Post Your Green Bay Reviews & Pics Here!

[kbgirlref]

Thanks Angie and Nancy for your reviews. Very detailed. Angie - I'm at a loss. No pics? Wish I had known you girls were going. Might have tried to go. HY and Jo - thanks for the pics. I still think Marty seemed pensive or something in all of them. Steph, not sure it was just the guitar pick girl. But, I'm glad that everyone enjoyed the show. Can't wait for Dallas. And, BBE's pics.

[BBE]

Jun 30, 2008 10:10:35 GMT -5 HY said:

Who knew that industrial strength ear plugs could block out everything but the vocals. I'll definitely have to find those for next time - I just had some tissue in each ear.

Lyn, I never said that the earplugs blocked out everything but the vocals. Here is what I said:

"The sound level was EXTREMELY loud, like it had been there the previous night, but this time we were prepared. I had some industrial strength earplugs to put in, and I found that with them in, I could hear better than with them out. Without them, it was all a sonic overload mess, and I couldn’t even pick out the vocals. With the earplugs, I could distinguish all the individual sounds, and had no problem hearing Marty’s vocals, He sounded really good!"

I'll try to remember to bring a pair of those for you the next time I see you. These are industrial earplugs, which provide more hearing protection than the ones you can buy at the drugstore. They are probably too much sound reduction for most shows, but keep them around in case you're ever at a show that's this loud again. You'll be amazed at the difference they make.

I have to be careful about my hearing, because as I mentioned to you at the show, I only have hearing in one ear. A childhood illness killed the auditory nerve in one of my ears (thank God it didn't take out both ears--a life without music would have been very difficult for me). I do put earplugs in both ears, because if medical science ever finds a way to regenerate that nerve, then the rest of the ear will still be functional. I wear earplugs at every rock concert I go to. I keep them totally in for the opening acts, if they aren't anyone I'm interested in, and then for the main act, I check to see how loud it is without the plugs. If it's not too bad, I take them out, or only put them halfway in. If it's really loud, they stay all the way in.

The drugstore variety earplugs just aren't enough for the extremely loud shows. They were all I had with me at Lovehammers' show at Hard Rock in late March, and it was terribly loud there. Not only that, but the venue's sound was quite distorted. Despite shoving the earplugs in as far as I could, and even covering my ears for part of the night, I still ended up with damage to my hearing that night. I now have a high-pitched squeal present all the time since that show. That's why I decided not to go to another show without the heavy-duty industrial earplugs.

Check out some info online about hearing protection. One of the guidelines is that if you can hear more clearly with the earplugs in than without them, the sound level is too high, and you need hearing protection.

[HY]

Thanks for all that information, Nancy. Sorry I misread your post. I will look forward to hearing the next show with better ear plugs - if I can find some that fit properly - a lot of times plugs don't fit in my ears well.

I guess I'll see you in Schaumburg.

[Ceeje]

Ok, so here's the question: Where did you find the industrial strength earplugs, Nancy?

I'm glad you had them with you so you could enjoy the show.

[feather]

thanks Ceeje . When I read this I was on my way to the yellow pages with that same question in mind. But think I'll wait a bit for Nancy's answer - a much less confusing way than the YP!! And much more reliable, I'm sure.

[Stephd]

For everyone wondering how many people were at this show, the club estimates that close to 200 people were in attendance. It was considered a "really good night."

[Stephd]

Jul 1, 2008 16:28:40 GMT -5 kbgirlref said:

Thanks Angie and Nancy for your reviews. Very detailed. Angie - I'm at a loss. No pics? Wish I had known you girls were going. Might have tried to go. HY and Jo - thanks for the pics. I still think Marty seemed pensive or something in all of them. Steph, not sure it was just the guitar pick girl. But, I'm glad that everyone enjoyed the show. Can't wait for Dallas. And, BBE's pics.

Wish you coulda been there! We always have a good time, don't we?!

I don't think Marty was pensive at all. There were moments when he was intense (like usual) but never pensive.

[IWOmusic]

I asked my husband about the ear plug issue since he is a Speech & Language Pathologist with experience in Audiology and has worked with clients that have a hearing loss.
After his lecture on the irresponsibility of listening/playing music that loud... he said that industrial ear plugs attenuate (reduce sound) unevenly across the sound spectrum. While it would most likely reduce the immense reverb, and the lower frequencies from some of the drums and base, it would do so as well with the lower register of Marty's voice. The end result would be better, but by no means would it sound good.
He suggests looking into something called ER25 aka "Musician's Ear Plugs" which filter more evenly for a very wide sound spectrum.

Possibly they should install one of these dispensers at the entry of every venue where they perform

[Kari]

Thanks for the info Iwo!

[rockfan]

Thanks for the info, IWO. I'll start shopping for some of those. I don't like the ones I have.

[IWOmusic]

You're welcome!
These are supposed to be pretty good and not too expensive:
earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/ernasoearpl1.html

You can adjust how much sound you want to block with this pair:
earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/alnasoearpl.html

[hammeredham]

Jul 2, 2008 20:36:59 GMT -5 IWOmusic said:

I asked my husband about the ear plug issue since he is a Speech & Language Pathologist with experience in Audiology and has worked with clients that have a hearing loss.
After his lecture on the irresponsibility of listening/playing music that loud... he said that industrial ear plugs attenuate (reduce sound) unevenly across the sound spectrum. While it would most likely reduce the immense reverb, and the lower frequencies from some of the drums and base, it would do so as well with the lower register of Marty's voice. The end result would be better, but by no means would it sound good.
He suggests looking into something called ER25 aka "Musician's Ear Plugs" which filter more evenly for a very wide sound spectrum.

Possibly they should install one of these dispensers at the entry of every venue where they perform

Quoting Iwo's post because the comments about the effects of earplugs are very good comments and very true.

I don't see much point in my posting a "review" of the show as I think that has been covered pretty well, and a well done to those who have!!!

Some brief comments.......loved that three-pickup LesPaul that Tracii was playing. Nice axe. Also enjoyed Jeremy on bass; first time that I recall seeing him play bass and I thought he was quick with his fingers and pretty dynamic. Al was also doing a fine job on second guitar. It's hard for me to comment much about drumming owning to my being a guitar player, but, I thought the drummer had a good vibe going and also knew how to have some fun with the crowd.

Now, with 30+ years of some sound work behind me:

I'll keep the majority of my comments to SOUND, or in this case, the excess thereof. This has to be the single most overdone room I have ever had the displeasure to listen to. (although the WORST taking horrid distortion into consideration may have been that last LH show at Hard Rock in Chicago.....bleah-yuck) The saddest part about it was that what my brain was actually able to process seemed *clean*........ just plain too daggone loud. I spent a large part of the pre-L.A. Guns time outside the venue and took my chances with the "carry-off-small-children" mosquitoes. They were out there and they were hungry.

The sound from the inside was SO loud that in our car, with the windows rolled up, AND the front door of the venue closed I could still hear it and sometimes even well enough to understand a word or two. During songs, parts of the outside of the building were vibrating and honest to god, I expected to see a window blow out at any moment.

Frankly, I have NO idea what someone was trying to prove by playing the venue's system at that kind of level in a room that might have been 50 feet deep and 30 feet wide, +/- a bit. I was going to take my dB meter along and didn't and now I wish I had.

Everybody's ears (defining this from the outside through the whole human sound chain right into the brain) are not the same in terms of response or in terms of condition. I have some hearing loss from an inner ear disease and so as you might guess, the doctor sez to protect what I have left. When mowing or using power tools, I use "gun muffs" which really whack the SPL (Sound Pressure Level) considerably. Even though good ones are more designed for "impulse noise" (like a gun shot) they do seem to work well for other loud sounds. To be sure, they would not be too fashionable at a show.

Earplugs will indeed be variable in just what frequencies they attentuate, depending on what they are made out of and the density of the material as well as how far you shove them in your ears. And again, with everyone's ears being different, your *perception* of how effective they are will vary as well. Like someone else said, I think, I tend to stick them in to what seems like max attenuation until the band I want to really hear comes on and then pull them back a bit looser which lets in a bit more sound while still blocking enough out to prevent pain. That's not meant to be a sleight to earlier bands, just simply to have enough hearing left for what I really paid to see/hear.

There were other issues with sound as well, it seemed like there were constant problems with getting stuff dialed in correctly and feedback issues that defied a well-designed system. I have a feedback controller in my gear and even as an inexpensive one, it is pretty impressive. Even so, sticking a mic right next to a speaker (as in, 3 to 5 feet) WILL create trouble and PARTICULARLY more so the higher the output from the speaker is. The essence of killing feedback, whether you have a DSP (Digital Signal Processing) box to do it or you're trying to do it manually is to isolate the frequency that is feeding back, knock that way down and hope to hell that some other range doesn't start doing it. Frankly, I would not care to spend my whole night riding the EQ just to kill feedback - there are far better and more important tasks for a sound guy to be doing. Letting the DSP box handle it is more accurate, faster and generally subtracts LESS from the sound mix.

THE BAND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS STUFF 99 percent of the time. They will attempt to tell the sound guys about stuff that needs help or changes, but by and large the band(s) are at the mercy of the venue's sound system. Why doesn't a band carry its own sound system? In cases like this, every club played is different and therefore it just isn't practical. You'll usually only see this with major touring productions (like THE WHO) who are playing almost exclusively huge venues.

Bottom line - virutally ALL the sound problems in that room were the result of too many dB in too small a room. It really detracted from being able to accurately hear the music and vocals - even so, the band did a pretty darned good job. I am looking forward to seeing them somewhere with better sound..........

HH

[yakketyyak]

I don't have much to add to what Angie, StephD, Lyn, JoMarty, Joan and NancyBBE have already written. The staff at the Doubles Bar were great people! I had a great time hanging out with my fellow fangirls before the show, and with Marty and the band after the show. Tracii, Jeremy, Alec and Chad are really nice guys! I think Marty is going to blend nicely with L.A.Guns. He was very excited to be performing on stage and was very happy and chatty after the show as well! The 2 songs I think he wrote for their album are great songs: "The Sound" and "Black Majesty". I can't wait to hear the new album!

I do have to personally thank Lyn (HY) and her husband for getting me to Green Bay...When the 2nd leg of my flight, Chicago to Green Bay, was cancelled by United, my heart sank...but she had called me (as an emergency back up just in case) right before they were leaving to check to make sure there were no problems (I had jokingly told her previously about my bad luck with Chicago's O'Hare airport)....She called just as they were announcing that my delayed flight had become a cancelled one. Later flights would have gotten me to Green Bay too late. Anyway, they picked me up at O'Hare and we drove up to Green Bay. The great thing about Marty fans is that we are all willing to help each other if we can....THANK YOU LYN AND LARRY FOR SAVING THE DAY!!!!!!

I recorded several videos that night. The stage was dark and lit badly, the bar's sound system was horrible, the music was TOO LOUD and Marty's vocals were low, but you can still get a good glimpse of how L.A.Guns rocks! Here is a link to the first one I am posting. I had trouble uploading it so it may be the only one I post, but I think it is the best one I have. This video was the only one I shot from up close. I hope you all can see it....The song is "Rip and Tear". ENJOY!!!

vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=37361860

[jillywilly65]

THANK YOU ....WOOT WOOT

that is so fun , Man oh Man does he look so Happy!!



I appreciate you sharing this.Thank You so much.

[cfbj01]

Thanks for sharing yak !

[Ceeje]

Thanks for the review and info, HH. Hopefully, the next venue will have a better sound set up.

And, thanks Yak, for the video! How cool! Can you upload them to Youtube? If so, we can post them directly to the board in our Marty Videos board.

ETA: Ok, I'm back from watching the video and it is really cool. What did you use to record it (camcorder, digital camera, phone camera, etc)? It's really very clear. And, I can totally see what everyone's saying about the sound. But, Tracii is a demon on the guitar!

[lhfan4life]

Thank you so much for sharing that video Yak.....it is GREATLY appreciated!!! And Marty not only looked happy, he looked HOT!!

[BBE]

Jul 2, 2008 16:33:28 GMT -5 Ceeje said:

Ok, so here's the question: Where did you find the industrial strength earplugs, Nancy?

I'm glad you had them with you so you could enjoy the show.

Leftovers from work. I'll have to dig up a wrapper to find the company that made them.

However, what I have really wanted to get is the kind that Iwo posted about. Now I know where to get them! Thanks, Iwo!

[yakketyyak]

I did not take pictures during the show, I left that up to Jo, Lyn and Nancy.
Here are a few "fan" pictures. (I hope the girls in the pix don't mind me posting them!)

JO-ANGIE-ME-LISA-STEPH-JOAN

LARRY-LYN-NANCY

ME DEMONSTRATING THE FAN GIRL CHOKE HOLD ON MARTY..LOL

JO DEMONSTRATING THE CORRECT WAY TO HOLD MARTY...LOL

[lhfan4life]

Marty looks so hot in that last picture!! What a lucky girl she was!!