Drum Tech For Patrick Dorcean
Along all the engineering gigs, i'm sometimes get some jobs that is a little diffrent.
One day, i got a call from a friend, asking what i was doing the 27th of august, i didn't have anything in the calendar that day, so i asked what the gig was about. He didn't really know, so he gave me the phone number of the booker, so i could figure it out myself. I called the booker and found out It just so happened to be "Ida Nielsen With Band". If you don't know Ida Nielsen, she played bass for Prince since august 2010 and until he unfortunate died in April 2016.
To begin with i was hired to setup all the instruments, because it was rented. (A lot of the musicians wasn't from Denmark, so i guess it would be difficult to bring all their gear when flying around the world.)
But it ended up, just being a drum kit that i had to set up, and pack up. Easy Peasy.
So i drove from Aarhus to "Fermaten" Herning, DK, got myself a cup of coffee, and started tuning the drums, and setting them up. Even though i was only hired for setting up the drums, i couldn't stop myself helping the house tec setting op mics, monitors and so on. (Better that doing nothing)
The band arrived round 4:00 pm, consisting of IDA NIELSEN, KUKU AGAMI, PATRICK DORCEAN, MIKA VANDBORG, SOFIA HEJSLET and DJ NANGA. Really down to earth people.
As they got to set up their gear, all of a sutten a big "BANG!" followed by a decent cloud of smoke, came from Idas TC Electronics bass Amp. top (it was a "Blacksmith") You see, in the US, the power outlets delivers 110v, and in Denmark they deliver 230v. Do i need to say more? So some of the stage hands knew there was a "TC BH500" some place in town, so they went out at got it for her, Problem Solved!
While all of that was happening, i got to talk with the drummer "Patrick Dorcean". Really cool guy. Since i'm a drummer myself, we had a lot to talk about right away. Such as cymbals, bass drum pedals and his endorsement by "TAMA".
Then they did soundcheck, (the mixer was a "Soundcraft vi3000", i wish i was the audio engineer that night) But oh buy, that girl can play. It's really rare you see a bass player play so god dang funky. The same goes with the whole band, but Ida is really something else.
I really liked Patricks drumming as well, he had the real tight funk fell, but still sloppy enough to keep the nerve. in general a very well played band. (No wonder why she got to play with Prince)
Anyway, nothing sketchy about the soundcheck, other that some humming from the bass amp.
So i went out to visit two of my friends who live en Herning. Mathias and David, they where doing a smaller gig. Something with people running for 24 hours to donate money for cancer research, or something like that, so that was nice.
They had a full 400 meter running track covered with some smaller d&b Q1s and a d&B J system for the front of the stage. The music was some local band, supporting caner.
After that, i went out to get some food, and retuned to Fermaten, where they where about the open the doors for the audience. Since i still had a couple of hours to kill, i went backstage and wrote somme sheet music om my computer, until the the show startet.
I think there was around 400 people in there, so that was ok. could have been better, but certainly not bad (the young kids taste of music is broken). They played a great show that of cause had around 1000 bass solos, a handfull of guitar and keyboard solos, and even a drumsolo. Now they are rare now a days. After the show, the DJ played a few Prince songs, because Ida didn't want to play Prince live because of personal reasons, which of cause is totally fair. So we had to wait for a while before we could pack up the stage. but once he was done with his DJ set, it didn't take much more that 20 minutes to clear the stage, and the days job was done.
Before i went to drive home, i had a smoke and another coffee, while i was talking to some of the guys. btw. it funny how you recognise people from the society. both the Sound Engineer and road Manager from the band, i had seen serval of times before.
But i gets thats that. oh! On my way home i almost ran out of gas, because i'm an idiot.
Thanks for reading this blog, and sorry about all the typos.
Take care!
Video: https://www.instagram.com/p/BJoCF3TjDhK/?taken-by=lwiinberg94