Shawn wrote:
And that is our problem. We are probably competent in setting up our
rig and getting it to sound good, but only with a realistic sound
check. Our current sound-person, yes the drummer's girlfriend who is
busting her tail to help us out, is not yet experienced enough to mix
quickly from scratch.
Likely we would have only needed 30 minutes with me sitting at the
board and mixing/eqing individual instruments and then the night would
have been peachy-keen; but noooooooooo!

Well, what instrument do you play? You're not the drummer, so perhaps
if a situation like this presents itself, how about this plan: do as
much as you can (rough mix, EQ for instruments, etc.) in advance of the
show with headphones or whatever. Then, have everyone in the band
except you start the show by playing an instrumental. Fix everything
you can during the first song (which should be most of it), and then
hand things off to the drummer's girlfriend and go up and join the rest
of the band. Of course, this approach won't work as well if you're
the lead singer or the bass player...

Or make it standard procedure when booking a gig to get them to agree
to a soundcheck. If they won't, then hire a sound guy for just that
one gig.

- Logan