Recently I've spent a lot of time at local venues, like the Epicentre in the heart of Mira Mesa.Quite honestly, most local bands that play at places like these are awful. But they aren't bad because they can't play well or they don't have musical talent--it's because all the instruments simply aren't audible. The problem is usually with the guitarists' volume and bite (bite is the amount of treble signal coming through the signal). This is what happens. The guitar is simply too loud and the bite just fills your ears. Notes just can't be deciphered. Meanwhile, the vocalist sings, but he can't be heard. The bassist continues to play, parallel to the volume drummer, both of which are lower than the guitar's volume. You see, the bands forget that they me sound amazing in their garage, but when they get to a bigger venue, they forget to adjust their sound. For example, you need a bit of reverb on all the instruments. Reverberation just adds this whole new element to your sound, normally. But in a big venue, it will allow your wattage to carry through the place. Also, if you are using a tube amplifier, make sure it's less than 100 watts. You just don't need more than 85 watts to play anything less than Madison square. Finally, keep your damn volume at a moderate level, guitar players! Look at it this way. The bass guitar fills the most space. It fills the room and dominates the sonic galaxy of the venue. Next come the drums, which are another huge space-taker. These two instruments should be well balanced. Use the venues monitoring system to do that. The guitar comes in on top of all that. It should be loud enough to be heard (just a wee bit louder than the drums and bass), but not loud to the point where it's indecipherable and deafening. Finally, the vocals come in. They should be the most audible sound in the room. Remember that the thing your audience is listening to isn't your epic power chords or riffing during the verse--it's your singer's voice. So portray it in a manner that complements the whole band. Another thing to keep in mind is the volume of any pedals you are using. For small venues, I usually keep it down to 2 or 3 staple pedals--OD, Dist/Fuzz, and maybe a Wah. Make sure they're all set at around unity, aside for maybe the OD, which should be a bit higher for a boost.Guitarists-you'll get your chance to shine during solos. Set your ego aside and let everyone in the band come together in a sonic swell of awesomeness.
sk
P.S.--I learned this the hard way. I had a 100 watt Marshall JCM900 on about 5 with the gain all the way up on the dirty channel and the volume at 6 on the clean channel. If you're using a Marshall, you know that they sound great in your garage, and amazing in a hall. But there's no in-between. I was just too loud. You couldn't hear the vocals or the keyboards. Well, everyone has to fail once to learn.
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