Comments on: What’s Your Mic Check Song?

By: Lisa Creech Bledsoe

Lisa Creech Bledsoe — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:31:58 +0000

Do you still have all your 8 tracks? We don’t. But we kept all our vinyl until just a few years ago… And yeah, we got a buncha cassettes still laying around, but not too many. I bet you could find plenty of cassette players in local thrift stores.

By: Sine Botchen

Sine Botchen — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:56:39 +0000

Tried to burn you a copy of Diving by Wire Train (actually brother’s guitar player’s cover of it) but it seems the aging Pioneer cassette tape deck has finally gone to be with Jesus.. [insert obligatory moment of silence here] Well, ’tis a shame. Now I gotta find a new/replacement cassette player. Some of my tape collection is 30 years old and I’ve yet to have the time, disk space, stash, or attention span to convert them all to mp3 format.
Sine Botchen´s last blog ..Chile Rellenos

By: Lisa Creech Bledsoe

Lisa Creech Bledsoe — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:33:16 +0000

I forgot to mention that the picture is Fatboy Slim. Cool shirt, huh?

Sine, I couldn’t find the Wire Train tune, but totally enjoyed the others, especially the Matthew Sweet song.

Bledsoe, I realized when you commented that I’m almost never around for your sound checks… I remember the one at The Pour House, tho, that time Aftershock opened for Cashmere. Or maybe I just remember that mad cool sound dude with the flame boots.

By: Sine Botchen

Sine Botchen — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:24:00 +0000

My brother’s band did very few cover songs and often saved those for goofing around or for sound checks. Which of course no one got to hear except for me and the sound guy and anyone else lucky/unlucky enough to have been pressed into roadie duty. My favorites were: Diving by Wire Train, Pretty in Pink by Psychedelic Furs, This Year’s Model by Elvis Costello and I’ve Been Waiting by Matthew Sweet.

By: Lance Bledsoe

Lance Bledsoe — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:15:51 +0000

When you’re playing with a band, the levels for one particular singer or mic are generally less important than the overall sound mix for the whole band. For many of my bar gigs with Aftershock, we often don’t have the luxury of a “real” pre-show sound check because the bar managers don’t want us making any musical noise (and presumably annoying the customers) before the actual show starts. So often the best we can do is confirm that all the mics and amps are connected and that we do in fact have sound coming out of the proper speakers and monitors at roughly the proper volume levels. Everything else gets worked out during the first couple of songs.

That said, I have roughly the same mic-check fantasy, and occasionally get to live it out, but as is often the case, the reality is usually less satisfying than the fantasy. My favorite mic-check songs (some in fantasy, occasionally in reality): Rocky Mountain Way, by Joe Walsh; Just a Gigolo, by David Lee Roth; Roadhouse Blues, by The Doors.