I was unsure if I should put this here or in the new "Shows & Festivals" forum but I decided here since this is more about the organizing of a show rather than discussing shows.

So this is the first time I'm organizing a show by myself (I've organized shows with a guy I know who organizes shows as a hobby sort of thing, but I just called the bands, he handled all the stuff with the venue and gear). Anyway, I had a few questions I hope someone here can answer, as well as just opening the floor up for general advice.

So my question is monitors. I have a PA (or rather my friend has a PA that I know he'll lend me) and I have speakers. I do not have monitors. What's the difference between monitors and speakers? If I just had speakers with no monitors would that be find or should I just scrap the PA and just rely on amp power (it's not a big room we're playing in, but I like to do things as professional as possible)?

My other 2 questions: what mics would you recommend for micing guitar and bass amps? I have a few SM57's at my disposal, would those work? And should I mic overheads on the drums or should just doing the bass drum be find?

You can get a pretty good idea of the purpose of monitors from this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foldback_( ... ngineering)

For small shows, you may only need to run vocals through the PA. If you run less through the PA, then the band will still be hearing the drums and their amps, to some extent. The benefit of putting all of the instruments through the PA is that you can mix everything to your satisfaction. One of the benefits of monitor speakers is that the band can hear everything together - if you're standing in front of your amp, you're not going to hear much from the amp on the other side of the stage.

For small shows, you should be fine with just amps, using the PA for vocals.

For the guitar amp - SM57 1" off-center, straight.
For the bass amp - line out into the PA or same as the guitar amp.
For the drums - SM57 for the snare, Beta 52A for the kick, SM57s can work for overheads. I don't have much experience with drums so don't hesitate to take other advice over this.

For small shows you don't need monitors. PA should be fine. I'm currently setting up my first show so I hope your first time goes well.

Would it be okay if I used speakers for the monitors job (because there's 5 bands on the bill, we have an abundance of speakers)?

If you end up with ought monitors make sure the boys put there amps on an angle or in a Poseidon where the drummer will be able to here above his cymbals n' drums.

Dude! Turn auto correct off, or at least proof read for fucks sake!

Thankfully, I can understand what he was going for. Took me a second to realize that by Poseidon he meant position lmfao.