We have a winner! Atlanta, Georgia's very own pop/rock hotshots the Gates of Berlin were picked out of thousands of unsigned bands throughout the U.S. as Performer, Electro-Voice, and Dynacord's Rehearsal Space Rehab recipient. This is the first of our three-part "realitorial" series in which our experts from Electro-Voice, Dynacord, and other Telex-related companies diagnose the band's PA problems and then maximize the band's sound system and rehearsal space with their incredible sound reinforcement knowledge and products.


The Band:

The Gates of Berlin
www.thegatesofberlin.com
Atlanta, GA




Personnel (l-r):
James Arnold bass
Phillip Barlow guitar
Elijah Jones lead vox/keys
Devin Donnelly guitar/vox/keys

In less than two years of playing together, the Gates of Berlin have managed to build a formidable rock and roll résumé in the southeast. The band has shared stages with national acts the Donnas, Garbage, and the Kaiser Chiefs. The Atlanta Music Guide called their 2005 release Mercurius “Best New Local Release.” And Goodie Mob’s Cee-Lo liked “Dim the Lights” from that CD so much, he asked to sing the song with the band at a recent benefit show for Katrina victims. The band does seem to be leading a bit of a charmed life these days. They recently won a Miller Lite Battle of the Bands competition and were awarded a year’s supply of Miller Lite (10 cases a month for 12 months, not too shabby). In the past year, the Gates have picked up a manager and booking agent. They’ve been playing 3-5 shows a month throughout the south, and they are currently planning to dole out their brand of wirey pop rock hooks along the east coast as they firm up the dates for a tour in the coming months. From the outside, things seem to be moving right along for the band. They are working hard and playing hard and they are starting to see some return on their efforts. At rehearsals, however, there’s been a bit of a struggle...


Part 1: The Diagnosis

Due to changing rehearsal spaces, wear and tear, and the recent addition of keys to their lineup, the band has increasingly felt the pains of not having a proper PA system. After adding keys and developing more background vocal parts, the GoB started to realize the importance of having a good monitor system for both their live performances and rehearsals. But, after taking the PA that they currently use for rehearsals with them to shows to use as a second monitor system for keys and vocals, the band started realizing that they were leaving some things behind after load-out. Says guitarist Phillip Barlow, “Days after a show at The Loft, we noticed we were short one monitor. The Loft didn’t know where it went. We didn’t know where it went. We were SOL. So now [we’re practicing] with ONE monitor. There is no good way to do that.”

The band’s mics are an assorted collection of hand-me-downs from former bands and some are even from retail sale promotions: “I know for a fact that I got one of our mics for free when I bought a gross of guitar strings. That’s got to say something about the quality of the mic, right?” Barlow says that the band has been trying to save up the money to get enough mics to start recording practices for review and song writing purposes, citing that after trying this in the past, it helped the band develop its sound quite a bit.

Barlow goes on to say, “We understand that it’s not just the equipment’s fault. We are not sound engineers. We did have our sound engineer friend come out and help us set up a PA at our practice space. But that was three rooms ago and [our space] was solid concrete. We do need help with proper mic and monitor placement.” The band’s size and development of background vocals has taxed their current PA as Barlow reports, “True story, the day you called me to tell us that we won, we had to again change rooms AND our PA blew.”