Question and Answer

Hi Pat, could it be that your live sound is a bit too loud. I was at your Germany ID-shows in Munich and Stuttgart and must say that it was very loud especially in Stuttgart. Also the sound was not as good as expected. So i thought the sound engineer at the mix was probably sleeping (just kidding). Have you any reasons to play so loud and to protect the ears with earplugs? The silly thing is that you being on stage don`t hear the sound as the audience does.

wow, what a german question!!

well, first of all, the hall in munich was a circus arena, not much we could do about that, and then the hall in stuttgart would have to qualify as the most "live" hall that we faced on the whole tour of that year - before the crew even turned any p.a. on - it was incredibly loud in there. most of what you heard that night was what was coming right off the stage and had nothing to do with the p.a. . as far as the sound engineer goes, his name is david oakes - he has done all of our shows, and been involved in some aspect of all of the records for the past 18 years. he, like all of us, does the best that he can with the wildly changing circumstances our day to day life on the road throws at us. but ultimately, the one thing we have no control over is the hall itself - and there are some places that are just better, worse, louder, softer, more echoey, not echoey enough, comfortable, uncomfortable, etc. than others. as far as silliness goes.........do you really think that suggesting that we would have a sound engineer sleeping at the board, even as a joke, is a polite thing to say or insinuate to make your point or ask your question?

having said all that - i will say that i do like things on occasion to be extremely loud. i also like things on occasion to be extremely soft. sometimes both in the context of one set or even one tune. i enjoy the full range of dynamics as they exist in our world of now. to me that is inclusive of not just the extreme low end of the scale (unamplified acoustic guitar) to the other extreme (nine inch nails, pantera, etc) but everything in between.