Well, we had a show last night in Des Moines at a place I'm not going to name. It was a good show...we really played a tight, focused three sets. Problem was, after the show we ran into a problem with the owner. Our sound guy had noticed a bad cable in the monitor setup and pulled it out to show him, and replaced it with one of our own (we always carry enough for our setup). Well, the owner was looking around for this monitor cable, which was nowhere to be found. He insisted that he had done inventory on all his stuff the previous Saturday when another band had played, and that it had been in the setup when he set everything up before we came.
Not wanting to look like jerks, we went through all of our stuff. Three times. We did find one cord in our bags that wasn't ours...it was the bad cable that Chad had pulled out of the setup before the beginning of the gig. The owner insisted that it wasn't his, and we sure knew it wasn't ours. We offered him the cable, knowing full well that it didn't work, but it was the only thing we could do to show him that we weren't trying to rip him off. His next statement was, "I believe that you don't have it, and I know I don't, so I just need the cable by the time you leave, that's all."
Ok, so we had pretty much stripped our vehicles down and gone through everything, and it was now 2:30 am, when Riemann Music would certainly not be open. So facing the prospect of being blacklisted in the area by this guy, who is pretty connected, we had to buy him a new cable. Stan made sure to mention this whole thing at Riemann this morning, and the head sales guy, who knows this owner pretty well, said that he's a great guy, but that if he gets an idea in his head, he's not changing his mind for anybody. So here's what we think actually happened:
Last Saturday, this band switched in one of their cables into the setup, and accidentally took one of his cables. Since they're friends of his, he didn't think to check the cables to make sure. This Friday, when he set up, he didn't think to look at the cables, since he himself took them down the previous week. This week, he thought of it because he lent a microphone to us for our show, so Eric wouldn't have to sing into an instrument mic. When we gave him back his mic, he checked the cable, and lo and behold, it didn't match...so there we were at 2 am, watching his security tapes with him. Yeah, there's a cable you can see on the screen before we set up, but I don't think it's the cable he thinks it is. The thing vanished, plain and simple. I don't think there was any malice or sneaky dealings on anyone's part, including the band last week, but I bet if he has them go through their stuff, he'll find his missing cable.
It just stinks that we've gotta buy him a new cable, when we've proven we don't have it. In the interest of peace, and in not being called a bunch of crooks in public, and losing the good rep we're building, it had to be done. Next time, though, we're whipping out our union cards.
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The skinny on what went down in Cow-Town,
or
"How I stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the 'no win scenario'"
So a quick reflection on what went down, as I heard it from a guy who heard it from this chick who was there, but not really there, but anyways, you're pickin' up what I'm puttin' down, right?
So said heroic soundman started soundcheck to find that of the 3 front stage monitors, 2 weren't working. Why? One cable was broken, and one didn't even have a cable! Wow! No wonder there wasn't sound from the center wedge. (Geek speak for "monitor") The Band, ever ready to be helpful and get the gig going, pulled out two of their cables to get the monitors running.
Being the consumate professional that he is, later in the evening, Mr. Soundman points out to the owner that "hey, this here cable's broken," and hands it to him. You know, 'cause thats what you do. He also pointed out that the band had to grab two of their own cables, one to replace the broken one and one to hook up the other speaker that was missing a cable.
Now, the owner, rightfully so, thinks, "hey, I know there were enough cables at the beginning of the night, WTF?" Which is understandable, right?
Fast-forward to loadout. Video evidence shows that there were enough cables to go everywhere before the band showed up. The band cable count shows that they have one extra, it's just not the same kind (not even close) as the other cables the owner has. A light stand is blocking the security camera's view of the stage after the band arrives- There's no way to know where the "matching" missing cable went, if it even was "matching".
So, kiddies, what do you do? The owner knows he's missing a cable, but the band knows they don't have it.
In real life, the band's nice, doesn't want to ruffle any feathers, sucks it up and buys the guy a new cable. The owner probably thinks less of the band, and (I'd guess, as remember, this is third, no fourth hand information, right?) the band probably thinks less of the owner.
Whatever the case, everyone's screwed. Without finding the actual missing cable, each guy thinks the other guy's pulling a fast one.
And that, my friends, is what went down in cow-town that night.
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