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When most people think about concerts and playing out live, the things that lead to mind are the musicians – the singer, the drummer, the guitarist. This is not a bad thing; the band is the primary reason why the concert is happening in the first place. But, it's not only the band that puts a show together.
No band is successful if the team consists only of the musicians. Every band needs support staff: roadies, agents, managers, accountants, lawyers, vendors, etc. And, while all are important, necessary and deserving of respect, I'm going to take some time to single out a few of them (the ones that most people will encounter during their musical career) for special attention.
Sound guy:
This is probably the single most important member of the support staff; he (and for some reason, almost all of the sound people I have encountered are male) is arguably more important than some of the members of the band. He has final control over how the band sounds to the audience. No matter how hot the band is -- you could have Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius, Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin and Dennis Chambers on stage, all on fire, in sync together, everything’s perfect, but the band will sound like garbage if the soundman’s zoning out, not paying attention to things with the 2k Hz rolled all the way down and the 500 Hz all the way up on the master parametric EQ. A good soundman can make a bad band sound good, while no band will sound good with a incompetent moron running the desk.
If you happen to find a great sound guy with a good ear, hang on to him for all he’s worth. Buy his gear if you have to, but soundmen with golden ears are irreplaceable. Which brings me to the next point….
While it's generally a good rule of thumb to be as nice to people as you can, it applies even more so the sound guy. No matter how much of jerk he might happen to be, no matter what has happened to you, never take it out on the sound man. Or, at the very minimum, wait until the performance is over and you don’t have to deal with the guy anymore.
When a band performs live, they typically find themselves in one of three scenarios:
• the band runs their own sound,
• the venue has a soundman on staff that the band uses (sometimes by choice, sometimes not), or
• the band has their own soundman.
Of the three setups, the first is usually the least desirable -- while it is true that no one will know what kind of sound the bands wants more than the band itself, generally, the members of the band are far too occupied with the actual playing of music to worry about the overall mix, the overall balance and all the moment to moment adjustments that are required during a show.
When the venue provides their own sound guy, it can be a good thing. He’s likely to be familiar with the acoustics of the venue, as well as the house equipment. In my experiences, a good indicator of the ability of the soundman is whether or not the venue makes his working optional. If it's optional, then they are confident of his skill. If it's not optional, he may still be competent, but the experience level will vary from place to place and time to time. The downside to this arrangement is that the sound guy's loyalties will be to the venue, not the band, and he is less likely to be as familiar with the material the band will be performing.
If the band can afford to bring their own soundman, this tends to be a better solution. He will be sufficiently familiar with the band's material and playing style that he will be able to anticipate changes and cues during the show, and he will understand that his success is directly tied to the success of the band. On the other hand, he'll probably be winging it when it comes to the acoustics of each venue. Good sound guys can figure out the acoustics during sound check relatively quickly, but that's only going to go so far.
The optimal solution is when the band brings their own sound guy and he coordinates with the venue to best fit the band's sound to the acoustics of the venue. In many higher end places, this is the norm, but not always.
Roadies:
Roadies get the grunt work of a show. Loading in gear and loading out gear is probably the worst part of any gig. When bands are starting out, they are their own roadies (with whatever help they can find). This is usually par for the course until a fair amount of success has been attained.
I know that I cannot wait until I get to the place where I can afford to have someone else do this bit of the work for me. Even still, even the most successful of bands typically don't have simple muscle as part of their traveling crew. Instead, these bands have contract riders which specify a number of people at each venue to help (item #10, paragraph 2) with loading and unloading. The roadies that travel with the band usually have multiple duties (security, gopher, support system) and extra skills (electrician, instrument tech, amateur psychologist). And speaking of extra skills....
Techs:
Techs are the unsung heroes of a show. They are the people who ensure that the band's setup and instruments are right. It can be a pretty thankless job, as some musicians tend to be a little bit picky when it comes to their setup and the horror stories of abuse rained down on techs from various musicians are legendary (Buddy Rich quickly comes to mind). If you ever go to a show and you see someone dressed in black run up to a musician and hand him a new guitar, or switch snare drums for her, then you've just seen a tech in action. It's part of the tech's job to make sure that all the instruments on stage work correctly throughout the entire show.
Most bands don't get to the level where they have the luxury of techs; rather, the band acts as their own techs. And, most techs typically pull double duty as roadies for the gear on which they work. If you are lucky enough to have a tech, try to keep in mind that they are probably as passionate about the music and the instrument as you are and treat them accordingly. And, sometimes the techs play on stage when a member of the band gets hurt (see #23).
Agents:
When a band is just starting out, the hardest part of the business is getting anyone to listen to them. And even harder still is getting anyone to pay for the privilege of listening to an unknown band. The primary job of an agent is to get bands work. Once the work is available, the secondary job of the agent is to get the best deal possible for the band at the specific gig. During the earlier part of a band's career, this is a hard slog, with lots of frustrating phone calls and unreturned messages. When a band is very successful, an agent may get overwhelmed with people wanting the band to come to their venue and perform. In the middle, the agent will typically have both ends -- lots of lower tier venues requesting the band and frustration of not being able to get into the top tier venues.
Managers:
Managers have some of the same duties as agents, but that doesn't really begin to scratch the surface. Managers are more involved with almost all business decisions of the band -- the promotion and marketing, producing of CDs, touring, handling personnel, interacting with other businesses, working with record labels, fielding requests for the band's time and that's just a small list. Good managers take a massive load of a band's shoulders. Bad managers can bankrupt you (just ask Billy Joel).
Others:
The above people should hardly be considered an end all-be all listing; it's just a start. Successful bands need accountants who are familiar with the music industry so as to hunt down every cent buried in royalty agreements; entertainment law is it’s own arcane specialty that most lawyers do not understand well enough to represent a band’s interests with sufficient zeal (not to mention that lawyers tend to know everyone in the business and are good intermediaries through which to make connections); lighting engineers who work the lights during a show (which can either greatly heighten a performance or dash it to bits); even merchandisers who help the band make a few extra bucks by selling CDs and such.
The long and short of it is to remember that there are a small army of people involved in a successful show. No matter how big anyone gets, they didn't get there alone, and they surely do not stay there alone. So, if you're a musician, be appreciative of their work; if you're a fan, just keep the supporting staff in mind.
And wait-staff and bartenders and door-people. And all the members of the audience. I once mixed a bluegrass festival where Bill Monroe played. He was just back on the road after treatment for cancer. Despite the urgings of his manager and wife, he insisted on standing at the backstage door after his show for as long as his fans wanted to see him. He cared about his fans and they adored him.
Posted by: Charlie Irwin at November 10, 2004 11:15 AM