It was totally out of my expectation that I should be designed as a translator of PA. Before I share my thrilling experience with you, I should first explain what ‘PA’ is to you. PA is the one who takes care of all sounds and the effect of sounds during a heavy metal concert. Take guitar for example, usually there would be a cable used to connect Guitar and PA’s own big, complicated device. When playing guitar, the sound of guitar will be transmitted into PA’s device. At this time before the sounds are heard by the audience, PA will make several adjustments toward the sounds, including changing the HZ or the volume(I can’t give more examples because I’m not a professional PA) until he considers the sounds perfect.
In 228 ‘With justice we can cure this world’ metal concert, a famous England band called ’Muse’ was invited to perform. Though Taiwan has its native PA to take care of all performing bands on the stage but Muse seemed to question the ability of Taiwan’s PA. Due to this, They brought their own PA staff to the concert.
I think you can understand the reason why I was asked to be a PA translator. It was because I was the only English Major student in ‘Ultimate’—the heavy metal union in Taiwan so was chosen easily to do this job.
After knowing this, the first emotion which struck me was surprise, but it faded quickly into strong anxiety and a little bit uneasy of my stomach. Before that moment, I knew nothing about PA, it was totally foreign to me. So I asked my bass teacher, another member of ‘Ultimate’. With no professional PA knowledge, how could I translate the needs of British PA properly?
The only answer I got from my bass teacher was ‘Do not think too much and wait for the call, just do it.’. Then soon I realized that he was a cynical rocker, it was my fault to seek for comforting advice from him.
As time went by, it was already evening of 2/27. The fatal big outdoor concert would be in tomorrow. I knew that 2/28 I would spend all the day maybe from 7 in the morning till 12 at midnight and for the upcoming bible exam on 2/29, I had better study now.
At the moment I opened my sweet old testament, when the name of ‘Abel ‘ struck my eyes, my cell phone began to rang, violently breaking the silence of winter night.
It wasn’t until the phone kept screaming for 3 minutes did I pick it up and was told from the screen that it was from my band member, W, who was also one member of ‘Ultimate’ and my boyfriend now(later I will show you the story between I and him but now business first).
“You must come,” he said in brief and desperate, I could hear the roaring noises from his position, maybe some of the bands were rehearsaling “so many works to do, Mark, the PA of Muse is looking for you. You had better come in 30 minutes.”
That means I had to rush immediately from 新莊 to 中山football court but it didn’t mean I could arrive on time. But I seemed to have no choice.
I hanged the phone and dressed myself as quick as I could, bringing my purse, locking the door and rushing down the stairs. I kept running until the moment I got on a cab. Of course, the driver was asked to drive faster. During that time, my cell phone kept ringing for several times but I decided not to catch. For they did no good on me, only made me feel more anxious.
The time I arrived at 中山football court was already 10:10 at night. It took me 40 minutes to get there. Will Mark scold me with his British pride? When I walked to Mark in PA Stage across the main stage, he was shouting at a local engineer who had doubt on his face. My God, wasn’t that my fault?
“Excuse me,” I uttered with uneasy, “I’m Emily, your PA translator. Anything I could help?”
“And just tell him, the connections of cables are completely wrong.” He than turned away with fragmental murmuring “God, Jesus, why I have to stand the shit!”
That was how my work began, seemed not smooth but in a mess.
Soon I found that what matters a lot as a PA translator was not professional knowledge, indeed it matters a little. The most important thing of translator like me was to comfort Mark and the rest of the PA staff. Because they were working with their lives, working for the performance quality and their fame, any slightest mistake was not accepted. As a result, the atmosphere was so suffocated. How strange it was, instead of translating, I found myself kept making them laugh. Could it be considered as part of social ability?
We kept working to the next morning, with no rest and sleep then the concert began.
At night, Muse was the last band on the stage and the only band which arouse audience’s passion and caused a little disturb. During the concert, under the power of music, I was unconsciously moved to tears. I couldn’t focus on those bands on stage because I was too exhausting. Mark gave me a pack of Marbolo light from England to keep me warm and awake. I smoked one of them and it was quite spicy. After that night, I and Mark had become good friends.
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