Hey all,
After a day off of room service and nice cushy bed sleep in Columbus, we played the Schottenstein Center on the Ohio State University campus on Monday the 24th. It was probably the largest arena we've done so far on the tour. It was also a free show, available only through OSU to its students. They curtained off the top tier of seats, reducing the capacity to around 5000.
The crowd was loud and clear- a combination of the hockey-rink acoustics and the younger, enthusiastic audience. The room's natural reverb time was several seconds.... fun to whistle a tune loudly in (which may or may not go over with the local stagehands). But it was also a bright, brash-sounding venue. Which sucks for both Brian at FOH and me at monitors. I had to darken the sound of the wedges, then boost them a good bit, to get stage sound over the roaring room echo without shearing their faces off with treble. Because I've been doing single venues for long stints for years, I'd nearly forgotten how hard you have to work at times, just to make things sound "almost normal." This is excellent practice, really.
Tonight, when Conan yelled "O-H!," the crowd would SCREAM back "I-O!!" This is Ohio State University's cheer. Naturally, this happened several times during the show. It was maybe the loudest public cheer I've ever heard.
One cool thing about this venue is the ample bus parking and loading ramp space. All three of our trucks stayed docked all day, ready for load out. All the buses were right there, ready for lounging, changing, napping. This definitely makes the day go more smoothly. I grabbed a quick shot of a couple girls I saw on a pedestrian bridge, overlooking the loading dock. Check out the signs. She's kidding, I think.
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