Got a call Friday. Guitar player cut his hand with a Skill saw and couldn't play a gig. Could I cover it for him.

It was our local PBS TV station having a tailgate party on Saturday. They are located on the UK campus a couple hundred yards from the Stadium.

They didn't know me and I didn't know them. I arrived on the recommendation and reputation of a friend who also plays music and works for the station as a camera man.

The building is on a corner, set back about 60 feet or so and raised about 4 or 5 feet above sidewalk level. They asked me to set up on the raised area, but I would be playing to people eating and milling about in tents at the lower sidewalk level.

I had some concern but decided to set up anyway, check for coverage and deal with the issues, if there were any.

Soo.... I slipped in a CD, set the volume to a comfortable level 4 feet in front of the L1, and took a walk.

The area I was supposed to cover was about 45 by 100 feet. I was set up about middle of the 100' side. Beyond the 45' distance was a sidewalk and the shoulder of the roadway.

On game day The shoulder is considered public space and people line up bumper to bumper to party before the game. There are a lot of car stereos and boom boxes playing all different kinds of music, and on this day, diagonaly across the intersection was a group playing hip hop music through a couple of 15" eons.

As the third song on the CD was playing a young man approached me to ask if I would play some AC/DC??!!!!! What?? It seems he thought my music selection was too laid back and not appropriate for game day tailgating. And since my system was drowning everybody else out, I should play requests.

I apologized, but explained I was hired by the TV station to play to their guests, and unless they complained, I would continue with my choice of music. I also warned him if Delbert was too laid back, I would probably kill him when I started to play live!

The coverage was excellent. If there was degradation in the sound at the sidewalk level I couldn't hear it with the CD. The response that I got during my performance and the comments afterward indicated that everyone, including the rowdy students, who I eventually won over, could not only hear but really enjoyed what I did.

The porchboard adds another dimension to the music when I use it, and people respond to the beat more readily. I could see kids on the other side of the 4 lane road clapping and dancing while grey hairs 20 feet in front of me carried on a normal conversation.

As game time approached, the traffic both on the street and sidewalks increased with literally thousands of people coming into the game. From my vantage point I could see many heads turn and even had people cross the street to wave, say hello, or give a "thumbs up".

As I was packing up, the young lady who hired me came by to tell me her boss said to save my number.

Oldghm

Edit; added comma to show that it wasn't the young lady, that I was packing up.

~Oldghm September 17, 2006~

Full thread here