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Monday, August 25, 2008
Scene Bar, Glendale, CA

Another night, another show.

Returning to The Scene of the crime. :-)

The Scene Bar, is located in Glendale, and is more typical of the clubs where I record bands. There is a stage in a back corner against the wall, facing toward the front of the club. The stage includes a PA as well as a couple of monitors. The sound board is at the front of the club facing back at the stage. Beside the stage (and audience) area, splitting the club in half, is the bar, in the round (so to speak-kind of oblong) so it faces both sides of the club. On the other side of the bar, is an area with a couple of pool tables.

Tonight was a mostly punk show. Vorvadoss, Warcola, Kriminal Pogo and A Pretty Mess. If you have managed to read some of my prior ramblings, you may remember that while I was / am working on a web site for A Pretty Mess, they mentioned they were interested in releasing a live CD, but weren't 100% happy with the recording from last month at the Malibu Inn. When I mentioned that I had recorded at The Scene before, and the band had liked the recording, they decided to hire me to come back and record them again. Hopefully with better results this time. :-)

The evening started in a typical punk way.

The flyer I saw said the doors open at 8:00pm and the show starts at 9:00pm. I think this is what you call a communication breakdown. I arrived at 8:30pm, and the front door was still locked. The door didn't open until 8:45pm, and it was only one of the bartenders. The doorman and the soundman didn't arrive until later.

The flyer said free admission. It ended up being $5.00 admission. However, I was not asked to pay. By the time the doorman arrived, I had already set up my gear on stage, and was talking with the soundman. Sometimes it helps to show up at a club with a couple of microphone stands in hand, and a backpack weighing 35 pounds. Or maybe I look so out of place that people think you would have to pay me to show up. Or maybe it is my world weary look as I prepare for another evening where people are likely to spill drinks on my gear, or break the microphone stands, or try to steal my microphones, or scream into my microphones, or knock my gear over while slam dancing, or ...

The only band that I ended up making a recording for was A Pretty Mess. I was talking with some of the members of other bands in a casual way about recording, but none of them seemed very interested. I did specifically ask Warcola if they were interested in a recording before they started playing. However, afterwards, when I explained that I charge, and that it would probably take a week or so to mail out, they seemed less interested. Afterwards, the first band of the evening, Vorvadoss asked me how they could get a copy of their recording, but I hadn't hit the record button. The reason why I didn't record the whole night, was that I recently had an argument with a band (actually a few bands) that didn't believe that it was right for me to charge for recording bands. They felt that if they allowed me to record them, then I owed them a recording. While I disagree with this attitude, it has caused me to b a little less forward when talking with bands about recordings. Since I don't normally get a lot of feedback about what I am doing, I have no idea if this is a common attitude, or it is only a few bands that feel that way. Just because I made over 150 CDs for bands last year (2007) is no guarantee that they like and / or approve of paying for a recording.

Even when I don't think I will be recording more than one band, I still like to see the other bands that are performing. Also, by arriving early, I can talk with the soundman or whoever else is there who needs to know what I am doing. While talking with the soundman, he mentioned that one of the monitors was blown. When I was explaining that I would be setting up my microphones to capture the vocals off the stage monitor, he remembered he had just fixed a monitor, so he was able to swap out the blown monitor for a fixed monitor.

Vorvadoss, the first band up, was from Texas. The lineup was drums, bass, 2 guitars and singer. All the musicians also provided backup vocals. They had an interesting sound, and an even more interesting stage presence. All the band members wore different costumes, each had it's own unique headpiece. Unfortunately they had technical difficulties so were unable to use one of their devices for altering the sound of the singers voice. Not very punky, but intereseting anyway.

Warcola, the second band, was also from Texas. The lineup was drums, bass, guitar and two singers. Sometimes they sang together, sometimes they alternated vocals. They were well received in punk style, with a small slam pit for some of the songs.

Kriminal Pogo, the third band, is also a local band. The lineup was drums, bass, guitar, singer (female). The crowd also had a slam pit going for some of the songs. At one point, someone walked on stage with a jug of water and poured it all over the drum kit while the drummer was played, and continued to play, which helped to splash water all over himself as well as the stage.

http://www.aprettymess.com/ A Pretty Mess was the fourth and final band of the night. The lineup was drums, bass and 2 guitars (all 4 musicians are female). One of the guitarists is the lead singer, and all the rest of the band are backup singers. They didn't get on stage until after midnight. Even so, there was still a nice sized crowd and a fairly active crowd. A number of people were slamming for a number of songs, and at one point, my deck (set up on top of the floor P.A.) got knocked off (fortunately there are no moving parts, so there were no problems and the recording was not interrupted). Some of the crowd were even jumping onto the stage, and then jumping back into the audience. I usually take my digital camera with me, but I was concerned enough about the crowd activity, that I didn't leave my position near my deck and 1 of the microphones near me (I was ready to jump on stage and run for my other microphone if needed-it wasn't needed this night).

The only band that I ended up making a recording for was A Pretty Mess. I was talking with some of the members of the other bands in a casual way about recording, but none of them seemed very interested. I did specifically ask Warcola if they were interested in a recording before they started playing. However, afterwards, when I explained that I charge, and that it would probably take a week or so to mail out, they seemed less interested. Afterwards, the first band of the evening, Vorvadoss asked me how they could get a copy of their recording, but I hadn't hit the record button. The reason why I didn't record the whole night, was that I recently had an argument with a band (actually a few bands) that didn't believe that it was right for me to charge for recording bands. They felt that if they allowed me to record them, then I owed them a recording. While I disagree with this attitude, it has caused me to b a little less forward when talking with bands about recordings. Since I don't normally get a lot of feedback about what I am doing, I have no idea if this is a common attitude, or it is only a few bands that feel that way. Just because I made over 150 CDs for bands last year (2007) is no guarantee that they like and / or approve of paying for a recording.

I managed to pack up my gear and get home by 1:30am.

Chrome Oxide
have audio recorder will travel

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Last updated by Chrome Oxide on 08/25/2008

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