pseudotoad.gear (live)
1. Wear. Light garments and showering before the gig will help you prevent excessive sweating. As there is a risk of tearing your clothes during the construction and deconstruction, it is wise to spare the most expensive clothes for the performance.
2. Dimple gloves. Crucial element for grabbing the weighty gear. Large monitors, tv screens and screen cases tend to be especially tricky. As a side note, it is also reasonable not to carry each and every object solely by yourself.
3. Time. Plenty of it for transportations, construction, setup testing and deconstruction. Start 6 hours before the musicians and end 1 - 2 hours after they've stopped tends to be the norm, but we must admit we've done faster than that when we've had to. Festival gigs seldom leave you more than 45 minutes between the bands to construct and deconstruct so guess there's our record.
4. A car. No matter how hard you try, there is no single way to move all the gear without some kind of private transportation. Take note that although the car may usually be held in front of the venue whilst loading and unloading, it needs a proper parking place during the gig.
5. Ladders. Everything from projectors to electric wires and video cables may and usually does need to be hanged from the ceiling. Luckily most of the venues contain ladders of their own. And yes: it is shaky and very scary up there.
6. Extension cords. Don't assume a suitable power socket or the projectors will be anywhere near your spot. A minimum of 50 metres of power cable and 30 metres of video cable recommended. It is important to note that all the power supplies must get the same ground or the projector pictures will flicker.
7. Duck tape. Sticks cables to the ground and gear to their planes. The loud volume of live music will give your projected picture an instant shaking music sync if the projector is not properly attached.
8. A space of your own. As trivial as it may seem, it's not guaranteed that anyone has come up with room, or especially enough room, for the visual crew and it's gear. It is recommended to annex a suitable space early enough and stay there.
9. A couple of tables. The gear most definitely needs something to sit on, but yet again, it's not at all trivial that the crew is granted with a table. The only solution is to be on the spot early enough and grab some vertical planes. As a side note, sitting on a chair usually is a good way to rest & relax, but tends to ruin the mood whilst performing.
10. Live instruments. A computer or two, a video mixer, a couple of cameras, microphones for audio analysis, MIDI controllers and a video recorder for documentation.