Could you play without monitors?

maltingsaudio

Had an oops tonight where the monitor amp decided to throw a wobbly, second day of a two day festival where every thing worked like clockwork until the quad amp used for wedges decided to take an early bath. We still had drum fill and one member of the band on ears so I gave my ears pack I use for monitoring front of house to the lead singer and the bass and second guitarist had to wing it . Fortunately this bunch of old pros took it in their stride and nailed the rest of their set , whilst one of the crew belted back to the lock up to grab a couple of spare amps to get the monitors back.

When I started gigging monitors weren’t a thing , so they are to my mind, a luxury. Could you cope without ?

Wazmeister

Yes.

Ive had to, loads of times.

stickyfiddle

Guitar or bass? No problem, generally (assuming I have an amp and not a modeller direct to PA!) 

Vocals? High jeopardy. 

Harmonies? please no...

HAL9000

Guitar - yes
Vocals - only if you want to empty the pub very quickly indeed

Penn

HAL9000 said:

Guitar - yes
Vocals - only if you want to empty the pub very quickly indeed

If I were singing I could empty the pub with and without monitors. 

slacker

I've done it when the pa was set up to work that way. You can get just enough vocals through FOH. It's not ideal. I wouldn't want to play when the monitors packed in.

Revolutions

Is this a trick question?

Venues never had monitors when I was first playing gigs, especially pubs. That was 20 years ago, admittedly.

I’ve also played many a random show with minimal PA on tour in UK & Europe- I thought that was par for the course?

sw67

We play 25 gigs a year in pubs without monitors. We do try and have the singer at least level with the pa speakers. We just don't have the space in most pubs for a 5 piece + monitors.

ICBM

Depends on the space and the volume level, but it can be done... sometimes.

The one time it really didn't work for me was playing in a 3-piece 50s-style rock'n'roll band - at the brief soundcheck in an empty bar it seemed fine, the bassist's very loud amp and vocals from the PA cabs were audible enough over my amp and the drums. I thought nothing more of it.

But when the bar was full and we kicked off the gig, I was immediately aware that I could only hear the drums and my own amp. I was at least in time! The partial saving grace was that for that style of music, you can just play Chuck Berry-esque double-stop stabs and the odd solo, and as long as you're in the right(ish) key it more or less works... although the bassist was looking daggers at me half the time and occasionally shouting - inaudibly - at me across the stage, we did just about get away with it.

Supportact

Yes I've had to do it plenty of times.  Not ideal,  and I always think the performance is so much better if everything sounds good on stage. 

I can think of one occasion where the monitor mix was so bad and loud/feeding back, despite me asking the engineer several times about it,  that i just reached down and turned off the powered wedge. At least with the main speakers you've got some idea what it sounds like out front.  

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Quite often go without when the space is tight, never a problem really.

RocknRollDave

I use in-ears. Assuming they went down, in your hypothetical scenario, then I would only be ok if I had something in my ears - ear plugs, kind of thing , so I could at least hear my singing in my head, so to speak. Certainly wouldn’t be ideal, but might get me through.


In terms of using wedges, I’d happily never use one again.

Roland

If everyone has their own backline then I can generally hear everything except the vocals. I don’t sing, so in a small pub there’s enough vocal coming off the back wall to let me know which verse we’re on. However the experience, and hence my playing, is better with monitors. I prefer IEMs because the sound is even clearer, and my ears are protected against too much volume.

Lestratcaster

Done it before, in the more shitty venues, and even ones with I'd never go back to them after using in-ear monitors. But as long as I can hear the rhythm section clearly to keep in time that's all that matters, not fussed about the vocals.

ElectricXII

I sing a lot of backing vocals, and I really don't like not having a monitor. On occasion we've had to rely on the PA only, but it's not great for vocals, particularly when harmonies are important. I often carry a spare powered wedge in the car, just in case.

guitarmangler

Yes, lots of times. As long as I can hear my guitar through my amp (and the drummer can hear my guitar and the bass) it shouldn’t be a problem. I wear fitted earplugs, so signing harmony/back ups is no problem either as I can hear my voice clearly resonating in my head with them in. 

If I were a keyboard player, I think it’d be a different answer. 

ESBlonde

Can I? Yes, but why would I. I’m either singing lead or one of several harmonies, I play acoustic guitar on at least 6 songs so would like to hear.
Since I provide PA and wedges there is always something of quality by my feet. When I started in the 70s monitors were non existent to us local musicians and I remember a few home builds along the way before compact commercial stuff was available and affordable plus mixers capable of a decent monitor send were not common back in the day. Anyone else remember the HH 100w PA amp, then the Peavey 200w then 400w mixer amp boxes, oh how we looked forward to that!