varkism

i finally figured out why the mix at the aardvark always sounds like ass: it's optimized for the booth, and so improves the further back in the room you get. myself, i like to stand up front for bands i like. musos tend to encourage their fans to come up there, too, which sets 'em up for an auditory beating in this particular venue. this also accounts for the 25-foot "line of death" in front of the aardvark stage. sigh.

an admission: i've always felt like a chaperone at "the vark." ("you boys -- put out those cigarettes! and have fun...within limits.") it's where undergrads go to try on personas (and mostly talk over the bands). lately, there's been an epidemic of bad '80s rawk haircuts. now that i no longer have to go there for "professional" purposes, i'd rather go where there are people closer to my age, where we can continue wearing the personas we put on 20+ years ago, and (usually, at least) stand up front without getting our ears blown out. (helpful hint: lower stage volume = a more controllable mix, even for "loud" rock'n'roll, with all kinds of collateral benes like audible voxxx and lyrics, if you like that sort of thing.)