In the Aug 15 entry I mentioned that that Tuesday was shot and there were things about it that I might mention at a “later time” … Well, what I did on August 10th when I should have been doing the paper or sleeping, I went and auditioned for Octane. I was so sick that Tuesday … I was the walking dead as far as I’m concerned … but I did so much work that day … I got up early … about 9am and I went and rented a truck … drove that to my parent’s house where I worked on several speakers that needed to be replaced … They actually had to be soldered on … The current speakers were the press down kind, so soldering them was a hassle … I was sweating and being very sick … I had to take breaks … Once speakers were wired up, I had to load the truck … Then off to The Whiskey Tango to get what equipment I had there … While I was there I borrowed the mics and some monitors for the audition … A manager was there and I asked if I could borrow them … The manager didn’t even ask why, so I thought … okay! … I mean, I lent them my stuff, so I was just borrowing their stuff for an afternoon … I was already late for the audition, but I went anyway … So I finally got there maybe about an hour to an hour and a half late … But I was so sick, I was like “Yeah, I’m here, I’m late .. sorry, I guess I don’t get the job.” … but no, no, no … it was cool … I was fine … okay … Should I wait outside or should I come in? It’s okay to come in … Cool!
I was very happy that I could come inside and hear the first audition … You have to understand, I went in there feeling defeated before I had even started … I didn’t have the kind of boards that they would have needed … I only had my little Mackie 24-4 … my little Peavey 16 channel monitor board … Old crusty JBL speakers and like no substantial amount of equipment … I went in there with 4 tops, 4 bottoms, 3 racks, a cable trunk … monitors and boards … That was it … The guy before me had the room filled with 32 or 40 channel boards, tons of cases, etc … Me, even the speakers I just soldered the new speakers into I didn’t test cause I would have had to basically set up the PA to test them, so I didn’t even know if they would work … At that point I didn’t even care … At that point besides the fact that it didn’t matter cause I was so sick, I knew that my PA even without those speakers would WOW them … While I was there, the third guy to audition showed up … It was about 3 or 4pm at this point and I had to get back to The Whiskey to do The Interns … Waited a long time for the first guy to load out, and in the interim the offer was made that the third guy load in his system and I mix on it so they could hear me mix and save me the loading in and out because I was so sick … The third guy said that was cool with him, but I declined the offer … I wanted to mix on my system … After all, wasn’t that the point? After all, didn’t I go through hell to get it there including renting a truck? Didn’t I spend about $320 on new speakers and $155 on renting a truck? Well, hell yeah I did … so I was going to set up my system … The band helped load in (my hand truck went flat) … so did one of the managers … So I set up all the stuff and got checks while each guy checked out their stuff … There wasn’t much talking going on … When I got everything I needed and they got what they needed through what monitors they actually used, they just basically started playing … I cranked it, and it slammed! It sounded awesome in my opinion … Fat clicky kick, snappy snare and November Rain toms … cutting guitars and deep bass … A suggestion here and there and they just played and listened … No real direction to me … Then a mic was used to sing a song … okay, onto the acoustics … We checked those through the PA and monitor for the drummer at the same time, and they jammed on the three acoustics for a little while … The only vocals were that one song … Then the drummer had the monitor guy play his drums so he could hear them out front … and that was it … Thanks Dave. So I packed up and ran out of there to get to The Whiskey … spent … so sick …
I’m not mentioning who the other people were that auditioned for obvious reasons, but if any of them happen by this, I would certainly like to thank the third guy for helping me out as much as he did … I mean he wasn’t there to help me … but I was so sick, I guess everyone felt sorry for me … But everyone was cool about it, and I was very happy with the way things sounded … I certainly hope they were …
Well, 3 weeks later I guess they were happy cause they hired me … So I had to tell The Whiskey Tango and purchase the stuff that I said I would get if they hired me … The sound company that was covering them between sound companies was also in the running to do them permanently … They gave them notice (as promised) so they knew that their system was going to be available again. They would keep them for 3 weeks so that they wouldn’t lose any down time and the transition could be made to the new sound company (which is me) … Well, this company immediately decided if they weren’t getting the account, they were done doing the band entirely … no notice or anything … They supposed this might happen, but they didn’t think it would … So this would screw the band and it would screw The Whiskey Tango if I went out and did the band with the system that I auditioned with … Screw the band not having sound, and I would screw the Whiskey not being there for the weekend … Who would they get on such short notice? Props to John John at The Whiskey for being very understanding and helping work everything out, and props to the drummer for finding alternatives for that weekend … We are still going to rush to get everything for this coming Thursday, but heck … What else are we going to do?
So, I am now officially the new sound and lighting provider for Octane … I was also able to hang onto Sundays at The Whiskey Tango … I really feel bad about leaving the Whiskey, but this opportunity had to be pursued … It was what I wanted in the way of coming “out of retirement” if I had chose to go back “on the road” … plus the money isn’t something to shake a stick at … I will have more nights home now and my 6 year old was very happy about that …
There was also a lot of rumors going around about all sorts of things revolving around this band and stuff … Well, I got the job, and I will know first hand soon enough if the rumors are true … I will certainly vent here … Stay tuned …