Monday, October 6, 2008

Showbox sodo sound letdown

















So Saturday night I took my wife to see Mates of State and Santogold at the Showbox Sodo . I have seen 3 shows there so far and 2 times the sound was great, but the other night it was not good. I did my best to not let it bother me, but I felt I had to write something after the fact.

We have seen the Mates of State many times. It is one of the bands my wife and I share an appreciation for. I've listened to their songs over and over. So when the sound is bad I know what is missing. The vocal harmonies are very important. For the whole set the other night Jason's mic wasn't loud enough to be heard. It was working, in between songs he could be heard, but the level was too low when they were playing. My experience as a sound engineer wouldn't let me be the guy who goes to the soundboard to tell them, but I also couldn't believe they didn't fix it for the whole show. The band put on a good show none the less. We've suffered through bad sound for them before and I'm sure we will again.

Santogold also had some onstage low end feedback. It was messing with her performance, but she let it go. She had two dancers/ backup singers that my wife thought looked like performance artists. She had a point as I don't think they were really singing. Her set started off good, but she went into a string of slow numbers that spiraled out of control. We left early.

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