Saving The Day... or at least the night!

Last Thursday night was supposed to be a great night. I had plans to play trivia with some brothers, then head to a concert downtown at a bar called Flip Flops.
I headed off to trivia and had some great times, answered a few questions but got a 5 point art Q wrong... damn you impressionist artists, you still piss me off. Half a dozen or so beers later, the night was over and we placed 3rd and got a $10 gift card for the bar so we gave it to Sarah the birthday girl.
After trivia was done, a short walk later I ended up back at my apartment as well as my truck. I popped onto the internets to check on peoples plans and headed out to Flip Flops to catch the Sequoia Prep School concert. I arrived expecting to pay a cover to get in as this seemed the case earlier in the day, however fortunately there was none so I proceeded inside.

Inside I made my way to the bar, waited way to long for a drink and proceeded to end up near the stage right speaker.

I texted my friend Caroline who I assumed would be at the show and as it turned out she was near the stage left speaker "surrounded by tall dudes." I made my way over to the other side of the stage and said hi right before the band started.

The first few songs were nice, I wasnt familiar with any of SPS's music so it was a nice experience to hear some new songs. After the 3rd or 4th song things got hairy. The speakers cut off mid way through one of their songs leaving only the drums and guitar amps to carry them through the end of the song. After the song was over everything appeared to be working fine and Justin the lead singer apologized to the crowd. They moved through this technical difficulty well and proceeded to belt out another song that had the crowd going wild.

Unfortunately problems dont go away until they are fixed, and the speakers again shut down-mid song. The band again played through and after the song, they announced (over the now working speakers) that they were going to take a break.

I realized that I could possibly help and made my way stage right where the mix was. I introduced myself to the sound tech and as I suspected the amps were overheating mid-way through the song and shutting down (which allowed them to cool down between songs).

I knew that I could prevent a potential disaster and offered my services to the man. We hopped in his suv and drove to LJC where I had planned to grab some amps to remedy this situation.

Upon entering our storage room I realized however that all of our amps have a special output on them that would not work with the 1/4" jacks on their speakers. In a few moments I realized that our powered speakers would work just as well, only needing to swap speakers and hook into the system.

We loaded up some speakers, stands, and cables and sped back to the bar. I am not sure how long we were gone, but the crowd was still anxious for the band to start. Unloading the gear through the smoking section, we pushed our way through the crowd fighting to get to the stage so the show could continue.

At this point, the band jumped in, taking the old speakers down and working on the stage left speaker while the sound guy and I worked stage right hooking up power and xlr cables. In a matter of moments, it seemed like we had setup the speakers, and now just needed to test the system to make sure everything was alright. The sound tech motioned for me to get onstage and test the mic!

I was surprised none-the-less and probably awkwardly climbed onto the stage and sat down behind the keyboards. I grabbed the mic and pulled it close. "Check check" I said into the mic hearing nothing from the speakers. "Check one two three" this time the speakers cut on and I was live in front of the packed bar. The crowd went wild hearing the speakers working again. "How's it sound out there?" I asked receiving a thunderous positive response.

"Sorry for the technical difficulties, lets get this show on the road" I said while standing up to move off stage. The crowd was responsive and the band was quick to get back on stage.

The bassist, Johnnie, came up and introduced himself, thanking me for the sound system.

"No problem, I hate to see a show go to shit"

I made my way back to the crowd standing stage left with Caroline. Now Caroline is short... 4'something short, and she happened to be standing behind a 6' something dude. I asked him if she could slide in front and he obliged. The band played a few flawless songs, as far as the speakers were concerned. After the song Caroline asked me if I knew when they were going to play some song, I couldn't hear her over the crowd noise and after a few attempts, I slipped backstage (not hard) and repeated the question to Johnnie, he obviously didn't understand it ether so I pointed at Caroline and she said it loud enough for him to hear. He went over to Justin and they talked.

The band resumed and I remained backstage leaning against the bar. Some dude came up and was questioning me backstage and I simply pointed at the speakers, which over the sounds of the band and crowd was enough to get the point across. He asked me to move over closer to the stage so that the bar staff could move freely.
I watched the next few songs while sitting on a stack of buckets backstage, not terribly comfortable, but better than being in the crowd fighting to keep a primo spot near the stage. After one of the songs Justin was talking to the crowd and said something along the lines of "Wheres Tony?" (I go by Tony at work and thusly introduced myself to the band as Tony)

A girl on the front row must have seen the smug smirk on my face and started pointing towards me. Justin turned and said "Give it up for Tony everyone!"

The crowd cheered and I felt on top of the world.

The band played out an excellent set and before I knew it, the show was over, but the night was far from it. As the crowd started to dissipate, the band took a smoke break before tearing down. I was talking with West at this time and we talked a bit about SPS, some about my background, and the conversation lead to my ambitions of being a roadie. He mentioned that they had recently lost their sound dude and that if they were touring over the summer they would need a sound dude to travel with them. west asked if I had a card, and luckily I did! I gave him the last card in my wallet and we continued with some small talk. I chatted with some of the other band members for a bit and then we headed inside to tear down.

I helped them with their cables, speakers, and shuffling stuff outside to their trailer. After no more than 10 minutes of loading, the trailer was done and West commented "Now just imagine doing that every night" to which I replied "I've done six 18-wheelers in a night before, this was nothing."

We grabbed the speakers and junk that I had brought over and loaded it up in their 15 passenger van. We all piled in and headed to LJC to unload my gear. Johnnie and Justin helped me get the stuff down the tunnel and we threw it back on the shelves. Being almost 3am I could tell they wanted to hit the sack, but I offered to show them the floor.

Obviously not many people get the chance to be on a professional (college?) basketball court, much less shoot some ball on it, so I grabbed some balls (the basket kind) and we shot around for a few minutes until the driver started pounding on the tunnel door letting us know that some other members wanted to hit the sack.

We departed LJC and they asked for some help with directions, apparently Johnnie was crashing with a friend from HS in University Village. Since this was the opposite direction of the hotels, and since a 15 passenger van with trailer isnt exactly apartment complex friendly, I offered to give Johnnie a ride to UV to save them some time.

We cruised down the empty road talking about SPS and how they had formed, and future plans as well. Before I knew it we were at UV, Johnnie thanked me for the ride, thanked me for the help that night, and just like that my night was over.