I've been taping for several years, first by mini-disc, now by a Marantz PMD-660 flash recorder. I've normally insisted upon being able to patch into the board; I had too many memories of boomy, muddy cassette-era audience tapes, and also believed that audience recordings were an excellent way to find out what the guy standing next to you thinks of his new girlfriend. I got the audience taping religion when I found out the hard way that going through the board in a small venue is an iffy business, since the engineer has to mix for the house, not for your feed.
I'd like to know where one finds those almost absurdly tall microphone stands and mounting bars. The usual places (musiciansfriend, zzounds, BSWUSA, etc.) have yielded nothing. I've seen a Shure 15-footer via Google, but $150.00 is a bit rich for my blood. What solutions have tapers here come up with for raising mics over the heads of the crowd?