Originally Posted by
mostapha
The problem is doing that for every gig. If you're a resident, you can get away with it. If you don't play that often, you probably don't have the clout. And, well, the sound guys in clubs have a lot of different goals pulling them in different directions. I agree, it's just flat out wrong. But, it's also really common, at least where I've been.
Something not all that big/heavy/obtrusive that you can bring seems preferable for a lot of people, even if you don't use it that much.
For a while, I had those inflatable turntable pillow things in my record bag (proabbly still have them somewhere). Flat out saved at least one pop-up gig where the only real alternative was to switch to an iPod or something. I've also run home to get my iso-acoustics speaker stands to put CDJs on after somebody thought it was an okay idea to use subwoofer cabinets as table legs...it didn't work great, but the jog wheels stopped vibrating.
When you're dealing with rampant incompetence, anything you can do is worth it, even if it's not ideal.