Rubble rubble rubble rubble rubble rubble

The second show of our warm-up run was at Rubble’s Bar in Mt. Pleasant, MI. We loaded in fairly early and were pleased to see that the promoter from the last night’s show, Corey, was also promoting and doing sound for us at Rubble’s. Corey is a really nice guy with a super great attitude. Rubble’s has a PA system older than anyone in the building. The horn-loaded design, complete with bass scoops, was eerily similar to the PA system I used to build at glamorous Starshine Sound.

"That's not a snowplow, it's my subwoofer!"

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the age of the PA that presented the challenges. Rather, it was the assumptions that the PA’s installer had made about what bands would need and where people would be standing. The PA, which was 3-4’ deep, sits a foot in front of the stage on either side, pointed out. This means that the first 4-5’ worth of audience don’t hear ANYTHING from the main speakers. More disturbing, however, was the fact that, while we had 4 monitors and 4 mixes, only six things could go to the monitors. In a band with four vocals, I had only two channels to play with really. Once again, the guys reminded me of why I love working with them and were totally cool, going with the flow in masterful fashion.

"Monitor World:" Note the lack of graphic equalizers.

After soundcheck, Joe, Zubin, Ross, Andrew and I went to a brew-pub called “Mountain Station.” I’ll be charitable and say that the food was mediocre. I had a pint of their IPA, which was mediocre at best. The hops felt thin and without a decent base of flavor to build on, sort of like a rock band that’s all vocals and no bass. I don’t usually drink before gigs, since my judgment is why the band hired me, but since we had 3 hours between the dinner and work, I decided to have a tasty adult beverage. My wrap was overpriced, under heated and unsatisfying.

After dinner, we wandered back to the club, where I spent a little while talking to my housemate, Will, while wandering the streets of Mt. Pleasant. Mt. Pleasant is a nice enough town, though, as far as I could tell, its downtown was empty on a Sunday evening except for the hundred or so people who came to the Tally Hall show. I did notice one idiosyncrasy: liquor stores in Mt. Pleasant are called “Party Stores.” Before looking in the windows of one of the three “Party Stores” within a 2 block radius of the club, I had thought that people in Mt. Pleasant just liked to throw parties. I guess I was more right than I could’ve imagined.

Talking to Will was great, especially since I could describe to him what I was seeing in Mt. Pleasant, so I could feel like I had someone with me. The whole experience left me with a funny mixture of feelings, at once at home and adventuring, kind of like this whole touring thing. Seems like I spend all of my time doing what I’d wanted to do for so long, while being in strange places with relative strangers.