By James Pew

I was the show promoter last Saturday, Aug. 23 at the Silver Dollar Room in Toronto. We organized four rock bands to play the night, including Monster America, a band that is on our label Broken Window Records, and is currently recording a new record at Euphonic Sound.

The night was a complete disaster. And sadly the trouble could have been easily avoided. Here is the play by play:

First band goes on at around 9:30. Within minuets its clear to me that there needs to be an adjustment in the live sound mix. The problem is that the volume is far exceeding a safe listening threshold. It felt more like a tortuous sonic assault then something people should be enjoying.

If you’ve ever been to the Silver Dollar than you can visualize the layout of the room. For those who haven’t been, picture a rectangle, with the bar along one of the long sides and the stage on the opposite side. This set up is not ideal as the audience members are approx. 20-25 feet away from the stage.

For whatever reason the owners of the establishment chose to set it up this way – possibly out of some sort of logistic necessity, or to maximize seating in the remaining area of the club. This wasn’t my problem.

After the first band left the stage I approached Vlad Skokovich the sound tech. I introduced myself as the show promoter (technically the person who organized and is running the show), and politely & diplomatically asked him to reduce the volume. His response was – “I don’t work that way.” When I persisted his response was “Go F**K Yourself.” At this point I realized I was not going to accomplish anything by speaking with this idiot. So I turned to the manager for help.

Long story short – The manager told Vlad to cut the levels. He did it but then refused to continuing mixing the show. He opted instead to sit in the empty backroom amongst the pool tables. When Monster America hit the stage the overall volume was much more manageable – but now the problem was the lead vocal was barely audible. I walked into the back room and asked Vlad to go back to the mixing console and turn up the vocal. His response – “Go F**K Yourself.”

I turned to management for the second time. And they told me with straight faces, while the sound tech who was supposed to be mixing the show, sat sulking on a backroom table, that it was the fault of the bands that the sound wasn’t any good. When I pointed out that Vlad was not doing his job, their response was that I had somehow insulted him. Management showed an inability, and dis-interest, in solving the problem or assigning accountability. I realized then that it was a big mistake to have brought a show to the Silver Dollar as the leadership there was completely out to lunch and unable to meet my needs.

After much deliberation – and more than 2/3 of the way through Monster Americas set. Management told me that they had spoken with Vlad and that he had agreed to allow me to mix the remainder of the show. So I was left with two options:

1. Do nothing and have the problem remain unresolved.

2. Or go up to a mixing console that I’ve never seen or used before, and start learning and experimenting with it during the last two songs of Monster America.

In no other business would this type of conduct and mismanagement be acceptable. But this is the music business. Every day I’m beginning to connect the dots more and more as to why the music business is in such trouble. But I still have to ask – Why is it accepted that when you go see an indie rock band you are going to need ear plugs? substance-abusers, or unqualified, or criminal, etc.

Last night Remi Stevens dropped by the studio for a visit – so I vented my frustrations to him. He made an interesting point. He said it would not be acceptable for a venue to sell partially poisoned beverages that would harm the health of patrons, so why is it acceptable to subject those same patrons to sound pressure levels which are proven to harm their hearing.

The Show at the Silver Dollar was a disaster – and I don’t think anything will be done about it. This is the music business I guess my only choice is to accept that

:(

P.S. Vlad…Go F**K Yourself!

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The Silver Dollar Room Disaster by James Pew is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 10:09 am and is filed under Music Culture, Music Production, Music Promotion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.