sound quality at brixton gig

Hi everyone
Just wondering what those that went to the recent Rockabilly Riot gigs thought of the sound quality?
I can only speak of the brixton gig and it was absolutely shockingly bad, the sound guys had the drums up far to high in the mix and the sound coming from the basses was just mud, which was a real shame as im sure they were right up there musically speaking with the quality of brians playing, of which i do not even wanna talk about how disapointed with the way they chose to place his guitar in the mix, you could not make head nor tail of what he was playing and found myself watching his fingers to try and guess what he was playing.
He was on amazing form as well which makes me even more cross with the sound issues, the great man was grinning ear to ear all the way through and when the others stopped playing and he did some solo work he was blisteringly good, so good in fact that my mum thought that he had a backing track in the background as she couldnt believe all those notes were coming from one man.
i only wish i could of afforded to go over to dublin tonight to see him again and hopefully give my ears a treat

The sound at Manchester on 25th was perfect for Brian on the whole - piano was low in mix but I wasn't bothered about that -very clear sound for Brian and great Gretsch tone!

I thought the same vocal and guitar to low in the mix, bass was really muddy, kit was to loud
the sound did get better when Slim Jim came on I think there was less kick drum.
Still a great gig real good to see him again the sound at the last two Straycats gigs where much better.

Interesting to hear different points of view! I thought the sound at Brixton was pretty good on the whole. It certainly seemed much better than the sound from Zurich in '08 which was appalling as I remember it! Where were people stood? I was in front of the mixing desk myself, I wonder if where you are in the hall affects the sound at a gig much, I was right at the front in '08.

I had no complaints about the sound at the first night in Amsterdam.
The good thing of being at the front row is that you get the sound straight from the stage rather than from the PA. Good thing was that I was standing next to a floor speaker/monitor, so I could hear everything perfectly but the piano, which is more complicated...

The same thing with the piano happened in Paris back in 2005. Front row, sound coming from the stage... no trace of the piano!!

But again, in Amsterdam, everything was perfect!!

I wasn't at any of the gigs this time, but a general observation re. sound at concerts:

If you stay close to the mixing desc, you'll most likely (although not necessarily) have the best sound, because that's where the sound engineer is, and that's what (and WHERE ) he hears while he's mixing. So I usually try to do that when I'm at concerts.

That said, every time I've seen Setzer in any of his constellations, I've been as close to the stage as possible. In 2001 (and in 2005) I was right in front of his amp, so the balance was quite off. I got the vocals pretty much from the monitors, and bass and drums mostly from the on-stage backline. At Jones Bech in 2007 (which is an open air amphitheatre), Stray Cats were on first, so it wasn't very loud (yet), plus our seats were waaaay back and up. And although the balance was OK, the sound was almost like an old car stereo (not very rich, and the bass was really thin and trebly).

I don't know if Setzer brings his own engineer or not, but sometimes the venue's own engineer (if there is one) will most likely know the sound of that particular venue best. At a festival in my hometown a few years back, all the bands sounded GREAT except for the headliner (Swedish Rockpile-ish band the Refreshments), who brought their own engineer. So although knowing the band's sound is a good thing, it's also nice to know how the venue "reacts" to different kinds of bands etc...