I thought this post would be of interest to a few here.
Well, first of all I had to come home and calm down before posting. I had a very "interesting" night. My gig was scheduled for two hours of Xmas music for a senior center Christmas party. No problem - lots of great Christmas songs and religious songs were OK'd so there were plenty of songs in my songbook for the night. First problem - an ice storm which always shuts down the Dallas area. So, I start out hours early to make sure I would get there on time - if at all. Turned out the streets were good and I get to the the gig about 90 minutes early - at least thats what I thought.

When I get there I push my cart into the gig venue and low and behold there is a 7 piece band setting up. I commented that I would need room to setup and got a very cold reception from the band leader. The AD decided that she needed additional entertainment and added the band for the night without informing me. Then I learned I was to start and hour earlier than scheduled and the band would play about 30 minutes after I got finished so Santa could visit and pass out gifts to the residents. Now my early arrival was a blessing - but there still was no room for me to setup nor empty electrical plugs in the area. I was no longer frustrated but severaly pissed. The AD decided to move a table and make room for me which actually turned out to be a great place to setup - so I got busy and prepared for the gig. What really got me though was the "unprofessional" attitude and behavior of the band members. They did sound checks and tuned and retuned their guitars for or at least 45 minutes and had to be told to stop so I could start on time. I had to actually unplug some of their equpment to get access to a plug. Right before I started playing I need to make a rest room visit. When I got back one of the band members was actually playing my keyboard. That was it - I really went off on him- the AD about died but by that time I really didn't give a hoot. I have played for years with hundreds of top notch musicians and I can't remember a time when anyone ever touched someones instrument wthout being asked - ever! Well, onward and forward to the gig.

I had decided to play a few secular songs mixed in with the Christmas songs - only about 4 or 5 for the night - after playing the first secular song the AD comes runningup and tells me that I am to play only Christmas songs. Ok, not a problem - after about 10 songs into the night she returns to tell me I am playing all the songs the band is supposed to play and they were complaining. I said there was nothing I could do about that because I had prepared a Christmas show for her as she asked me to do. I told her to take that up with the band and tell THEM they could change their song selection if they were concerned. I have no idea how that conversation went.

Well, I did use my Bose L1 M1 for the first time tonight and wanted to report on that experience. I run my Tyros 3 into Chans 1 and 2 on the Bose and my Crown mic into my keyboard. I used the Bose preset 55 tonight and my usual Keyboard EQ settings. My remote is run at the 12 O'Clock position with the mids at 11 O,Clock 0 I think the mids are a bit hot on my keyboard. The remote master is at 9 O'Clock. I place the tower right next to my keyboard - not behind me and the B1 Base unit is under my keyboard on my cart. I did a quick sound check with an empty room before starting to play and never made any changes or adjustments to my settings. After the gig I asked the people up front(about 4 feet away) and also the people in the back if the sound level was ok and they all said they could hear very well. The people up front said the sound was just right and not to loud like a lot of other players they have heard. Seems to me the Bose PAS did it's job and I really enjoyed not having to Crank up the sound in a very noisy room for everyone to hear.

As a side note, after the gig the AD told me she was really sorry about the mis-communication and wanted to make sure I wasn't upset with her. This is a place I book on a regular basis and I told her I didn't mind getting paid for two hours and playing only one hour and it wasn't her fault the band members were unprofessional and difficult to work with. She seemed sincere so I guess all will be ok.

Anyway, another gig in the books and lessons well learned. Be ready for anythng when you walk into a venue and be flexible and try your best to work with whatever is thrown at you.

Hammer

[This message has been edited by hammer (edited 12-17-2008).]