| Re: Los Lobos show at the Bowness community hall on September 10, 2004.
My goodness, what a terrible show. Los Lobos might have been terrific, but Brian Taylor’s production and choice of venue made any evaluation of the band impossible. The sound was muddy enough to pull the boots off anyone unfortunate enough to be within the walls of that concrete-block gymnasium, and the lights sucked hard enough to pull the neighbouring buildings off their foundations.
First, the sound. I am not a sound technician, so I cannot say why it was so awful, but I do know enough to say that it could have been much, much better. There was no separation between instruments, so the fabulous arrangements of that terrific band were lost. This was a small venue, so it could not have been prohibitively expensive to provide an adequate rig for the show. The only grace was that the vocals were clear and separate from most of the mush thrown at our ears.
Now the lights. I seem to remember a grade school play that was worse lit, but I am old and my memory of that show is almost as dim as the spark of talent in the lighting monkey standing at his board. The lights were ill-placed (more light behind the band than in front – why?) and haphazardly operated. The purple wash of the moving lights standing on an upended truss on the upstage end of the rickety stage was, to paraphrase H. P. Lovecraft, indescribably hideous.
The operator did not know the music… resulting in lights still moving and lit after songs were well over. The operator did not know how to hang lights. There were three static lights hung off the truss in front of the stage, at centre. They were hung off the bottom of the truss, so they shone almost directly in the eyes of the band… Next time, maybe try putting the lights on the top of the truss.
Why did all of this happen? One name: Brian Taylor. Please sir, stop putting on shows. You… obviously cannot hire good staff anymore, nor can you choose the right equipment or the appropriate venue (the Jack Singer Concert Hall was quiet as a mouse that night).
One Hand Clapping (Mr. Taylor’s production company) should instead be One Hand Waving Goodbye.
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