This morning we had church at Giglebee's (a Chuck E. Cheese sort of place, only a bit more dated and dingy). Amy, Hal and I were the worship team and we had a chance to field test a sound board that Kyle Hufford gave us over the summer. It took us a little time to work through some stuff with it in the sound check, but by the time we were done with the check, we thought we were in pretty good shape.
We should have taken some electrical tape and a Sharpie with us, because when the video that started about ten minutes prior to the service started, we had no audio for it. I started playing with the channels in the vicinity of where the computer's audio had been, only to find that it had been switched to another channel. Needless to say, I didn't quite remember where to return the levels on the other channels which were for wireless units for other things in the service. Because of that, Pastor Chip came up to welcome everybody and his mic was all out of whack. Hal tried to get it corralled while Chip talked, but Chip muted it before Hal was able to get it quite right.
We finally got the audio for the video up and running before we started our songs. Once we started, Hal launched into "Let Everything that has Breath" and Amy pounded the keys with absolutely no response. Amy picked up a shaker and I tried to figure out what was up with the keyboard channel. Chip came to lend a hand in trouble shooting and I went back to playing.
For the next song, we had keys and the kids came up to learn some motions and sing with us. In the process of kids singing and jumping around, we think one of them accidentally stepped on Hal's tuner pedal for his guitar which cut him out of the mix entirely. That made the next song a little difficult, because we couldn't figure out what was going on with his guitar and he was the only guitar on that song as I was playing djembe.
We managed to work our way through the last few songs without Hal's guitar in the mix and were able to assess things once the next video started. Again, we had issues with the video audio because either the cable or the channel on the board were loose and we couldn't keep a consistent signal without someone holding it in place. Things went fairly well for the sermon and puppet thing that we had and it looked like we might be able to finish with no more issues. Unfortunately, the next issue was mine.
My guitar had been really hot in the system which meant that I could barely turn the volume on the guitar up at all without it distorting or feeding back. I am used to turning it up all the way and letting the sound person set the level for me. When we came back to do a final song, as Chip prayed, I replugged in and produced a great interruption of feedback in about the quietest moment Giglebee's had seen in years. We recovered and did the final song and a little postlude of a song that we had practiced, but that we nixed from earlier in the service.
After the service, the kids all got free tokens for the games and most families stuck around for food. Xander went and played 20 (honestly 20) games of skee ball while we packed up and moved out our gear. Xander and I hit the arcade and then played a game of air hockey (Xander "won" 6 to 2) while we waited for our food.
The decor of Giglebee's hasn't been updated probably in 20 years. Very primary, very vinyl. They also have a coyote(?) named Wilbur that rides around on a tricycle on a track with a tray who delivers your pizza and talks to you. Not the prerecorded, Chuck E. Cheese kind of talk, but a guy in a booth actually watching the room and talking to the customers. Yet again, I realize there are worse fates than mine
We played a lot of games after pizza and were able to come home and crash for the rest of the day. As a bonus, I got to watch the Broncos beat up on the Jets until CBS gave up on it and I got to watch most of the 2nd half of the Colts outlasting the Bengals. For those with NFL Ticket, you're thinking "Big whoop." For me and my antennae, getting to watch big chunks of two games that I really wanted to see was the perfect end to a good day.
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