I walked out from a gig tonite...
 

Into: Other than hanging out with porn peddlers I'm also a DJ.

Story: I get called to play at a gig at a new spot in South Florida that is trying to cater to eletronic music fans. I try to negotiate a price for the gig but just can't reach a good agreement. Usually I get door fees minus security and sound/light engineering fees and what not but the problem is, this place has free entry. I just say "pay me what you think it's worth" and decide to show up and invite a bunch of people.

I get there and the sound is horrific. No highs, lows aren't in synch and mids are all over the place. They brought in a dozen different speakers and daisy-chained them together, connected to two different apms. A bunch of speakers are different brands and none of them are acoustically tuned. Every time a drum hits, it sounds like a horse gallop. To add to this, the speakers are sitting on coushioned bar stools! Obviously this sucks but the situation is salvageble.

It's early and there's almost nobody there but people are bound to start showing up within 30-40 minutes. I tell the promoter that we have to take out shitty speakers and tune the others to make them hit in synch as much as possible, which is quite easy with amilified speakers. He agrees. As soon as we start unplugging fucked up speakers the owner comes out screaming telling us to leave shit alone 'cause he's been doing this for years and he knows what he's doing. We reasoned with him for like 10 minutes and he simply refused to let us touch the equipment. At this point more people start showing up. The promoter, who is an allright DJ tries to play some stuff and as I mentioned before, it just sucks. So I appologize to the promoter, walk outside and call all the people I invited and tell them to cancel.

So now I am drunk at home, pissed but I am not sure at whom. What I did was an ass thing to do 'cause I am sure that
was a really horrible opening nite and it came to be partially due to my refusal to deal with the shit sound. On the other hand, was it reasonable for the owner to do that shit to me?

You got problems too. You should take a time out and think things over before you react, and once you made your final calculated mind stick with it.

Tommy Lee did to. Or so he says.

:1orglaugh

That's what makes me feel so fucking bad about it. I've been to a concert where a band refused to play 'cause sound was bad. I've also been to a concert were a band was two hours late and gave their worst performance ever 'cause the singer was too busy watching a football game (Axl Rose). Both of those sucked so much cock that it brings out gut twisting disgust every time I think about it. I could never imagine myself doing something similar.

On the other hand, I've played in venues where sound straight out sucked, such as lack of lows and lack of booth monitors at the same time. It was still in tune though. It was just as good as it could get for that particular situation and that's what I had to work with. I didn't complain, I made the best out of the situation and tried to play stuff that didn't hit low and mixed in the headphones.

In this situation, the problem had a clear resolution beyond the point of doubt. I tried to address the problem but was given a no-go. So now I feel like a major asshole 'cause I ruined a party for probably a hundred people.