Gig from Hel*

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Djcarolina

New DJ
Nov 5, 2006
755
0
36
Friday night, our company rolled out to our high school's football field to set up for a senior tailgate night. The position was ideal, nice weather too! Setting up went great. I got to the part of adding my VUE to the truss when i noticed it was smoking...umm say what? It hasnt been plugged in for a month at least and wasnt plugged up prior to my rigging of it for the truss. I had no idea what started it but when i noticed the flame inside...i freaked. Luckily with the help of a fire extinguisher from my truck, the problem was easily solved without any reprecussions. Thank God it was before the event. Ok, no problem, no vue tonight. (BTW Guitar Center replaced it today with no questions asked). Get to skirting everything. Truss goes fine and looks good. I get to skirting the rack and ohh great i dont have the skirting for the rack. Ok, throw some spare black fabric over the wires under the rack. Gig starts, and we're rolling great with some funk and the senior class song thriller. Much to my surprise, i got a thriller. Into the first chorus of the song, my right speakers die, followed 10-20 seconds later by the right side. Cool, now I have no power. FYI i used 3 separate, 15A circuits for the system. One plug had 1 Eon, 1 Mackie and a GX-250 Monitor on it. The other had the same. The 3rd had the light truss and my rack on it, which never had an issue. Well we tripped the breakers. OK, no problem I added the monitors to my rack load and we had no more problems that night. After re-powering i said "well i guess the class of 08 was a bit too much for Stratford". We continue and the wind kicks up and i'm getting some scary shaking of the speakers. Now the tailgate is winding down and the game is about to start. We set up by the Culinary Arts building who hosted the event. They start cleaning up 15 mins prior to the event ending. Seniors are having a good time, all 20 of them that showed up. In the middle of Crank That, the little wiry Culinary Arts director walks up to the power outlet and jerks my plug out, causing a pop in the speakers as my rack dies with the lights. He them proceeded to unplug the 2 speaker lines the same way. My response "WTHeck" He said " we're leaving and you have to go, so i helped you unplug." My attempt to explain that you cant just unplug a system like that went unnoticed and i got that "Shut up, you ignorant teen" look. I said goodnight to the seniors and started packing up, intending to talk to the principal about the actions of the CA director. But the hell wasnt over yet. Inside the football stadium there should have been no concern about my equipment's safety while tearing down. Well within the roped off area for the tailgate, i had my truss laid down to pack in its bag. Here comes the public safety cop on his little golf cart with the yellow light. HE RUNS OVER THE T-bar of the truss, told me to pack faster and left. I'm billing the school for the cost of the truss piece. Luckily i recieved payment for the gig the week previously. It was a night from hell but we'll recover, but next time, there will be stricter guidelines in place. I dont care if I am a student at the school, during performance time, I'm a vendor and i shall demand the same respect as every other vendor. Ok, done venting. The only pic i had time to get is below.

SeniorTailgateSmall.jpg
 
Great pic, my friend. That's a nice setup. Good job. :)

Man, I'm saddened to hear of the unprofessional treatment. There was no excuse for it, period. Those boneheads will be called to account for their actions before it's over with. The sponsors haven't heard the last of it, trust me on this. They'll have to replace your damaged equipment and I'm guessing some heads will roll.

Just my personal thoughts here: This is an issue of unprofessional treatment of a paid vendor and damage to his business equipment. It has nothing to do with your being a student there. You were on site in the capacity of a vendor, not as a student.

Keep us updated, please. :)
 
DJ C great pic do you always fly your Eons over the 1501's?
With the Srm 450's outside?
 
Those arent 450s. Theyre little GX-250s. I use them for my monitors and occasionally side fills. It depends on the event as to what I do with my Eons. If i need a LOT of bass, i couple the subs and put the EONs on stands. in this case we were well within our capacity for the amount of students expected, so i put them on the subs. The sound was amazing!

As far as the events involving the staff members, no it will not be the last time they deal with this issue. The principal already knows about the truss piece and appologized with intentions to make reparations tomorrow. I understand it was an accident, yet at the same time there was no need to drive through an empty, roped off area. As for the culinary arts director, I'm very pissed at the way he treated me and my gear. Thanks to my power conditioner there was no harm done but there very well could have or even been a safety hazard to him for unplugging a line pulling that much current. I intend to confront him, the sponsor and principal of the school regarding the issue. I conduct my services in a professional manner and I expect others to do the same.
 
First, congrats looking good.

Second, I did a thread on another board regarding fire extinguishers and if people carried them around. Again some said they would rely on what's available at the venue, I'm a little paranoid about fire, specially after some incidents with racing fuel and fuel lines. But when I throw a party in my house or take my equipment to a different place so do two large fire extinguishers, I would recommend having at least one with you near your equipment.

Third somebody pulls the plug on my equipment, somebody's going to the ER for tx after I pound them for a while. People just don't realize what kind of damage their stupidity will do.

And finally rentacop would be carrying the golf cart on his back after I would be through with him.

I really hope the school does hold their end of the bargain.
 
You also might find it a GREAT time to review your contract now.

One of the items you need to specify is your power (protected from disruption), and access to the venue for setup and tear down. In the access clause you should specify a time frame for you to be able to setup and packup. For certian gigs you might also want to ask for protected storage.
 
Ryan, sorry to hear about that treatment, appears to me you go to a small preppy HS whereas your not one of those guys. I know you and you know me. I hope the principal rectifies the situation. I'd mention the CA teacher too, saying there was no need for that! I've been run over plenty of times, I'm very non confrontational, yet you gotta stand your ground sometimes.

As for the fire extinguisher, sounds like a good idea. Get a Liquid Nitrogen or CO2 extinguisher, not one of those dry chemical ones.
 
I'm with Jacob on this one. My first reaction would have been to grab this little turd by the throat (like the Darth Vader scene in the first Star Wars) and threaten to squeeze the life out of him if he EVER yanked a plug again.
And....YES! Make sure a damage clause in in your contract and by all means have EVERYONE sign! Even if it's a freebie.
 
I carry a marine, commercial grade ABC, CO2 fire extinguisher in my truck everywhere I go. (The silver ones) At $112 a pop, theyre expensive but in an event like I had, knowing right what to do, helps calm people.

I actually go to a large highschool (5A) with 3000 students. I couldnt really do anything to the CA director, since technically even if i cussed at him or whatnot, he could have me suspended as being a student on school property, even if i was being a vendor. Plus, I felt good that I kept my integrity. I notified the SRO (Student Resource Officer) as well as the principal of the event and very sternly but politely told them both that I wouldnt stand for that kind of treatment as long as I was under contract.

My contract states that I require 2 separate, dedicated 15A outlets for sound and an additional one when lighting is added. In addition, it holds the client responsible for any and all damages to POW's equipment as caused by guests invited or not, or by the venue. I'm not concerned about the replacement of the $15 truss piece, but that the CD is dealt with accordingly. If i unplugged his stove while he was cooking, i'd be expelled and have to catch a lot of heat (pun intended).
 
I'm gonna stick my neck out here with the presumed risk of getting it lopped off... :D

Those of yas who know me, you know Wolfie is an old industrial maintenance electrician and mechanic from 'way back. I not only know how your products are made, I maintain the equipment that makes 'em. :)

I have found that most people who work maintenance and/or support in public schools are the bottom of the barrel in the maintenance business. The pay is crap and interested employees are few.

Yup, we've had a few of 'em come through Playtex. I saw 'em come through many plants I worked in. They didn't last long. They come from a long line of "outside" job failures.

They don't last long in any job 'til they pass the state Q&A exam and get tenure in the public school systems. There they've found a home. :rolleyes:

I am serious. All one needs is a resume and the right answers at the interview. I have interviewed for some state jobs and was surprised by how easy it was to get an offer. If the pay wasn't so dismal I'd have taken 'em up on it, lol.

They're a miserable lot. It's always been this way. The guy who took it upon himself to yank Carolina's power cords... the knucklehead who drove a golf cart over a t bar... these are excellent examples of miserable, underpaid people who think they can do anything they wish. The football game BS only serves to exacerbate the problem.

It catches up with 'em, of course. It is very easy to sue a municipality. Yet, these losers remain employed. They are there for as long as they wish to be. In this case, the "culinary arts director" (read Burger King reject) may get a prayer meeting on his record but he'll still have his job.

Your tax dollars at work.
 
Travis B said:
As for the fire extinguisher, sounds like a good idea. Get a Liquid Nitrogen or CO2 extinguisher, not one of those dry chemical ones.
Click to expand...

Travis is correct on this. A traditional ABC fire extinguisher is comprised of very small particles (almost like baby powder) of silicone covered powder that goes everywhere and gets into everything.

Discharging a dry chemical extinguisher anywhere near your other equipment will cause problems because the powder will get into the other equipment and wreak havoc with the electronics (and possibly clog up air filters causing overheating). You could easily cause more damage from a dry chemical extinguisher than what the fire caused.

FYI- they are called ABC extinguishers because they are effective on class "A" (combustible materials like wood), class "B" (burning liquids) and "C" (electrical fires). they do not work on class "D" (burning metal like magnesium) fires.

The letters are also displayed in a colored shape for those that can't read and/or are colorblind. Class A is designated by a green triangle; B is a red square; C is a blue circle; and D is a yellow star.
 
Djcarolina said:
I got to the part of adding my VUE to the truss when i noticed it was smoking...umm say what? It hasnt been plugged in for a month at least and wasnt plugged up prior to my rigging of it for the truss. I had no idea what started it but when i noticed the flame inside...i freaked.
Click to expand...

I started reading and only got that far.

What probably happened is that you had the VUE sitting in the sun. The lense acts like a big magnifying glass and if it sits there long enough you have a fire on your hands.

I only found out about this because it happened to a fellow member of the Baltimore Area DJ Association when it happened to him.

OK, now I'll read the rest of the post, LOL.
 
Fred, I couldn't agree with you more on your point about support staff. I'm always trying to make my school more fun for the kids...offer incentives for good work in class...DJ'in the dances for pennies but I ALWAYS run into custodians that hate thier jobs, don't get paid anything, and take it out on the students and teachers who are here for the right reasons. I think this is probably a problem in any industry.
 
Thanks goodknight, that makes perfect sense now that I think of it, perhaps i'll make a cover to put over the front of the light during setup and daylight performance hours, it lit that baby up like a bottle rocket! The principal personally paid for the damaged t-bar and it has been documented in my records and theirs. The Culinary Arts director has been given the task of cleaning up after the Academic Rally next week!!! (3,000 kids + 10K of those little paper cone water cups + 2 trash cans = one fun gig for him.
 
Oh, and I'll take some pics of the new extinguisher when i get it this weekend. Its a CO2, chemical marine extinguisher that is supposed to be suitable for all kinds of fires (hence why i called it an ABC). I've always carried an extinguisher and I also have a small, kitchen ABC Powder one mounted inside my rack. If I ever have to use it, something is on fire and i'll be more concerned about not frying everything than having to clean some dust out of the mixer.
 
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