After sound check I went to a pub to chill for a spell and then headed back to the venue and made myself a sandwich. Showtime got pushed from 8pm to 8:30. We were a little stressed from sound check, as it ran late and Town Hall has Union rules which state soundcheck has to be completed by 6pm. We finished at 5:59pm!

The show was really fun and someone threw a rose onstage for the encore! After the show, I hung out with a few fans, like Frank, the TOTAL fan (appearently, Ray Davies wrote ROCK AND ROLL FANTASY about Frank), who comes to every Love show and is friends with the Singer.

Now, I’d like to clear a few things up for our sound experts out there. First off, it always takes the first 2 songs to get the mix right. this is why we don’t play F.C. first off the bat. Because we are dealing with loud rock instruments and very sensitive violin microphones, the sound engineer has to strike a delicate balance and be 100% on his toes.

Why isn’t the Singer’s mic being turned up more? It is turned up as loud as possible. When you are in pain and you take meds, sometimes they can dry the throat a bit. I dunno if this is this case. I do know the volume coming from the SOURCE (aka, the VOICE), IS very LOW. Our soundguy, Pete, does his best to remedy this. But the Singer tends to warm up by the 4th song or so.

Until then, my guess is Pete is “riding” the mic faders and, if you think about, the drums and bass are directly behind the Singer. Now, do you wanna gate the Singer’s mic? He’s not that kind of Singer and it sounds crappy when you gate his mic. So, for now, the first couple of songs may sound a bit uneven but trust me when I say it isn’t the soundguy. Also, it’s worth it to mention that the venue is empty when we soundcheck. By the time the show started there were 1500 people. This changes the sound dynamic. How much it changes depends on the venue and the engineer. I’m sure a professional could sum this up much better than i but i hope i’ve shed some light on the subject.

Anyways, it’s great to be back home (after 8 long days!) and i feel as if it’s been a month (i must be getting old…)…well the live album will be released in a few weeks…and I am anticipating it! Are you?

Mike Randle