I'm a part-time Live Audio Engineer: Let's break this video down...

53  2019-07-24 by TangerineReam

REFERENCE: https://streamable.com/n023o

First off: Anyone who still plays a Gibson SG, is gayer than someone playing a guitar with no headstock and a body designed like swiss cheese. Way to go Joe; Why don't you go get your Squire with the American flag strap while you're at it, you fucking fag?

OK, let's break the live rig down, and figure out who's to blame here. Joe stinks and was being a narcissistic delusional cunt here, but Boomer Oyster Cult and their crew might deserve some, too:

  • The main problem in all of this is Joe's amp rig. The sound guy should've been Johnny-on-the-spot and throttled the feed right from the mixing board. Assuming this is a pro setup; the mixing desk is probably digital. Meaning that there are files saved - right on the board - of the parameters that every instrument SHOULD be at, during the show. The leads and rhythm guitars are set at what they're set at, so that all you have to do during the show is ride the fader up or down for VOLUME (or gain). He should've just turned "Guitar 2" or whatever down, right from his desk.

  • If they have someone doing their Front of House, then most likely they have Tech's handling the guitar and bass rigs. I say this, because FOH is typically in direct contact with the Instrument Tech's. So if there's something fucked in "Guitar Feed 1", you walkie the Techs, and they head behind the amps to make adjustments, switch cables, packs, patches, etc. YOU DON'T LET THE ARTISTS TRY TO FIX IT ON STAGE, DURING THEIR FUCKING SONGS. Big NO-NO, and a quick way to get fired from the tour, band, etc. It's common for them to motion to you onstage about something being out, but THEY don't fix it. Also; most artists have no idea what the fuck they're doing with their own equipment to begin with, so when the singer at 2:03 goes to turn Joe's guitar down, HE ACTUALLY TURNS THE THING UP, by mistake. He probably doesn't have much of an idea of what he's looking at on an amp head (given that he's just a singer) and now he's just made it worse,but can't doing anything about it, because he has to go back to the song and/or is afraid of fucking the thing up entirely. What the BOC should have done - being professionals - is motion to the sound guy onstage to turn Joe's amp DOWN, by pointing at the AMP and then pointing DOWN. Not only would they have communicated the right way to fix the problem, but stupid faggot Joe would have seen the gesture and gotten the message. If he didn't, then it could've just been throttled from the board, OR...

  • They could've just turned the other guitars UP. The sound guy would've been able to see the parameters of Joe's rig rivaling the rest of the band (on the readout of the digital board), and could've adjusted accordingly. They might wind up having to turn EVERYTHING up, but if it was set up in the right way, then they wouldn't have had to.

  • Joe is a faggot.

So one way to look at this is that Blue Oyster Cult not having a small-but-proper stage team, is sad and makes them kinda gay. But another way to look at it is - because they DIDN'T have a good sound team - we were able to get great footage of Joe throughly embarrassing himself.

30 comments

1  Officer_McGrady 2019-07-24

If you think I’m gonna read all this you’re an idiot.

1  suirogerg 2019-07-24

Good analysis but you have a sort of boomer-esque way of CAPITALIZING shit...

Are you Joe?

1  TangerineReam 2019-07-24

no, just drunk.

I'll admit, I'm being a sort of know-it-all-fag here too. Most stage people are.

1  suirogerg 2019-07-24

This is how I know you’re not Joe. Nice not doubling down, sir. Also, TYFYS, we needed this analysis of Joe’s buffoonery.

1  TangerineReam 2019-07-24

Joe's buffoonery is all self-inflicted, which is what we pray for every day. But from a professional standpoint; the people that should be at fault here are the sound people, or lack thereof. They wouldn't have the same boner we'd have for all this: they'd be thinking "Holy shit we have to turn this fucking idiot down, because we can't hear the other boomer guitar fag members, which means that all they're getting is this cow's guitar-playing in their monitors, fuck...". That sort of thing.

1  RamonFrunkis 2019-07-24

No comment on having FIVE 4x12 cabs for a small (by sound of crowd) stage that overpower the IEMs? While everyone else is playing in pretty standard rigs? And what about Joe using his volume knob to turn down his output?

1  TangerineReam 2019-07-24

If the faggot band insists on have 4x12 cabs for country club shows, that's their call. In the sound world, you're a hired gun: Your input get throttled, the moment the band thinks you're trying to cut into them creatively.

I've worked with that before, where the bands just wanted to bring unnecessary cabinet rigs, because their amp heads WERE their sound, and the only way they could get the full effect of it, is if they lugged the cabinets everywhere. That's a situation where you have to go "Thats fine, but we gotta turn it down to X, and it going to go through the board at Y, because we're an 80 cap venue and we have neighbors, or the room might be too reflective, etc." At that point, I'm working for the venue, not the band. So the band has to take it. But if I was hired by the band directly, I would have to take their side and try to negotiate with the house soundly/floor manager.

1  Jungies 2019-07-24

YOU DON'T LET THE ARTISTS TRY TO FIX IT ON STAGE, DURING THEIR FUCKING SONGS. Big NO-NO, and a quick way to get fired from the tour, band, etc.

For the Rolling Stones, AC/DC etc, sure - that advice is sound. But this is BoC, a band far enough from the limelight that a shmuck like Joe's got a shot on-stage, and gets to play using one of their guitars (seriously, when was the last time you saw a band let a member of the public touch their stage-ready guitars, much less play them? And don't say "Buckethead", that dude's weird). At this point seeing them hauling their own gear out to the van wouldn't surprise me.

That, and the singer seems to be looking Joe right in the eye and telling him to wind it down, leads me to believe Joe should pay attention and roll down his volume (or pull out the plug and go acoustic).

1  RamonFrunkis 2019-07-24

I'll remind you that Joseph Colleen Cumia left a SCATHING review on the Facebook page of a venue he performed Solo Joe Acoustic Show at. Seems he had his amp cranked up too high and the patrons couldn't hear each other over the bellowing Maltin acoustic. He did not take too kindly to being told to turn it down and had to pay full price for his six Jameson and Gingers!

Seems like those people have a problem blasting their speakers to annoy all the passersby who don't want to hear that garbage.

1  DrSvarheeny 2019-07-24

Joseph Colleen Cumia. Got a niggas ribs hurtin

1  RamonFrunkis 2019-07-24

I am legitimately not fucking with you. That's his real, full, Christian name. You can search public records if you don't believe me. But I assure you it will be a waste of your time.

1  TangerineReam 2019-07-24

I get what you mean, but even still: The bottom right Marshall is mic'ed, meaning someone is managing this train wreck sonically. So even the venue sound guy could run on stage (or walk over to the rig if the board is on stage right or left) and turn the fucking thing down.

I wanna slam Joe, unabated. But I wanna make sure that we isolate the fault here properly. Joe's part is clear, but this is a "two to tango" situation here.

1  schabadoo 2019-07-24

Normally a FOH sound guy isn't touching someone's amp. They get you dialed in and then they handle the main sound up front.

1  TangerineReam 2019-07-24

I know. What I said was the FOH walkie the Instrument Tech's, who then make the adjustments on stage.

1  Dennyislife 2019-07-24

Now you know why rock and roll died. Its full of geeks.

1  Jungies 2019-07-24

Damn you, Thomas Alva Edison!

1  Ant_Sucks 2019-07-24

  • They're all old as shit and can't tell the difference between mediocre and awful anymore.

1  Persianschlong 2019-07-24

The final PowerPoint explains 96% of the problem

1  ReDMeridiaN 2019-07-24

I seriously doubt they have sound guys or even front of house help that aren’t full time employees of the venue.

To be reduced to playing with someone like Joe Cumia, there must’ve been a tragic fall from grace.

1  TacolasCage 2019-07-24

It looks like a farmer's market

1  ellencakehorn 2019-07-24

I hope Joe went for a good price at the auction

1  PrinceAlena 2019-07-24

Joe is sad

1  therealstinks 2019-07-24

i doubt they sound checked joes guitar too probably just the other 2

1  Bakersfield__Chimp 2019-07-24

The singer is Eric Bloom. That's his SG Joe's playing and I'm sure his Joe's playing though Eric's rig too.

1  TangerineReam 2019-07-24

Didn't know that, not a fan.

But this adds a whole new dimension to this video. You clearly see him making a knob-turning gesture in the beginning, and Joe making a "YEEESH" face, but then Eric Bloom goes and turns the guitar UP? So maybe this isn't the scenario we think it is?

Or maybe the footage volume just spikes up about 2:03?

1  Jung_Skywalker 2019-07-24

You're probably super inexperienced and think your limited knowledge applies to far more scenarios that it actually does. Your idea that the lead singer and part time guitarist of BOC wouldn't know how to turn down a fucking amp speaks volumes

1  TangerineReam 2019-07-24

Hi Joe!

1  Jung_Skywalker 2019-07-24

What you think is supposed to happen means nothing when you also think a 40 years in the business singer/guitarist for BOC wouldn't know how to turn down a fucking amp. Stop being a sensitive retard.

1  WindCityWelterweight 2019-07-24

Lol he even drowned out the drums

1  PunchedDolphin 2019-07-24

I'm a member of a signed and touring mid level hard rock band. I play guitar.

Your points are all fine and dandy except you're not accounting for a few things. First, a sound guy can't do shit if the sound from the actual speaker cabinet is blaring. Turning down the fader on the sound board doesn't turn down the sound coming from that amp. It would in a large setting, in a real venue, where the cabinet isn't as loud as the speakers amplifying it. This is a small county fair or something, and that stage volume isn't louder than Joe's amp. The fact that you implied the other guitar just be turned up to balance it out speaks loud volumes. Joe is too noisey. He is a deaf and is also retarded faggot. Don't make it seem like it's any less his fault where he put that knob.