Audio Baseball Cards...

An acquaintance of mine from out East, Dave M., shared a story on Taperssection today that I found to be rather interesting. When various people have asked me about taping/trading shows over the years I've often compared it to collecting baseball cards when you're a kid. I've never heard the term "Audio Baseball Cards" before but I think Guster's FOH Gordon might be onto something.

"Ok, so maybe I just like this quote because it helped me get a show taped last night, but it rings pretty true for me.

So the story is that I went to tape Guster last night at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, MA. As I'm walking from my parking spot to the entrance, I see Gordon, their FOH engineer, hanging out behind the venue. He asks where I'm set up, and offers up the seat right next to his desk - according to him, the room has no low end whatsoever up front, so it'd sound better back by the board. I finish up our chat and head inside.

Unbeknownst to me, it's a union venue, so I got stopped at the door. I gave them the tour manager's name, and they radio back and then escort me to the side entrance where there's a bunch of venue staff standing around. A girl with a radio says "You're the one who talked to the tour manager? Wait here." She goes back and brings out a guy who explains that since it's a union venue, they'd have to charge double rate for anyone recording who's not a union member, and that'd get charged to the school who's putting it on, etc. He says he'll take the stuff back to the tour manager and I can pick it up after the show. I'm friendly with the crew and I know they'll raise holy hell if anything happens to my gear, so I say ok and hand it over.

15 minutes later, I see Gordon heading to the desk, and he waves me over, motioning to the spot he's got in mind. Then he frowns, noticing I don't have my gear with me anymore. I explain the situation and he says with a wink, "Let me take care of it. I know people". Five minutes later he walks back out of the side door, carrying my gear and my stand. I ask him what he said, and if he was union. "Nah, I just told him that what you're doing doesn't compete with them in any way. You're not making a professional recording, it's basically like audio baseball cards. Something you guys make and keep like memorabilia, or to trade around with other fans." Apparently the guy then said "Well, if you HAVE to do it..." and Gordon responded "Yeah, I do. We like to be accommodating."

Shows will be posted to LMA soon." - Dave M. aka greenone