I ran front of house at Point of Grace again this weekend...just on Saturday, sadly. It made me realize just how much I miss running sound. It was almost rapture, pushing a slider and hearing things from the stage go up and down.

Seriously, if you put me behind a console when there's a band with talent on stage (And a decent sound system), I will sit there all day. In fact, I'll sit behind just about any console happily, lighting or sound. It's difficult to know which I prefer - sound is my first love, but I'd discovered I can do lighting, too. In fact, I find that now listen to songs over and over again, not because I want to hear them again, but because I spend the time listening to them to play lighting cues in my head. Here's a general idea of what goes on inside my head when I hear, for instance, Revolutionary Love:

(David begins to croon) Desperation leads us here, leads us here... Illumination meets us here, meets us here...

(Sparks: Hmm, this is a nice song. I like those square wave beeps...I'd probably set several background lights to do a red-yellow-orange color chase and hit individual lights on those beeps...wash lights in red and orange...)

It's so amazing, Your unchanging love Simply amazing, never changing love....

(Sparks: Oh yeah! Definitely some cool hits there! That calls for a random strobe effect, and keep those color-chasing beeps going, but faster, all the hard-edged fixtures in a big ballyhoo.)

The only difference is, I see it in my head as it's playing.

Anyways, I rediscovered the joy of mixing for musicians that can actually play this weekend. (The last time I mixed, it was for Clive After Five, a local, uh, mini-music / beer fest, and the band sucked...NOT that I didn't appreciate the opportunity, Chris!) Now I'm itching to do it again.