Last night we played a show with three other bands up at The Fire in Philly. The other bands were “The Bronze Episode (hereafter referred to as TBE)”, “Bottle Up and Go (BUG)” and “Chris Kasper (Kasper).” Chris is the most like us in terms of his musical band.
We arrived around 8:30p and were almost immediately greeted by some members of TBE and BUG. They were really nice. We chit-chatted about our styles, where we’re from, playing at The Fire before, and more. At the end of the conversation, we were about to go in when the Synth/Keyboard/Background Vocals guy from TBE asked if it would be okay if their band “backlined” that night.
I, Tyler, had no idea what “backlining” meant. I asked Jenny and she didn’t know either. I began to think of possible definitions for “backlining.” We were opening the show, the “headliner” was Kasper (I think because of his June “residency” there at The Fire), so maybe TBE was going to “backline” – meaning perform before the headliner? After about ten seconds of thinking such thoughts and feeling stupid for not really knowing, I told the Synth/Keyboard/Background Vocals guy (I wish I remembered his name) that Jenny and I had no idea what “backlining” meant.
“Backlining” officially means setting up one’s equipment and lining it up close to the back of the stage, leaving room at the front of the stage for those performing prior.
And for those of you who don’t know what a residency is (I found out three months or so ago), it means that an artist or band plays each week at one and the same venue for a certain period of time (hence takes residence there). Kasper has a residency for the month of June at The Fire, every Tuesday night, from last night until the end of the month.
In light of all this, while Jenny and I were riding back from Philly around midnight last night, we devised a plan to come up with terminology of our own. They are as follows:
Do you prefer “inees” or “outees” – translation – Do you like in-ear monitors or regular stage monitors. (Not are you attracted to people with a certain type of belly button – though I prefer “inees”)
Do you typically “slice and dice” – translation – When unplugging your guitar, do you cut the signal to the board so as to avoid the speaker “pop” or do you let the sound guy know to mute your channel.
We had more dumb terms, but I can’t remember them. Maybe I’ll add them later.
Thanks for coming to the show last night!
-Tyler