More unnecessary torture!

Back in August of 2009 my son, who works at a liquor store/bar surprised me with tickets to see one of my favorite groups live! One of the delivery drivers was handing out free tickets to see Collective Soul at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville New Jersey as a promotion. So not wanting to waste such an awesome free gift, I immediately made plans with my daughter who had just turned 21 the year before.

So we drive down the night of the concert and after paying $6 to park (nothing is ever really free!), getting in past security with camera intact, we found a spot right in front of the sound board and settled in for the evening. The Starland Ballroom was about the size of a large bowling alley and was converted into a Night Club type venue with a stage set up against one wall and an open floor in front surrounded by at least two or three bar areas and tables. It could easily accommodate well over 300 to 400 people without overcrowding and by the end of the night there was a descent size crowd.

I had never been there before and had no idea what to expect, but there we were right in front of the sound booth. There were two groups scheduled to go on before Collective Soul, so the first one up was a group called Safety Suit and what a shock! The group itself wasn’t all that bad, what I could hear of it, the sound was AWEFUL! There were stacks of speakers on each side of the stage and the volume was up so high you could feel the vibrations pelting your body which was very uncomfortable, not to mention there was so much distortion you could barely make out the music or understand a word that was being sung!

I’m not the most experienced person when it comes to working a sound board, but I think I could have done better! I used to hang with a bunch of people who always formed bands that played gigs out at bars and such; I did some recording for them so I know a tad about sound! I was shocked at how horrible the sound was in a well known venue like this! I have been to outdoor festivals that have had better sound, I went to see Rush at the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey and had lawn seats up on a hill and the sound was amazing!

By the time Blackstone Cherry, the next band came on someone had the foresight to turn it down a bit and they weren’t quite so bad! So by the time Collective Soul reached the stage, someone with some knowledge had stepped in and the sound was bearable! Ed Roland, his brother Dean and the rest of the guys tore the place apart! They were AWESOME playing all their hits and almost all the songs off the new album! Ed even did an impression of his dad, who was a preacher, during one song, so I ventured up close to the stage to get a better view of Ed and BAM, I’m blown away! I mean literally being blown away! The AC must have been set on 60 degrees and the ceiling fans on hurricane velocity, it was like being in a wind tunnel! Ok, I understand it was the middle of August and there was a heat wave going on outside, temps in the 90s and humid, but this was a bit extreme! I ended up cowering back by the sound booth until the end!

I’m not really such a wimp, I’m the kind who turns the volume up really loud when nobody is around, but I enjoy having pristine sound, so clear I can hear every note and every lyric! I also enjoy seeing groups play in small venues where one can get up close and personal, I’ve seen other groups in the past with no problem, so I was a bit bummed by the lack of knowledge or maybe they just don’t care about acoustics anymore and volume is all they know!  So although I loved being able to finally see in person one of my all time favorite groups, I left there feeling more like I had been trapped in a torture chamber, than a concert!