VJ memories

[brain]

hey how's about a thread where we post some funny/unusual/horrible things that happened to us when we prepared/played/tried to get home safely?

Like

What was your first gig like?
What was the best party you have ever played?
The most horrible place you have been to?
The nicest or meanest clubowner you had to deal with?
How did you handle it when all your equipment fucked up, the dj stepped on your most important tape and this one cable was missing?
etc etc.

... well i think there are SOME nice stories out there

[scarab]

this is not a special story, but a something that became like a ritual for all the gigs we've played:

at every gig there's at least one guy, who is seeing our big set-up of computers and mixers and thinks, that we are responisble for the music. most of the time these are the rocker-guys, who get drunk the hole evening and at a certain state of drunkness they want to bang theire heads to AC/DCs Hell's Bells.
that always takes 20 minutes to explain this guy why we are not responisble for the music. (and that even if we sit right next to the DJ)
i'm sure everyone faced this story once or twice, but in our case it's really becoming a standard scene at our gigs.

[brain]

my favorite reply to "can't you play a bit faster/louder/this-or-that-track" is "no, it's the guy over there with the black round things that makes the music". the best thing is the look on their drunk/pilled/stoned/tooyoung faces when they try to figure out whats going on...

the VJC t-shirt is great, but what if the DJ stands on the wrong side and the arrow points not correctly? i thought about a velco-fixed arrow which is adjustable

[scarab]

t-shirt would be much too small (even if they look very cool)
u should put a 5m width banner above your setup

[unjulation]

worst case sanirio:- haveing set my gear up went for a bite to eat, came back ony to find out that my t.v. out has gone kaput five minates before the gig, the house lights are down and my mag light is runing low on batries, (thank fxxk for emergansiy tapes) off with the sides of the computer out with both graphics cards, dueal monitors are a bugger when you have to re-boot drivers, if both cards are in it gets confused, so there i am two graphics cards in hands haveing to reinstaul the drivers, while fending of people splashing beer all over the shop, well serfise to say i did get it up and runing after about a hour, it's lucky that i do 6-8 hour sets and not to much was lost

thing i lernt- make sure that you check the kit before you leave and at least an hour before the gig, those gremlins get every ware


best case sanrio
1) did a gig for sundaysenstial in leeds, there i am playing about, and i have gone a bit retro personaly and had some star wars stuf on my hard drive so start playing about with the clips and sudenly theres a chear from the audiance, i look at the dj to see what hes up to and have a listen to see what the music is doing, thers no brakedown, the music is not doing anything new, and then i see every one is looking to the screens pointing at the malenium falcon chaseing a tie fighter, and chearing, first time i'd come accross that before, strange that most there wernt even old enough to see it the first time around, but thats iconic images for you

2) watching the sea of people at A.V.I.T. dance and point at the visuals, havent seen that for a while, ie never

[many2]

One of my best memories :

I was doing visuals for Heiko Laux at the SAT here in Montreal and I got to leave my setup after the show to unpack it the next day. The good surprise : the SAT technicians had unpacked my whole setup (and what a setup : 7 video mixers, 4 computers, a whole lot of VCRs, etc.), they had rolled the cables, placed mouse, keyboards, and everything next to the right computer so all I had to do was to pick it up and go home ! As you can see, I hate setups ! I want to mix visuals, not to plug/unplug some cables !

The worst :

I was playing at the same place (the SAT) and the other VJ I was playing with at the time came late, after the beginning of the show, because he had to render some videos first. So he finally came and as he was connecting his stuff : power breakdown !!! We had to stop the show for 30 minutes to find another power source just because our afternoon rigging test hadn't included his stuff. Never ever do a show if eveything (EVERYTHING) isn't connected and working at least an hour before the show. If it's not ready by then, keep it for later !

Many-2

[InsideUsAll]

One thing that keeps getting me down is this familiar story :


'Can I check my e-mails on that?' :girly:

Then the dog slow process of explaining

'no, this thing does the visuals'

confused look

'oh..... er so what are you doing with it then'

the tension mounts

'I'm manipulating the video clips, using the computer' :shake:

she realises

'Oooh I see, can I have a go then'

I must try and maintain some patience

'sorry if I seem pre-occupied but I am supposed to be concentrating, this requires as much if not more concentration than what the D.J is doing'

club makes it difficult to hear

'what dya say mate'

theres only so long you can take it for

'Look I'm trying to work, can you just shift out of the way of the screen'

then she takes offence

'alright mate keep your hair on'


yep, that happens to me on a regular basis now. don't want to seem sexist, but it is always girls too. Don't know if the lads think the same thing but are too proud to say it or what. But hey, I try to be as friendly as possible. Last thing I want to become is arsey with the punters, their the ones paying the bills!

[wellREDman]

one of my personal nightmare moments, (other than a punter puking on a borrowed MX50) was when AlwaysB noticed a lampy soldering pyros on our open case of vj tapes, after he'd informed us earlier that he was tripping his nuts off
a real filmic NOOOO moment

[murph]

tearing down from a great show in a museum, ask my girl to disconnect all the cables... She yanks the wrong one, still connected to the 2500 lumen projector I'd bought 3 days earlier... *crash* from 8 feet up... I scream NNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

playing in front of 7900 people at Turned On 2 in madison, standing on stage looking over the crowd... wow...

having a 1000+ person party move to a coffeeshop, ended up so hot half our gear failed. I now live with the promoter!

Furthur. Those of you in the midwest know what I'm talking about. =]

[LEVLHED]

mmm, yes murph...FURTHER...nuff said