My old band are doing a couple of farewell shows after 25 years and some of us past members got up on stage to play a few songs on Saturday. The gig was at a decent venue with in house PA and sound guy provided. It's a decent sized venue but with a smallish stage and the band (without us extras) is a 10 piece so it was always going to be tight. As it wasn't my gig and I was only playing 4 songs I wanted to cause minimum hassle and didn't want to be a primadona. I thought, no problem I'll just take my powered toaster; DI and a little bit through the monitors to hear myslef - job done. I won't even need the remote taking up stage space as I can run a single profile and control clean/dirt rhythm/solo from the guitar's volume - proper old skool! However, I'll take the remote anyway and I'll throw in a cab just in case (always best to be prepared).
So, I get to the soundcheck after the band have done most of their checking and say to the sound guy (SG) "I'm playing a few songs in the second set. I've brought a Kemper so it'll make everyone's life super easy though"
SG - "Sigh" "you should have been here at the beginning and be set up already"
Me - "No problem I literally just need to plug in. If you give me a a single XLR and little bit through the monitors and we're good to go"
SG - rummages around for an extra DI Box. Ferrets around, making a bit of a show of the inconvenience, for an XLR cable and a space on the stage box for me. "There's your DI"
Me - "Thanks" quietly unplugs the DI and sticks the cable in the KPA main out Left (already set the outputs to Master Mono) guitar plugged in ready to line check.
SG - appears at the front of the stage carrying the opening band's Line 6 combo. "Plug your Kemper into this!"
Me - "Why?"
SG - "So you can hear yourself on stage............ Once the band start you won't hear enough through the monitors" Biting my tongue thinking, "I only played with these guys for 23 years and many gigs in this venue so I know how loud they are on stage"
Me - "No problem I brought a speaker cab just in case you needed it." (Mesa EVM12L Thiele ported cab)
SG - "Sigh"
Moment later, cab plugged in power amp on ticked. Ready to go.
SG "Sigh" rummaging around the stage looking for the cable in the back of his already unplugged DI Box. Finally finds it in the back of my toaster. Unplugs it and makes a thing about setting up an SM57 in front of my cab.
Me - "Why are you doing that?"
SG - " 'cause it sounds better!"
Me - biting tongue and almost tasting blood "Whatever"
So we soundcheck.
The Kemper with a guitar cab sounded immense. More hassle than necessary but bloody hell it sounded great on stage.
We go off and the other band come on stage and sound check. All of the mics are moved to their amps so the sound check was pretty pointless and the guitar sound out front is pretty much a lottery when they are put back for the gig; wheres it would have been totally consistent and made SG's life super easy if he had just left the KPA DI plugged in but Hey Ho.
Get back on stage during the gig and the mic gets bumped several times (didn't get moved much but it did move) so who knows what front of house sounded like. Audience members say great but variable is probably more accurate
All I know is the only bit I had control over is onstage sound and it was awesome
Funny thing is, the other guitarist was using a custom made 2x12 cab and a BluGuitar Amp1. He was "trying something different tonight" by trying to run it "old skool, like a single channel Plexi and just riding the volume on the guitar" but he had problems at sound check before I arrived as the Amp 1 wasn't compressing the way a Plexi would so the cleans were too quiet, thin and brittle and the crunch was WAY too loud. He ended up going back to normal multi channel mode for the gig. When he was playing alone the AMP 1 sounded pretty good but when we played together the difference way startling. The KPA just sounded and felt like a real amp and worked a treat in single channel ride the volume mode.
Still think the front of house sound would have been better/more consistent/less work if SG had just been less Kemper-O-phobic and taken an XLR from the Main Out. It also reminded me why after 30 years of gigging I still carry stuff I don't expect to need for those just in case moments!