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Ceasar Pink and the Imperial Orgy
Live at Chashama, NYC, May 2009
Hurling gorilla production
Huge thanks to Vik, Mike, Rimas, Ricky, Perry, the Imperial Orgy band and all of the the Caesar Pink enthusiasts!
I am the bass player and covering some bg vocals for this show. That's me in the back in the Pocahontas suit, dropping that James Brown "Hey!" at the top of "Put Your Mama Down". I ended up running audio from the stage as well. I had 16 inputs and 10 separate mixes to the house, stage, and video.
Months before the show, Caesar needs help with production and there is no budget. Chashama is a theatre/gallery/party space. They have just enough gear to do small theatre showcases. I think I am going to do production with my own gear for just musician pay.
As the show drew near, more inputs and mixes are coming out of the woodwork. So my rig won't handle the configuration. I call around to see what gear is available in town for no money. I also need people to help with electrics and audio in.
ViK Vaituzis [IATSE Local One] found all the audio gear, two hands, worked the in and the out, and operated the lights. He was there all day/night! He had also contacted Bob Rendon at PRG who offered a DM 1000 which I didn't have time to program for the show-no tech rehearsal-instead I borrowed a GA 32:12 along with an in ear monitor rig for myself from Perry Winston at Best Instrument Rentals. No snake was available at the time so the desk ended up on stage w/me.
Michael Pettersson of TWT productions is on camera covering the static footage, helped with the audio, and band gear, and provided the van that was used to cart the gear along with some monitoring mics that I used to help mix from stage.
I do all the preproduction and scheduling, completely over-plan. Wake up the morning of the show with a death defying migraine and hurling like "old faithful" - can't stand up. I start calling people to replace me for that day, I call Eric Mauriello, the previous bass player-out of town. no one is around, I would need too many people to cover my work, so, literally, I crawl about, gather the gear and head up from South Brooklyn to drive around town and collect more gear, cart it to the venue and set it up.
6 hours behind and a very upset band-"when do you think you'll be finished?". I don't blame 'em. Well..... we hit the first note on time, no squeals all night and you can hear everything. Too bad there was no time for me to refresh the bass parts or get jiggy at all. With no time to ring the room either, I was extra conservative on the effects. I took the advice of the many people who were there to help regarding the house mix. We were very lucky that they helped. "Mucho" complements on the house mix that night.
Unfortunately we did not have time to monitor the video's audio levels-one channel pins and the other channel only recorded the left house main due to location. The left house main [like all of the outs,] was it's own mix so not everything was in it.
At the end-Caesar pays me extra for production-very nicey-nice. Thanks Pink. again... Huge thanks to Vik, Mike, Rimas, Rick, Perry, the band and all of the the Caesar Pink enthusiasts!
Hillcrest Jewish Center-Audio restoration
Before and after photos of a Synagogue that I did audio work for. It was a fun project as I was restoring an old system and also because they were very nice people. The audio system for this client included a ballroom attached to the Sanctuary with a collapsible wooden wall between, an upper and lower balcony section, and the lobby. It had seen 20 yrs of wear and [literally] tear and, as usual, they have no budget. Restoration included repairing ceiling and wall cable runs, replacing torn speakers, re hanging the mains in the Sanctuary to fulfill their very objective, and drawing them an instruction booklet that showed then the optimal settings and how to achieve the multiple configurations they desired. I was able to complete the job for them under their budget constraints without having to cut my rates or sell them junk. Everybody was happy!
This is the Sanctuary, before
This is the Sanctuary, after
Mains, before........and.........Mains, after
Mains were originally nailed to the decorative wall spine to the left of the main (above left). I needed to turn them out and slightly down to achieve the objectives. The stabilizing panel is Poplar-distressed and painted to match the wall. The hanger/hinge gave it form and function. A wire safety hides behind. The cover was a gratis finishing touch I added to say thanks to Temple members Steven and Ruth Rosenhaus who referred the bid opportunity to me.
