Coming To You Live With FOH Engineer Rob Thomas
Well it's a hot one, like seven inches from the midday sun, so Sister Hazel's FOH engineer, Rob Thomas, sought shelter under a tent for this Gearwire interview. Rob tells us about some of the perils of FOH engineering from getting attacked by runaway tigers to dealing with borrowed equipment that has not been well maintained. Watch this for a better understanding of what its like to be the guy that makes you, the musician, sound good to the crowd.
ROB THOMAS: Rob Thomas, last name Maximus. No, I’m just kidding.
PATRICK OGLE: And what is your -- what are the all that you do here?
ROB THOMAS: Front of house for Sister Hazel.
PATRICK OGLE: You’ve got somebody going out then you front of house everything for a band going out on a band tour kind of thing. First time you did it, or with some things you remember.
ROB THOMAS: Patience. The first big gig, you know, they want everything good, to magically just happen, and chances are it’s your first war, your first battle, and you’re going to battle with a grumpy systems guy who would rather have your gig and has left his gig to be less than ideal. Patience, and I’ll tell you a great attitude goes probably the longest way. I‘ll bet on that. There’s days that you’re going to walk away from the dance that, you know, you’ve had some of the worst shows in your life where the band is giving you their best show o their worst show, but you’re at the end of that snake and that’s my dearly short kick. Yeah, man, a great attitude.
Yeah, man. I’ve got great attitude. Bring a great attitude, bring some patience, some day we’ll all get up to have the best tools and we’ll still manage to screw it up every time.
PATRICK OGLE: Right. That’s so.
ROB THOMAS: Yeah, mean. Bring a great attitude, bring some good patience and listen, listen, you know what I mean? Because chances are the guy’s been in that room, and he knows the PA better than you do. And if you all agree then you can change or exchange [INDISCERNIBLE].
KEN BLOCK: Do you guys want to sing little bit [PH] “Can you know me”?
[AUDIENCE CHEERING]
ROB THOMAS: It’s always the same story. Generally it’s lack of money via [SOUNDS LIKE] not bringing enough gear or the PA company not upkeeping their gear whether it’s in a club situation or even 24 stacks of whatever PA usually for the day. You’ll find more often that not that one single mic cable could ruin your day. One drop will kill a gig for you. If you listen -- Most people aren’t listening these days. Take a listen and you’ll find out that there’s more to be had and more to fix [INDISCERNIBLE], so listen. Listen to it
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