played in, with the band leader always cranking the volume to ridiculous levels, and that venue they played in was also a small cement room echo chamber, it gave her permanent tinnitus (not horrible levels but always present). and that’s why she quit the band. according to her, she kept telling the band leader, “it’s too loud, it’s too loud, if you keep it so loud, I’m gonna leave the band” (which I believe, because, when we played together in that band, she would sometimes say “it’s too loud” during rehearsals, unfortunately, the band leader was kind of… just clueless..i had told him the same, its too loud, the rehearsals should be quieter, etc..) we always wore earplugs, so..that doesnt always eliminate the problem. yet that band leader is still in business, blowing out the ears of his new bandmates, whoever they are..

Even the swanky place from the pic, one time I opened the door to go in there and their open mic guy had all the guitar amps cranked so loud, I had to close it immediately and walk back to my truck to get my earplugs.. (earplugs at a tiny restaurant bar? totally inappropriate volume levels.. mock me for not wanting to play with old guys, but a lot of those guys are literally partially deaf) That guy had a new fender mustang III V.2 (or maybe IV but I think it was a III because the IV is 2x speakers), and he had the Master turned to 10. I couldnt believe it, when it was my turn to play, that he/the previous guitarist, had it on 10. those amps are loud. I turned it down to 3 or something. They had been playing immature volume wars with each other “I cant hear myself because of the bassist so I had to turn it up”. Pff..

so, volume has baaad consequences..
ozzy? also said (on the osbournes?) that he has had ear damage ever since he did that one live stage stunt to get an audience to scream as loud as possible. well, it’s a miracle he’s still standing at all, from all his risky behavior, lol.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[Author]

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