I recently had a great gig which had some specific challenges that I thought I'd share. I thought it a good example of how going into a situation with expectations and being inflexible can be counterproductive on the job.
I recently mixed FOH for a Jazz artist of great repute. Instrumental... Drums, bass, piano, horns. The rider wasn't super specific, but appeared to have drums, etc all very much close miced for the purposes of PA. I prep as such, and when the leader arrives on the day, he immediately says about the bass drum mic... "You won't be needing that." He also somewhat jokingly said, 'I know I'm probably going to be a pain in the ass.'
For some people, this may have gotten their hackles up and a way to start a lousy day. Some techs first reaction to that may be, "I won't tell you how to play, if you won't tell me how to do my job." but in this case, as in many, that would be a huge mistake. This was an artist who knew specifically what he wanted out front, and with a little coaxing, I got it out of him. The fact that his first language is french helped slow the process a little, but he explained that he wanted the house sound to be "amplified, but appear un-amplified". That's all I needed.
I changed my choice of microphones for horns and drums. The piano stayed the same, and the bass was direct anyway. The drum kit, instead of being entirely close miced ended up as a pair of overheads and a snare "close" mic... actually about a foot away. The horns instead of dynamics in the bell... condensers a little further out.
Everyone was super happy with the end result, and we all had a great day... minus the upright bass that Air Canada lost.