///*****/// [Intro] (Dirty stomping riff, talkbox growl, crowd laughing and cheering) True story. Cleveland. Nineteen eighty-four. [Verse 1] We rolled into the building and the power was gone Half the PA melted and the monitors were wrong The promoter took the money and he took an early plane And the local union foreman said the crew won't work again Then a fellow in a nice suit came walking down the hall Said, boys, I hear you've got a little problem after all He had a smile like a hearse and a clipboard in his hand And he said, I'll fix it all tonight, just sign here where I stand [Pre-Chorus] Now I don't hold with superstition and I don't believe in hell But that man knew our setlist and he knew our names as well [Chorus] The devil ran the soundcheck And the mix was the best we ever had The devil ran the soundcheck And I'd sign the whole thing back again 'Cause the sound was so good, and the crowd was so loud Lord forgive us, we were proud The devil ran the soundcheck that night [Verse 2] He set the delay towers and he rang out every room He found a hum in the desk we'd chased since ninety-two He tuned the guitars by hand without a single meter's help And he told our drummer something that he's never once told else By nine o'clock that building was a cathedral of noise Eleven thousand people and eleven thousand joys And when we played the last chord he was gone without a sound Just a burned patch on the carpet where the man had once stood down [Pre-Chorus] Now I don't hold with superstition and I don't believe in hell But that man knew our setlist and he knew our names as well [Chorus] The devil ran the soundcheck And the mix was the best we ever had The devil ran the soundcheck And I'd sign the whole thing back again 'Cause the sound was so good, and the crowd was so loud Lord forgive us, we were proud The devil ran the soundcheck that night [Guitar Solo] (Nasty, talkbox and wah, evil chromatic slides, tritone stabs) [Breakdown - Spoken] Now I'm not saying it's true. I'm saying our sound engineer quit the next morning. And he became a priest. That's all I'm saying. [Bridge] Every band's got one night that they can't explain away When the room and the moment and the noise all lined up straight Maybe it's a miracle, maybe it's a curse Either way we're here tonight, so let's find out which is worse [Final Chorus] The devil ran the soundcheck And the mix was the best we ever had The devil ran the soundcheck And I'd sign the whole thing back again 'Cause the sound was so good, and the crowd was so loud Lord forgive us, we were proud The devil ran the soundcheck that night The devil ran the soundcheck tonight! [Verse 3] We played that same hall in ninety and the sound was merely fine Good enough, professional, and nothing more than that And I stood out on that stage and looked around the empty air And I swear I felt him laughing from a seat that wasn't there [Outro] (Talkbox laughing, riff grinding down, crowd roaring) Check your contracts, kids.
