Before they were famous.

Randy Gartner

Randy Gartner

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Jan 12, 2011
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I posted awhile back that Taylor Swift walked up to a singer I was mixing for at a festival and asked to sing a few songs before she was famous.Then over the weekend,I found out another act I mixed,Halestorm opened up for a band I was doing sound for at a local fair.I remember them well because I was a little pissed because no one informed me there was going to be an opener.I also remember they were very polite although I wasn't impressed with them at the time,but that was maybe 10 years ago.Well now they're kind of famous.So who did you all get to mix before they were famous?


Halestorm : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC0DNLDXJW8
 
Re: Before they were famous.

Randy Gartner said:
So who did you all get to mix before they were famous?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC0DNLDXJW8
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Jewel! It was a very fun show. She had opened for Richard Thompson that night. A coffee house had hired her to play a set after the show. They expected about 10 people and imagined that she would play acoustic. No PA.
Over 100 people were there. I was loading out of a show next door, and the owner of the club I was working at alerted me to the situation, and brokered the deal. The crowd was so thick that I had no room to get the PA in, but just handed pieces in the door, and they bucket brigaded them to the "stage". We were up and going in less than half an hour, and it was an amazing set. Several weeks later her songs were on the radio. I remember she had a disc that she had recorded in Alaska with her titled "Linoleum". I still have a copy that she gave me.
 
Re: Before they were famous.

My largest up and comer was Lady Antebellum. This was about nine months before their first album, and long before I had worked with any A level group. I was talking to them after the show and thanked them for a great sounding, easy day. They were so good you had to try to mix them bad!


Sent from my iPhone
 
Re: Before they were famous.

I did Creed on their van tour at a college. I think they played to about 50.

my favorite though was BareNaked Ladies. Best show I ever did. Best crew. Best band. They had already been big in in Canada but were largely unknown in the States although I knew who they were. It was about a week before their breakthrough record Stunt hit. They played for about 100 but I KNEW those songs were gonna blow up. It was an AWESOME show.
 
Re: Before they were famous.

I've provided audio for a college radio conference since it formed in 1997 or so. 80-120 bands per year Lots of up and comers that became big, rarely a guest engineer due to the budget. Elliot Smith, Drive-by Truckers, Dashboard Confessional, and a whole bunch of others in sub-250 cap venues.

I imagine that club guys have this experience all the time, but our market hadn't really had a ~500 capacity club until fairly recently. Plus we rarely work in bars...

Jason

Sent from some device, using some software, probably inconveniently. Apologies for any mistakes of grammar, spelling, or meaning.
 
Re: Before they were famous.

brian maddox said:
I did Creed on their van tour at a college. I think they played to about 50.

my favorite though was BareNaked Ladies. Best show I ever did. Best crew. Best band. They had already been big in in Canada but were largely unknown in the States although I knew who they were. It was about a week before their breakthrough record Stunt hit. They played for about 100 but I KNEW those songs were gonna blow up. It was an AWESOME show.
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Seen on a bumper sticker about 10 years ago: 'Even Jesus hates Creed'. YMMV.

Before they were "big"? Chris Ledoux, Hootie & the Blowfish (their FOH guy was ill that night), Miranda Lambert, and scores of "new" acts on radio station promo shows that were forgettable.
 
Re: Before they were famous.

I miss an up and coming band when they are in the area and playing places that don't have pa, Backroad Anthen, I do believe this group has a chance to be really successful. Pleasure to work with these guys.
 
Re: Before they were famous.

Sarah MacLachlan is probably the biggest for me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_McLachlan

The Dalhousie gig mentioned in the article wasn't her first, but I provided production for the show, and mixed monitors for the opener, Moev. October Game (the band she fronted) was stuck with a 12 channel Yamaha console, and one monitor mix. Their sound guy was livid, but that's what the promoter asked for and was paying for. It didn't stop her (but not the full band) from getting signed by Moev's record company, so obviously the lack of production didn't hurt her that much.

A few weeks or months earlier, I did mix October Game at the local YWCA. I think this was probably her first public performance. Although I knew the bass player (whose project it was), and my cousin was playing drums on the gig, I have to admit I don't remember her at all. I guess that's why I'm mixing bands and not signing talent to record labels. :roll:

I was doing another show at Dalhousie with a bunch of blues bands, when Jeff Healey and his band showed up and played a few tunes. This was after they had recorded the first album, but before it had been picked up by Arista and released in the US, so that probably counts as "before they were famous". What a monster guitar player that guy was!

GTD
 
Re: Before they were famous.

Got to mix a young Wynton Marsalis on 4/5/82, every jazz cat in town was at First Avenue in Minneapolis that night- Billy Peterson ( a great bass player) had me turn up the hi-hat :^).
Got to mix REM when they opened for Gang of Four on the September-October tour in 1982.
I can't recall for sure if I mixed U2 earlier that year (2/21/82) at First Avenue , or if they had a sound man. I did mix Billy Idol at 1st Ave on 10/27/82, though his career kind of tanked, he was great at that show.

On 7/19/86 mixed Jesse "The Body" Ventura and the Soldiers Of Fortune, he never got big in music but was in lots of action movies and played the governor of Minnesota for a while.

Art
 
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Re: Before they were famous.

Most of the acts I did were "up and coming" or "down and out".

A few higher levels.

I worked with quite a few large names-but not at the peak of their popularity.
 
Re: Before they were famous.

Tim McCulloch said:
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Before they were "big"? Chris Ledoux,
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Chris was our opening act on the Sawyer Brown tour across Canada in January 1993. He was cool before he hit, cool while he was on top, and cool after his hits faded. It's really too bad that he's gone. BTW, his crew and band were just as nice to be around. A positive and friendly attitude at the top always trickles down through any organization.

Chris was funny, too. His bus accidentally killed a squirrel on the trip between remote Canadian towns. Outside of the venue one morning, he collected wood and started a fire. He skinned the roadkill, stretched the pelt with boughs, and dried it high above the fire. He roasted the meat carefully on a handmade spit, brushing occasionally with barbecue sauce. He quartered it and served it in Mark Miller's dressing room with the normal catering, complete with pretty garnishes. It actually looked and smelled delicious. The pelt was presented, too. It was a perfect and hilarious gag that took all day to execute. Darn, I miss that group of people...
 
Re: Before they were famous.

Art Welter said:
Got to mix a young Wynton Marsalis on 4/5/82, every jazz cat in town was at First Avenue in Minneapolis that night- Billy Peterson ( a great bass player) had me turn up the hi-hat :^).
Got to mix REM when they opened for Gang of Four on the September-October tour in 1982.
I can't recall for sure if I mixed U2 earlier that year (2/21/82) at First Avenue , or if they had a sound man. I did mix Billy Idol at 1st Ave on 10/27/82, though his career kind of tanked, he was great at that show.

On 7/19/86 mixed Jesse "The Body" Ventura and the Soldiers Of Fortune, he never got big in music but was in lots of action movies and played the governor of Minnesota for a while.

Art
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We were asked to open for U2 at the Park West back in '81 or so. My father in law turned it down, as we hadn't played out much yet, and he didn't know who they were...

Best regards,

John
 
Re: Before they were famous.

Jason Glass said:
Chris was our opening act on the Sawyer Brown tour across Canada in January 1993. He was cool before he hit, cool while he was on top, and cool after his hits faded. It's really too bad that he's gone. BTW, his crew and band were just as nice to be around. A positive and friendly attitude at the top always trickles down through any organization.

Chris was funny, too. His bus accidentally killed a squirrel on the trip between remote Canadian towns. Outside of the venue one morning, he collected wood and started a fire. He skinned the roadkill, stretched the pelt with boughs, and dried it high above the fire. He roasted the meat carefully on a handmade spit, brushing occasionally with barbecue sauce. He quartered it and served it in Mark Miller's dressing room with the normal catering, complete with pretty garnishes. It actually looked and smelled delicious. The pelt was presented, too. It was a perfect and hilarious gag that took all day to execute. Darn, I miss that group of people...
Click to expand...

Cool story. Truth be told, I'd never heard of Chris Ledoux until recently when Chris' steel guitar/fiddle/rhythm guitar player joined my band. Everyone's said that Chris was the real deal....a man's man.
 
Re: Before they were famous.

Tim McCulloch said:
Seen on a bumper sticker about 10 years ago: 'Even Jesus hates Creed'. YMMV.

Before they were "big"? Chris Ledoux, Hootie & the Blowfish (their FOH guy was ill that night), Miranda Lambert, and scores of "new" acts on radio station promo shows that were forgettable.
Click to expand...

i was gonna apologize for not dropping a speaker on Scott Stapp and doing us all a favor, but I thought better of it.

ar least until now... :)
 
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