Last night everything started smoothly … the load in, the setup – everything went unusually uneventful and smooth. Everything just worked.
The crowd started coming in and the back-stage, pre-show nervousness is there. I am listening to what’s going on in the theatre through my IEMs and then, about 10 minutes before I was about to go on stage, the sound just cuts off !@#$%
I look at my IEM receiver – everything’s great. Fresh batteries were installed, the signal strength is great … must be the cable.
Told my drummer what happened – he started “feeling” the cable and found a small breaking point. I held it together and it worked. The guys at the venue we performed were great and produce some electrical tape in 1 minute, I patches the cable and was able to performer the entire evening without a problem.
My stage presence was not great as I was afraid I’d break the cable, but everything actually worked.
We all carry loads of backup gear. Backup computers, backup cables, backup audio interfaces, backup tablets, backup hard drives…
Well – I learned that I need to carry a backup IEM cable or (maybe even better) a set of inexpensive headphones as a backup too – just in case your fancy custom ones stopped working.
Also … have a floor wedge or two regardless of anything else – just in case everything else breaks down.