kev-
have you ever been on tour in the states? The first time I did a tour in Europe I swear, I felt like my brain was dripping out my ear the whole time, completely in shock at the night and day differences between venues there and here. More or less, and of course there are exceptions, but for the most part, clubs in the US exist because some guy heard a good way to sell the well drinks was to have bands play, so even in venues that seat 1K, you've got whatever cheap horrid shit they could get cheap for sound reinforcement as whatever it took to get it loud would be good enough for the dumb americans. Compare that to rock clubs in europe where they are mostly, palaces of rock. I will never, ever, ever forget the first time I toured in the netherlands, it was like, oh my god, someone actually figured out how to do this, amazing.
Perhaps I should have prefaced my comments with "in america" because in this country live sound is completely disposable. so long as its loud, its good since in %99 of the rooms out there, they are acoustically designed at all, its just a shitty room where a band plays with a menial PA and foldback just so someone can sell $6 bud lights. its very sad, but thats touring in the US. I dont do it anymore and I dont miss it one bit.
I can see IEM's really changing at least half of what Im bitching about. I think at this stage in the game, with how inexpensive someof those systems have become, if you can afford to tour with a sound man and can deal with wearing it, IEM seems to be the way to go for sure. Start saving so your guitar can go through a 1073, that would rule.
dave