Dr Tony Balls wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 12:47 pm
benadrian wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 12:45 pm
Dr Tony Balls wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 12:36 pm
Be a bass player in a big city....it's easy! Bass amps are always in the backline. I walk to and from most shows that I play.
Fair enough. For a while I was the king of "borrowing a cabinet", then I just had to bring one guitar and a head.
Still, I'd say L.A. is a big city, yet there is no backline culture here. Maybe a few pay-to-play venues in Hollywood, but other than that it might as well be any other non-urban area.
Yeah.....a dense or dense-ish city? Does Chicago or Philly or Boston do backlines?
I'm from Houston originally and I remember shows in the early 00's with three bands, all FRIENDS, and yet each bass player brought their own Ampeg 8x10. WTF.
I think NYC is the only American city where I've heard of this being a regular thing. Seattle definitely doesn't!
That said, I think almost every show I've played post-lockdown there's been at least some gear sharing. I feel like everyone just wants to rock and if there's a way to make it more efficient on changeover then lets do it. We're playing in Portland in a few weeks and we're just bringing down amp heads/pedals/guitars/drum destructables.