Adventures in Sound Land, episode 1: In which Clay makes an ass of himself.

Here’s the deal. Yesterday around 4 I got a call from a guy wondering if I could run sound for him at a restaurant/bar in Weatherford.  I had mixed for him before at the bar where I used to work, and I was confident that I could do it again, no problem.  Feeling that I could use the extra money, I gratefully accepted, and we agreed on a very reasonable rate.   I showed up at 7, with the show scheduled to start around 9.  The opening act, a guy who, incidentally, asked me for more feedback in his monitors (meaning more vocals), went on as scheduled and his set went smoothly. The headliners came on stage shortly thereafter, and all went well.  At least until 12:15.

At that point, a guy I had never seen before (not even in the room all night) came up to me at the sound board, which was set up next to the right hand speaker stack, tapped me on the shoulder, and told me it sounded like shit.  The dialogue was as follows:

Asshole: “It sounds like shit.”

Me (rather indignant): “What sounds like shit?”

Asshole: “Everything.”

Me (with raised middle finger): “Fuck off.”

Asshole: “I own this place.”

Me: “Oops.”

Bear in mind that I have been doing this for a while. I can’t count the times that some drunk idiot has come up to me at the board and given me “advice” on how to do my job.  Irksome as such behavior is, I generally ignore it, smile politely, and go back to what I was doing.  In last night’s case, however, I guess I had had one too many beers on an empty stomach, and my first reaction was the one that came out.

In my defense, the above dialogue between me and Asshole/Owner was the complete extent of our conversation at first. He didn’t identify himself, he didn’t ask me to turn something down. He just walked up and stated that it sounded like shit.  Naturally, my professional pride took a hit.  Not nearly as much as it did 20 minutes later when yours truly, red-faced, had to explain the whole scenario to the band who had hired me.

I smoothed it over to some extent.  Took a 30% reduction in my pay, and apologized to the band and Asshole/Owner.  Probably won’t be mixing for that band anytime soon.  Definitely won’t be back to that restaurant.

Today’s expensive lesson:  Keep your stupid mouth shut, Clay.