1) make sure you have a tech rider. period. most festivals are sticklers for making you list everything you need, and for obvious reason. but if you're doing any show, especially one of those outdoors "we have 10 groups performing tonight!" have a rider made up, and stage plot. then forward it to whoever needs it. it'll make your life better.
if you're the tech, demand them. it's a complete mess if you have 10 bands and no idea what anyone has.
2) tarps- lots of tarps. friday night, forecast was 10% chance of rain in the morning and afternoon, 30% late evening/overnight. Saturday morning, people were saying it was going to be clear. by 3:30, torrential downpour. We had a ton of tarps, and it still wasn't enough. the speakers got soaked. granted, they are "water resistant" but we're still gonna have to dry them out for a week...
3) check everything the day before. do you have enough of all the little things, like turnarounds, 1/4" to XLR adapters (Male and Female), batteries (dead wireless = dead gig), etc. are the amps configured properly for the gig?
4) bring a nice set of tools. i suggest at minimum a crescent wrench, multi-tool, and a phillips and flat-head screw driver. also bring your own miscellaneous adapters, ground lifts, outlet testers, etc. i didn't bring my outlet tester yesterday, wish i had.
5) remain calm and collected. when you see a cable sitting in 3 inches of rushing water, don't immediately slam the off button to your console. do your best to remember the proper order- power off before signal. i freaked out yesterday (i blame partly my sick and medicated brain, i was off a bit all day) and killed it. a nice loud pop ensued. everything be fine
6) if you're working with less experienced guys, give them a task, then check their work later. there's usually more work than any one person can do, but if you're a lead, it's your job to make sure it did get done correctly. having someone make a cable may seem easy, but once you cross neutral and ground, well, let's just say it's a "shocking" experience. and then, turn it into a teaching experience (remember, most audio is learned on gigs, not in the class. especially troubleshooting techniques)
7) bring extra cables. I used to hate hauling around extra cables- at the place I used to gig, we'd sometimes bring twice as many cable as needed! that was a bit of overkill, but definitely bring extras. you never know when you'll need to one more return, so you'll have to adapt both sides of the snake, run a cable to that extra amp you have, then run an extra NL-4 to a speaker...case and point, i did 2 extra returns yesterday, 1 for 5th monitor, and 1 that was a quick fix of a problem/front fill (from the mono-send no less. oh yeah, making it work for me!)
8) know your gear before you go. it makes troubleshooting a million times easier. if you can plan the whole set-up, you'll have a total win. this is especially true for knowing your mixer and knowing your speaker set-up (like right now, i've realized how to make a 5.1 diffused system easier off a specific board. that's pretty sweet, ya gotta admit.)
Anyone else have any quick tips for working gigs? or any ideas for future posts? problem, concerns, gripes? let it all out
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