Well, I'd say that successfully removed the taste of roadside armadillo from my mouth!
First off, about this place... I am not originally from Fort Worth. But, Oui Lounge, as I hear from the locals, has been around forever - a beloved dive bar near the TCU campus. Recently, Chef Tim Love (Love Shack, White Elephant, lots and lots of nice restaurants across the country) bought the place and cleaned it up a bit, but kept the 70's decor. It was very comfortable and I could see myself going there for a drink or ten if I lived nearby. Reminds me of the Cosmopolitan ads running - just the right amount of wrong. So, the venue was fine.
This was to be a late show, so we showed up around 7:30 to get setup and sound check. Unfortunately, we were to be running our own sound for the night. Not a big deal when we use our own system, but I had never ran a board like what they had and Cisco & Heath don't mess with the audio at all. So, instant learning session on my part. I don't claim to be a sound guy, but someone has to do it, right?
So, I finally got the house sound up and running, then couldn't figure the monitor mix. It was irritating, but kind of funny as the mixing board was wall mounted, hid behind velvet curtains on the stage - very static-y velvet curtains - and every time I touched the mixer I got a little shock... Eventually, I got some sound in the monitors.
By this time, it was past nine and we should have already started, so we just decided to go ahead and do it and tweak the sound as we went along. So, on with the show...
I'd say the first four or five songs were spent with me singing a line, then running back to the wall mounted board and adjusting levels. Too much of this in the monitors, not enough of that, too much guitar front of house, can't hear the vocals, the list goes on. Normal stuff that isn't an issue when you have someone running sound for you. However, it kind of sucks any chance of "performance" out of me when I'm having to do this during a show. So, if you were there, I apologize for the first bit of the show. I see a steady sound guy in our future.
After a while, the sound out front smoothed out (although my monitor mix was still off the whole night - couldn't hardly hear the keyboards at all - and that's what I follow when I sing!) and all was well.
Interesting crowd mix. Had an even mix of older folks (our age) and college kids. That was much like Keller Tavern's crowd. Maybe we're seeing a trend. The places we seem to be doing well have had that mix of people and are less country flavored. Heath and I made a decision a while back to go with our gut and head more in our own direction, rather than trying to fit in with the places that want "country." So, it was nice to see the reception we had here. We have a few more of those shows on the books where they're going to want herd country (aka whatever country radio tells the sheep they should like). But, they will eventually come to an end as we find and grow our market. The Oui show helped with growing that market.
Highlights from the show... Well, Candy made an appearance. She likes the college guys - what can I say? She was running late and was kind of beside herself during the first set. But, on the break, she came out of her box and got social. She's a pain to work with, but the beer goggled crowd seems to really like her. I'm cool with her as long as she sits there, plays her part and shuts up. Life is good that way.
We also had a group of about ten women that were feeling no pain. They were a lot of fun and ribbed Heath a lot during the show. Heath was having a ball with it, jumped off the stage and played at their table, while they all got up and danced. Cisco seemed to be having a good time, too - he offered some of his hand percussion and we wound up with a stage full of audience members dancing and singing along with us throughout most of the last set. They were snapping pictures like crazy, hopefully some will make Facebook as I did not have my phone with me the whole time. Would have liked to snapped some of the interior, too!
In the end, we had a really good time and I think the crowd did as well. We'd play there again, for sure. Tonight, we're off to find dinosaurs in Glen Rose, TX... talk to you after that one!
Stay gold,
RH
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