Nowhere To Hinds

“I got a text off the band’s manager, I think I’m gonna get fired,” laments Hinds’ SXSW sound engineer, Jade Payne, the night after the gig from hell.

The Spanish quartet weren’t dilly dallying at the largest music showcase in the world. Reports of acts playing 10 to 14 shows, in five days, were dwarfed by Hinds’ attempt to put on 17 concerts, which included six in one day.
The Madrid-based outfit arrived at The Main II music venue on Red River Street, between 6th and 7th, 10 minutes before their allocated 11.30pm slot. The hundred-strong crowd caught a glimpse of the unglamorous side of SXSW, as each member lugged their own equipment into the cramped club and set up. 
There were issues from the start with Hinds’ drummer Amber Grimbergen hopping on and off the stage trying to retrieve various cables.
“Right away there were problems,” admits Jade Payne. “I was supposed to be playing SXSW with one of my other bands, Thelma and The Sleaze. I got offered the job of Hinds’ sound engineer for the festival. It paid well, so I couldn’t turn it down.”
The Brooklyn-based engineer was still reeling from the previous evening. A text from the group’s manager that went along the lines of “we need to discuss last night”, had left her devastated.
“I’m gonna lose my job,” she said gloomily. “I really care about what I’m doing and I really care about the band.”
As the soundcheck continued things went from bad to bat shit crazy.
“I don’t know what was up with the sound man” says Jade. Singer Ana García Perrote asked four times for Carlotta Cosials and Ade Martín’s voices to be taken out of her monitor. Four times she was ignored. Eventually, when Jade made the same request, it was met with an “Oh, that’s what you wanted?” response
Twenty minutes into the delayed set-up, the heckles from the crowd started raining down on the venue’s soundman. “Do your fucking job, asshole!” “Get your shit together, man!” Then the pièce de résistance of the night. Thirty minutes into their soundcheck, in total disbelief and utter mortification, singer Ana García informs the crowd, “Okay, so we’ve just been told that the soundboard has now broken.”
It has to be said that throughout all the bullshit and humiliation, Hinds didn’t stop smiling once. They apologised countless times and Carlotta Cosials gamely tried to entertain the punters by singing along to Rhianna’s catchy anthem ‘Work’, as it played over the Main II’s PA system.
It would have been so easy for Hinds to say, “Fuck this show, it’s our fifth of the day and we’ve still got one more after this at 1.30am at another venue.” To their absolute credit they didn’t walk off stage. They were complete professionals, they adapted to their situation and overcame it. Hinds managed the nightmare scenario with the maturity of people twice their age. In the end, they were able to perform a highly entertaining 12-minute set.