Gothamist: Gibby Haynes Fights Webster Hall's Sound Guy, Not Arrested

pretzel

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:44:54 -0500

This is what happened according to Gibby: All night Gibby had feedback in his monitors and very low sound, which occured b/c the sound guy changed thei band's set up AFTER sound check b/c despite Gibby telling how their set up works (20 years of doing it), the sound guy insisted he knew best and switched something (don't know what, not a musician). For the first half of the show he kept asking the sound guy to fix it, first by giving innocent hand gestures and then going over and telling him there's feedback and he couldn't hear anything. He didn't fix it. Then, Gibby got so frustrated he went over and yelled at the guy that he sucked. The guy came at Gibby like he was going to punch him, Gibby reared up like he would punch him back, the security guards jumped in and no one touched anyone. Gibby started laughing and then reached over the sound board and high-fived the guy and went back out and sang. The feedback continued for the next few songs, and Gibby was so frustrated he flipped the guy off from stage. Then, at the beginning of The Shah, the last song, the guy completely turned off all of the band's monitors and Gibby was so pissed he acted like he threw his beer bottle at him. He made a throwing motion with right hand and then transferred the bottle to his left hand. The guards thought he threw it and they escorted him off and kicked him out. He was not arrested. He dj'd at Beauty Bar til 4 AM. The sound guy sucked, the drummers had bass blasting in their ears all night. It was a great show nevertheless!

twakum

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:31:22 -0500

He's only done what most musicians wish they could do. Most soundguys are total douches.

west side Michael

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:57:22 -0500

Bring back the mandatory military draft. These kids have too much time on their hands for nothing."Throwing plastic cups at security" there is a songline in dem words.

mingum

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:30:09 -0500

NO way was that 90 minutes, more like 60-70. It felt like they were just finding a groove when Gibby got taken away. Maybe the band was done, but I wanted more.

jaycjay

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:34:33 -0500

OK matt2323, valid points... just a little personal rant I guess. There certainly are screwups by sound guys and while I'd like to think that a major venue would have the best setup and the best engineers, I also know it's not always that way. On the other hand if it wasn't "a normal issue" and there was already audible feedback it likely wouldn't be possible to increase the monitor levels. Whatever was causing the problem would have to be fixed first. That'd require cooperation between the musicians onstage and the guys running the sound. Granted, either side could have been the source of the lack of cooperation here, and not having been there I can't say with certainty who was at fault there, or what the technical problem might have been. But my main point remains: if there's a problem with the sound, cursing out the sound guy (let alone hitting him) is never going to help. You need them to be on your side... and they do come into the gig wanting it to sound as good as possible.

matt2323

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:12:57 -0500

jaycjay...no offense but don't you think after nearly 30 years on the road gibby has at least some experience with sound guys. i'm not saying its ok to clock them, but i'm guessing this wasn't a normal issue since as far as i know gibby doesn't normally get in fights with the sound guys at every venue they got to. regardless....i was at the show and the sound (there was very audible feedback, and not the kind the buttholes wanted) and webster hall are fucking horrible. i've seen singers do much worse shit than that over the last 20 years and i have to say i'm surprised the security had the balls to pull him off the stage. oh well.

jaycjay

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:52:55 -0500

In the eyes of some egotistical a-hole musicians, yeah. The fact is that in a venue like this the monitors are going to be as loud as they can be given the conditions (unless you've already lost the sound guy's support). If you need it to be louder, you have to bring down your amps and let the FOH guy compensate for that to make sure the crowd can hear you. In other words if you can't hear the monitors that long into a show it's your own fault. Cooperating with the sound guys can fix it; cursing them out won't.

bornbrednewyorker

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:27:27 -0500

Sound guys are lowly?

InnaJungleStylee

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:09:06 -0500

What do you expect, this is the idiot who, after hitting it big with "Pepper," spent time and energy suing Corey Rusk and Touch N' Go. He's already the kind of guy who would sue a friend, why wouldn't he punch an anonymous lowly sound guy?

jaycjay

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:04:01 -0500

Note to performing musicians: "Throwing silent hand gestures—and eventually a not-so-silent middle finger" at a sound engineer isn't going to get you better or louder sound. It's more likely to get you exactly the opposite of what you want. Three people against whom you can't win an argument: a cop, a bartender, and the sound guy.

jaycjay

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:00:54 -0500

That'd be because it's a story about the fight. It's not a concert review.

dr zippy

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:55:49 -0500

That ratio seems about right.

REALITY CHECK

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:32:42 -0500

Three paragraphs about the fight. Zero paragraphs about the music.