Power to the People

Here's one that happened last night that's a little embarrassing. I was to play the bass with a college gospel choir outdoors at their King's Island campus for a Spring Celebration. There were several roadies and sound engineers on hand to prepare the stage as there were a dozen bands to perform throughout the day. They were only to have only 10 minutes to set up between acts. 

It was an outdoor concert and the temperature was 92* in full Sun. I grabbed my bass, music and 30 foot cable and proceeded onstage with about a minute before the first song was to begin. A cable was already plugged into the amp and neatly rolled up on the top for me to plug into my bass. I did, and played a test note, but nothing sounded. I quickly switched cabled but still nothing. I check the power light and it was shining brightly. I yelled into the talk-back monitor that I had no sound and the engineers quickly descended upon me to trouble shoot the problem. 

(Here's the embarrassing part)......

The amp wasn't plugged in! The Sun was shining so brightly that the power light on the amp appeared to look lit, but wasn't.

Lesson learned is to visually check to see if the black power cord is actually plugged into an outlet.

My test note sounded clearly with about 5 seconds to spare.

No time for a sound check, the director is about to start.

Standing ovation after the show.

Thanks sound team.

Power to the People!