The answer is a decent Backline of multi-purpose guitar amps, drums (and/or keys). I try to make deals with some of the bands I play with to either use their gear or they use mine thus keeping the band changeover between bands and soundchecking at the begining to a minimum.

Also good Stage Management by the club helps out too. Each band has a place to put their gear and folks to help them get things on/off the stage quickly and safely.

These days, I bring just my acoustic guitar, a pre-amp/DI box and an echo pedal for my guitar (I don't even use an amp much anymore) and make sure I have everything I need to play either solo or with a band in 2 cases (guitar and breifcase with pedals, harps cables and whatnot) I keep them with me at all times and never let them out of my sight when I am at the club.

I had one really crappy experience on the road which I will re-post from my MySpace Blog here. It goes like this:
"It was the Soundman who made the blunder. He showed up late when I was early, gave me no direction as to where I was supposed to put my things, then when I finally figured out who he was and where I was supposed to do, it was already past my start time and the soundman then turned off the PA on me in mid-song and said "Thank You Howlin' Houndog!" Without the intervention of another local band I would have had to just moved my crap off stage quickly. I did get paid for that show, BUT I have never been treated so shabbily (nor would I treat another performer like that) It rattled me for days afterwards. I really didn't give a shit about getting paid I just wanted to pack my shit and leave. If it weren't for the two other bands involved who where way cool, I mighta just said "Fuck You" to the soundman (or if this were earlier in my career I mighta slugged him for being such a dickhead) Now to be fair he did appologize (sheepishly) later. I think I was still was the better person for letting it slide while I was playing and being pretty understanding in the end."

It depends on two things;

Firstly: Has your band got its shit together? I almost always (if I can) step off the stage and listen to what my band sounds like from the floor. I balance the stage sound so the band on stage can hear what we do musically and have good sight-lines (in case we can't) and the audience gets a decent balanced mix. I tell the sound opperator not to make things too loud but to re-enforce what we are doing already on stage (too loud a sound doesn't get folks to move up close when you start playing!) and to make sure that we can both hear the vocals on stage and they are not blasting the audience either. I hate it when I get dizzy from the volume when I am on stage.

This brings up my second point;

Is the sound opperator worth a shit? Most are and if you treat 'em with respect they can make your band sound even better, but if you treat 'em like crap then you can bet your sound will suck. It also depends on the room. If you are too loud and the sound opperator says turn it down and you tell him "But that is our sound, so Fuck You!" then you can bet you won't sound good.

It is all a fine balance that if done correctly everyone is happy. If done wrong (on both sides) can end up in a situation where no one is satisfied.

One of the reasons I DON"T do Live sound anymore, is it is a thankless tiring, never ending job where the successes are as fleeting as the failures. I learned a lot of tricks I took into the studio though (where people are more appreciative) Still I always introduce myself to the sound opperator when I get to a club and chat with them for a while. More often than not they appreciate the fact that I respect them and will try to give me what I want and vice versa.

Ever spend over an hour sound checking in some club and the sound guy's having your drummer hit his snare for half an hour and then it's finally showtime and you still can't understand what the fuck you're hearing on stage?
What do you think? Do sound checks enhance your amazing performances or do you think it's just choking and stroking?

Nice set. High 5's to the Scaffold selection...this is one of my favorite "bad" records. Nice to see some Powder being played too.

Egg

Hey guys. I have a radio show here in Traverse City, Michigan on WNMC 90.7 www.wnmc.org
I'm on every other Friday night from 11PM to 2AM. I rotate with another DJ so I can't name the show anything garage-centric since we share the timeslot so for the time being it's "The Show" basically it's a free form program so we play what we want.

Here is my playlist for last week, 11/23/2007. I played some thanks and food related songs then did a little set for the working man since it was Friday and payday for most people.

Thanksgiving Day- Ray Davies

Cold Turkey- John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band

Puddings and Pies- Gustav Temple and the Blades

Thank U Very Much- the Scaffold

Dig In- the Fleshtones

Bert's Apple Crumble- the Quik

Cookin'- Pete Townshend

Delicious- Jim Backus & Friend

Hot Potatoes- the Kinks

Rice Krispies ad 1963- the Rolling Stones

I Just Got My Pay- the Beach Boys

Rush Hour Blues- the Kinks

The Job That Ate My Brain- the Ramones

Work All Day- the Mark Four

Dreaming About Work- the Subway Surfers

Working Man's Cafe- Ray Davies

The Crusher- the Novas

So Sad About Us- the Who

If I Ever Get My Hands On You- the Artwoods

If You Think You're Groovy- P.P. Arnold

Paisley Pattern Ground- the Black Hollies

It Happens Every Day- the Lemon Drops

Saturday's Child- the Monkees

On A Saturday- Keith West

Inner City Pressure- Flight of the Conchords- another WNMC exclusive ;)

Great Shakes radio ad- the Yardbirds

Psycho Daisies- the Yardbirds

Saturday's Best- the Swingin' Neckbreakers

You Can Be My Baby- the Red Squares

I Wanna Come Back From the World of LSD- Fe-Fi-Four Plus 2

I'll Come Running- the Mad Hatters

1234- the Bootmen

Taking Some Time On- Barclay James Harvest

Flashback- Silk Winged Alliance

Make Love To Me Baby- the Galaxies

The Willie- the Rivingtons

Ruby Red Lips- Powder

Open Up Your Door- Richard and the Young Lions

Tinker Taylor- Terry Reid

Peanut Duck- Marsha Gee

Don't Burst My Bubble- Small Faces

I Found A Peanut- Thee Midniters

It's Lookin' Good- the Rutles

Don't Blow Your Mind- the Spiders

So What!!- the Lyrics

Where You Gonna Go?- the Unrelated Segments

Busy Body- the Sonics

It's My Pride- the Thanes

The Truth About Ruth- High School Sweethearts

She Lives In A Time Of Her Own- the Cynics

I Got A Line On You- the Woggles

Headin' For the Texas Border- Flamin' Groovies

A Hard Road- Royal Purple

Stolen Moments- the Torquays

Our Fate- the Mourning Reign

Urban Guerilla- Hawkwind

Summertime- the Pretty Things

I Can Only Give You Everything- the Little Boy Blues

Pretty quiet night, no callers I guess because of Thanksgiving weekend

www.wnmc.org

http://www.myspace.com/wnmcradio

I didn't think we needed a separate forum for the New Breed bands. Most of that forum lately was just being used by labels pimping their new releases anyway. So I think the New Breed and Shakin' Street stuff can all be talked about in the same general Hideout forum here, don't you? It's not like there are a ton of discussions going on here yet, anyway. YET. If it becomes a dilemma later, then maybe we can think of either adding a New Breed group or creating a subcategory here on the main forum.

iPhones are down to about $400 now, so you could always use your big corporate bonus to buy one, then there's nothing stopping you from browsing any site you want to while at work! ;) I don't know if you've ever played with one of those things or not, but they're pretty fuckin' cool. Stop by an Apple store sometime and check one out...

Anyway, thanks for your comments, dumfuk.

I give it a thumbs up too. The GP Forums are fine and all, but pretty bland and I guess I like to have something that is visually interesting. Compared to other boards (old school) I find it fairly simple to use and its nice to rap with kats and kittens into similar music genres all in one place. It will be interesting to see how it pans out for band/label/venue etc. promotion and networking. Nice work Kopper.

I think I'm going to be addicted to the hideout! Fuck the sandy vags who say it loads too slowly blah blah blah...

some plusses: That music player is great. Many cheers to the cat (?RAMI LTX ?)who has the Phantom's "love me" consistently at #1! It gets 5 stars from me every time.


a huge minus=I can't use it from work. "Social networking/dating" is blocked. Although my productivity will increase (and I'll be following my employee handbook), some of my favorite moments at "work" were on the garagepunk forums. Now I'll neglect my children, so I can post at home.

Some questions:
-How does that music player work? Is it the higher rated songs stay on and the others get booted (duh?)? Does everyone in the hideout see the same player or is it individualized like a Pandora? Why haven't my uploaded songs been played, yet?

-Will there be a Shakin' Street and New Breed group/forum? I assume that the general forum that is set up now will replace the Shakin' Street, but I'll miss the New Breed group....

So far, so good...

I think they put out one 10" and a 7". I don't know anything else about them. I agree - it was good stuff.

Does anyone know if the Madame X who recorded a 10 inch on Estrus in 1998 did anything else? Is she/was she in other bands? The CD (for I have never even seen the vinyl) was great; all sleazy, desperate, whiskey-soaked torch songs

Did anybody get the Ron Wood autobiography yet? Does he mention the Birds or his brother's band the Artwoods at all? I heard it's better than the Clapton autobiog which I hear doesn't go much into his experiences with the Yardbirds or John Mayall.

I suppose I will have to go back to using iTunes, which is a piece of bloatware I have never liked.
It is always trying to reorganize my files and quicktime just shits me. Is there an iTunes lite?

Go to the GaragePunk Podcast page in the iTunes store and look @ the sidebar that shows what other shows the subscribers also listen to... click on some of them and do the same thing; you'll find some pretty swell stuff!

Personally I dig the old time radio broadcasts/radio theater Podcasts! I'm especially hooked on Old Time Radio Network SciFi podcast... great stuff to listen to while laying in bed @ night.

I really dig the GaragePunk Podcasts, and the Barman's "Drunk & Disorderly" is pretty cool, but I need more.
So can you guys tell me some other cool music podcasts I can d/load to my mp3 player?
It doesn't have to be totally "garagepunk"... cool, innovative and interesting music of any sort will do.

Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson was great (but still kinda stretching it a bit too) This film was supposed to be his big break in the biz and then he went and did "Around the World in 80 Days" with Jackie Chan and no one forgave him for that tradgedy of a film.

Even though they say 24 Hour Party People was a Docudrama, it was more like a Docudramatragicomedy. It was mythos run a much. Every thing mentioned in the film had some sort of factual reference, but was quite distorted beyond comprehention (in a good self mocking English sorta way) I have it on DVD.

I've only heard girls ooh and ahh over "Control" so it's a gloom chick flick-that's all I need to hear to walk the other way!

I really enjoyed 24PP. Always liked Steve Coogan.
I should also say Mrs Yates loved Control, so maybe it's more a chick flick, than a RnR flick?

I liked the portrayal by Sean Harris in the movie "24 Hour Party People" I don't hink Jude Law has what it takes to really give the angst and anger that resided in Ian.

BTW Who played Rob Gretton? Paddy Consodine also did an excellent job in "24HPP" Andy Serkis also played Martin Hannet and you can't beat that either.

Me thinks they pooched it, but I haven't seen it yet.

BTW that Brian Jones film really sucked! I haven't even seen in out on DVD. I wouldn't pay a buck to see it either (I saw it on a bargain mat and posted a review on the GP Forum someplace) It stunk!

A bit of both. The main focus is Ian Curtis.

Sounds pretty bad. I'd watch it for free. It couldn't be as bad as the Brian Jones bio-pic, but I've been wrong before!

Is it a movie about Joy Division's Ian Curtis, or is it a movie about Ian Curtis who happened to be in this band called Joy Division?

i'm in

and where the hell is satch?

Yeah, it had a rating of five stars. Probably why it's stuck at the top!

Some shameless self promo on my part. The mainsite - http://smashintransistors.homestead.com The blog - http://smashintransistors.blogspot.com

We're kind of going around in circles on this topic now... did you read through the posts on the first page?