Life on the road with All Time Low.

What a crazy few days! First show of the tour, Bamboozle Left and Vegas!

It’s been a fun, and tiring few days. The first show was in Mesa, AZ, at a very nice outdoor amphitheater. We loaded in on Thursday(for a Friday show) for our final rehearsal before the show. It went very well, and sounded great. But, come show day, the weather gods decided it would be fun to toy with me and kick the wind up to 20-30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. Needless to say, it was an interesting day. We had to gaff tape mic stands in place to keep them from blowing over, and we had to weigh the guitar boats down so they didn’t blow off the stage! Needless to say, I knew the show wasn’t going to sound amazing. Every time the wind kicked up, the guitars would just disappear. It was a nice natural phaser sound on the whole mix, and I couldn’t turn it off no matter how much I wanted it gone.

But, the wind was actually one of my lesser worries come line check. I ask Grieco to hit the kick, and it’s not there. Hmmm… It’s showing up on channel 16, thats not right! Ok, I’ll tell the Clair guys to swap their tails and that should fix everything. Nope! Kick is gone, and snare is now where the kick should be. This isn’t good… I run up to the stage to figure out what’s going on. We fumble around before finally figuring out that the Clair snakes are set up as a 14 channel standard, while our ATL snakes are 12 channels. Swapping their tails put everything 2 channels off. So, we swapped everything to the proper way and got the show rolling. A crisis was averted!

…Caution: Sound Nerd stuff..

The Midas Pro 6. Fall Out Boy is 1 of 3 to have this console in the USA. It’s so new that it’s running on Beta software and has no offline editor. However, in typical Midas standards, it sounds great. The board is very well laid out, and easy to get around on. I’ve got 2 shows on it now, and I feel like I can do anything I want on it. Though, I do have a few complaints:

-Only 16 faders. It would have been great to have 24 faders so I could keep everything on 1 layer and not have to flip through a few pages to get what I need.

-Buggy. We’ve had a screen go out, a few functions stop working and VCA’s that wont assign to anything. I figure most of these issues will go away as the software gets updated, but it’s rather annoying currently.

-Scene functions. You have to save your stuff about 5 times to really save it to the console. I much prefer Yamaha’s method for saving scenes. It’s a lot easier.

However, with that said, I have to say, it’s a great sounding board. The comps are very transparent, the gates work well, and the built in effects sound good. Though, there is no tap delay at all in the console.

It’s a good board all around, but I’d still much rather have a Digi Design Profile…

…End Sound Nerd Stuff….

Before we could get into the groove of shows, we had to get a Festival out of the way: Bamboozle Left. It was a pretty cool festival. It really reminded me of Warped Tour. Rat Sound provided a Midas H3000 at FOH, and a V-Dosc PA. I was very pleased with everything at Bamboozle, and for an outdoor festival with no line checks, it really sounded nice.

Tonight we were in Vegas, and I’m finally getting a system down. I can prepatch most of my stuff before we go on, only leaving the drums and front line to worry about during the change over. This was a “smaller” room at a capacity of only 2,600. But, the PA installed in the room could have covered 26,000. We had 48 JBL VT4888DP’s, 20 JBL VT4880DP’s and Clair brought in 8 BT218’s for some extra LF. It was an insane amount of PA for this room, and it sounded great. Someone must have had a lot of money to throw around at this install! The show went very smoothly and sounded great. I couldn’t has asked for much more!

And how about a picture of Fall Out Boy:

And that’s all for now. Back to the world of Rock and Roll….

1692 miles down, 690 to go.

We’re on day 2 of our 3 day trip from Maryland to Arizona for 3 rehearsal dates and the first show date. The crew headed out Saturday afternoon to start the trip, and we’re expected to arrive at our destination around 6am tomorrow morning. It’s been a fairly peaceful trip out west. In order to make our deadline, we hired 2 drivers that alternate driving all day. They take 8 hour shifts driving straight through, with almost no stops. We’re currently in the middle of no where. I think we’re in Texas, but there’s absolutely nothing around.

We did take a pit stop earlier in the day so the bus could gas up and Matt could play with the cows:

We’ve all been sitting on the bus trying to keep ourselves occupied with whatever we can. I’ve settled into the bus, and gotten everything in it’s place. Well good enough anyway… Everyone else is sitting around playing video games, watching TV, listening to music, and doing whatever they can to keep busy. Sadly, internet and phone coverage has been pretty crappy out here…

We went with a new bus company this tour, and I must say, it’s a pretty nice improvement so far. Have a look:

It’s a pretty snazzy looking bus. A nice upgrade over the old bus we had!

Thats all for now…

Back to the world of Rock and Rollllllll….

Only a few days left to go before the next tour, and I’m no where near ready. This week has consisted of:

1. Taking care of Roxanne: She had her wisdom teeth pulled on Tuesday, and I’ve been taking care of her and nursing her back to health for the past 24 hours. She is doing well, and feeling better!

2. Finishing up All Time Low’s new In Ear Monitor setup: We have quickly out grown the old system, and it was time to move on from our beloved Crest XRM20. We decided that a Yamaha LS9-32 would best suit our needs:

Caution: Sound nerd stuff:
Going from a completely self contained monitor setup to a separate rack and console was quite the change. Our old setup allowed us to leave everything patched all the time, so it was very simple. Now, with the new monitor board, I have to patch it every day. So, that means 28 input channels, and 11 outputs. I knew that would get annoying quick, and it really wasn’t something I wanted to do every day, so I set off to make my life easier.

My solution was to change the passive spit on our current panel from XLR to a pair of Whirlwind W1 connectors. A W1 connector basically take 12 channels work of XLR and converts them to a handy little multipin connector:

They plug together:

And then the other end fans out to XLR:

This makes for a nice neat and fast setup. Instead of having to plug in 24 single XLR’s every day, I only have to plug in 2 multipin connectors. The only downside to this fun system is the assembling process. The back of the connector looks like this:

39 connections less then 1/8″ apart from each other. Talk about working in cramped spaces! It took me a solid 6 hours to knock out both connectors. That’s a lot of soldering!

But, the complete patch panel setup turned out pretty nice:

And, the cabling is very neat:

My final project for the week involves packing, something I really need to do. So, until next time….

Back to the world of Rock and Roll….

Yeah, it’s quite amazing. This time last year ATL was headlining rooms for about 200, 300 people tops. One year later, and they’re on a support tour with Fall Out Boy. It’s really baffling when you think about it. When I heard that the tour was confirmed, I was like “cool, an arena tour.” But, now as it gets closer, the “wow, an arena tour” factor is really starting to set in. This is really a whole new level for all of us. No one in the crew or band has ever toured on this level before, and I’m really quite excited to see it all happen, but at the same time I’m really scared out of my mind. I’m working under a band that I grew up listening to, and I’m mixing for thousands of people every night. I really need to bring my A game out for this tour!

It’s really cool to finally get out of the club world and move onto bigger things though. After a while you get sick of doing the same venues over and over. This is a completely new experience. I’m most excited for Merriweather Post Pavilion. This is one of my all time favorite venues to see shows, and now a tour that I am working is coming through this place. It’s my home town venue, so I better not mess this one up!

It will be nice to get out of the headlining cycle for a bit too. It’s been fun being the headlining band, but the long nights and early load ins really get to you after a while. Being able to sleep in and be done early is going to be a huge plus on this tour. I’ll have more time to relax and enjoy my nights. Finishing at 8-9pm will be much nicer then finishing around midnight all the time.

In other news- I’ve been filling in for Brand New’s sound guy at their shows. I did one show in New Jersey a few weeks ago, and I’ve got 3 more coming up in March. It’s fun to get away from ATL every now and then and mix something completely different. These guys are good musicians and put on a pretty good show. Plus, I get back to my club roots because their stage volume is out of control and makes mixing a lot more fun!

Check it out:

That’s all for now!
Back to the world of rock and roll…

I never thought I would get such a reaction from everyone when I stopped updating this thing. I never really realized just how popular this thing really was. So, with that said, Im going to start fresh with 2009 and revamp this blog.

Wrapping up tour for the year…

The Compromising of… Tour was probably the most fun I’ve had all year. Headlining a national tour across the country in fairly large venues is what most people only dream of doing. I got to not only experience it, but I got to do it with what I now consider my family. Tours have a lot of ups and downs, but not this one. It was a big high the whole time. Night after night, show after show, the crowds stayed strong and the band kept rocking. Our tour blew away every other tour in this genre of music. Not only in ticket sales, but quality too. The bill was perfect, featuring all of the “buzz” bands of 2008. The fans couldn’t have asked for much more from this tour.

I was very happy with the overall tour. The venues were all decent, and I got to hit every House Of Blues in the USA. And yes, you guessed it, House of Blues are still my favorite all around venues. Though, there are a couple of others that come close too. I only had a few scary audio nights on this past tour. Most of the nights I had good rooms, and good PA’s. Matter of fact, I can only think of 3 bad sounding shows the whole tour. Otherwise, every other venue sounded pretty good. If I had to pick a top 5 for best sounding on the tour, it would be:

-The Norva:
You just cant beat a nice v-dosc rig in an acoustically treated room. 4 boxes a side with 2 dV-dosc downfills a side will really surprise you. I came out of the gate at 108dBA at this show and the rig wasnt even breaking a sweat. It just sounded great. Even with all the new boxes coming out these days, V-Dosc still is my favorite all around top box.

-9:30 Club:
Wow. This club was good before, but now with it’s d&b system, it’s really taken itself to a new level. 3 d&b B2’s a side and 8 J8’s a side makes for quite the slammin’ system. Top it off with a Digidesign Profile out front, and you’ve got all the toys you could ever want in one room. I just wish they had a few more subs to really fill out the bottom end. It’s there, but when you really lay into the rig, the low end just runs out of gas and starts sounding strained. Otherwise, it’s a great rig!

-Soma:
A movie theatre gone rock and roll. This is a big room, with a BIG PA. It has a 36 box EV X-array system in this room. Plenty of PA, for even the loudest of mixers. This room just rocks.

-House of Blues Cleveland:
While it’s a smaller HOB, it’s slowly growing on me. The XLC system in the room just sounds top notch and is plenty loud for the room.

-House of Blues Orlando:
It’s a house of blues. What more do I need to say? These rooms always sound good.

2008 was a great year all around. Co-Headlining the AP Tour in the spring, Six Flags in the summer and then ending the year off with a big Headlining tour. I met a lot of great people over the year, and formed many new connections. I went from a small town nobody to a national touring engineer in a matter of months. None of this would be possible if I didn’t know ATL back in the day. Every day I think about just how lucky I am to have gotten this opportunity.

2009 holds a lot of potential as well. A new album in the works, A big support tour in the spring, a summer headlining tour and then hopefully a big big big fall headlining tour. Ill have more on the spring tour soon. Stay tuned…

However, I must say that I am currently enjoying my time off. After a year of touring, 3 months vacation is really nice. Waking up in my own bed never felt so good. I enjoyed being home with my family for the holidays, and starting the new year off at home. It’s nice to just sit back and relax every now and then. Im getting back in touch with the local music scene and my local production company.

Of course, Im sure everyone is asking: Where are the pictures!? Well, Im currently uploading about 100 of them to a server where you’ll be able to access them all. Ill be posting a link with my next update shortly.

Back to the world of rock and roll…

Man, Im really behind with this thing. Where did I leave off? Ah yes…

10-15 Charlotte, NC @ Tremont Music Hall
Attendance: 950
Cap: 950

I left my camera on the bus for this one, so I dont have any pictures. If you’ve been following this blog, you already know about this venue. If you havent already read it, check out my “Welcome to 1980″ blog. The PA is still older then me, felling apart and lacking in every department. I was around 97dBA for the show itself. The rig just didnt have anymore get up and go

10-16 Jacksonville Beach, FL @ Free Bird Live
Attendance: 600
Cap: 600

Oh man. Ive heard stories about this venue in the past, but I always thought “how bad could it be?” Well, it was surprisingly crappy. FOH was tucked under a balcony in the back of the room. But, wait, it gets better. The mains were flown 3′ BEHIND the front of the stage. Yes, you read that right! The mains were flown BEHIND the front of the stage. That put the left and right mics in direct line of fire with the mains. So, I had basically no gain before feedback all night… It was a pretty lame show in the end.

After a few small shows, it’s always great to get into a bigger club…

10-17 Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution
Attendance: 1400
Cap: 1200

Another smooth show at Revolution. The show itself went flawlessly. I had no complaints at all. The installed Turbosound system is still alive and kicking. I can always make a room rock with turbosound.

The show itself was not the interesting part of the night though. After the show is where things started getting crazy. The area of town we are in turns into a nightclub packed with people as soon as it gets dark. The club next to the venue drew some very interesting people. Everyone in the band decided to head out and enjoy the night, while I stayed back on the bus and relaxed. An empty, quiet bus is something that doesnt happen too often! So, I cranked up some Miles Davis, grabbed some ego’s and started my relaxing night. About 15 minutes into my quiet, a drunken idiot stumbles onto the bus and askes “Is this the party bus?” I had to assure him that he wasnt missing anything and escort him off of the bus. Shortly after 2 other people wondered onto the bus, and at that point, I locked the bus door, drew the shades and hunkered down. The club people were overflowing into the streets and I wasnt going to let it ruin my evening…

10-18 Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House Of Blues
Attendance: 2100
Cap: 2100

House of Blues! Finally, our first HOB show of the tour. You just cant beat House Of Blues. Great people, great PA’s and great food. Everything that an artist and crew wants, all in one venue. If every venue was like HOB, touring would be cake.

This is one of the older HOB’s around. It still has an old KF850 system and SB1000z subwoofers. But, it still sounds good and has plenty of get up and go. It ended up being a great show for everyone.

Oh, and how about a picture of someone else for a change:

More soon…

Back to the world of Rock and Roll…

10/12: Roseland Ballroom:
Attendance: 3500
Cap: 3500

New York City! Big buildings, bright lights, and the biggest show of our tour. The 3500 capacity Roseland Ballroom was the next stop on our adventure across the country. It’s a bit of a shame that the biggest show of the tour was so early on. But either way, we were ready to rock it.

The day started off great for everyone. The local union loaders took care of getting all the gear off the truck and into the venue. We didnt have to touh a single case on the way in(we really werent even allowed to), which was great. Just point where the case needed to go, and they took care of it. They set up all of our risers and made things come together very quickly.

I walked into the venue and was very happy to see that they had met my rider needs for the PA. I had 6 JBL VT4889’s per side, 12 subs in the middle and a Yamaha PM5D out front. Im not a huge fan of JBL Vertec’s, but I had to make due with them.

CAUTION: SOUND NERD STUFF:
I’ve never been a fan of JBL highs. It’s just something about them that I dont like. They always seem to have way too much 6.3k and 8k. They are overly bright and get harsh very quickly. Come to think of it, Im not a fan of the whole JBL mid/high section on the vertecs. They have a horn honk that can get out of control and the mids have a certain characteristic to them that I really dont like. And it’s not just one set of boxes. Every JBL rig Ive ever mixed on has had the same problem. I highly prefer the sound of d&b or V-Dosc to these boxes. The only good thing I see with Vertecs is how easy they fly. Sound quality always leaves a lot to be desired…

The rig as Roseland packed every usual Vertec issue. The mid high section of the boxes just gets out of control when you start pushing the boxes. I ended up taking a big cut out of the PA at 2.5-4k and again at 6-8k. That smoothed it out enough to make it workable.

END SOUND NERD STUFF.

After Sound check I decided to take a walk outside to scope out the line. I walked out the front door and saw the start of the line to my left. Then I looked to my right and saw the end of the line! So, the line for the show completely wrapped around the whole city block. It was insane. There was also a barricade keeping the kids from coming up to the front door. As soon as they moved the barricade, the kids started running toward the front door. I saw a little girl in the front of the line start to run, trip, fall and get completely trampled. I never saw her again…

Come show time the place was completely packed. 3500 screaming kids were inside of the venue. When ATL hit the stage I was pushing 108dBA at FOH for the intro. The crowd was still overpowering the PA. The kids were singing louder then I could mix. The vertec’s were giving it all they had and it just wasnt enough. I finally settled on a 106dBA mix and it seemed to work well. I was into complete limit on the subs and lows of the PA, and was tapping the limiters on the mids during louder parts of the show. 6 boxes a side wasnt quite enough rig for the gig… It would have been nice to have 1-2 more boxes a side just for a little more get up and go.

But in the end, the show was a complete success. Everything was flawless in the set, and all the upper end management of the band was very happy with everything. The night couldnt have gone any better.

10/13: 9:30 Club, Washington DC
Attendance: 1200
Cap: 1200

Ive done this venue many times before. I pretty much have always known what to expect at this place. I was expecting to walk in and see the usual EAW KF850/SB100z rig in there, but I got a pretty nice surprise instead… They had replaced the old rig with a brand new d&b J-series system and B2 subs. A Digidesgn Profile was also now living out front. I fired the system up and it just sounded fantastic. Great all around with no EQ at all. Sound check went very smooth, and the show was just as good. I was averaging 106dBA for most of the show, but with the low end slamming, I was hitting peaks of 122dBC. It was insane. During Dear Maria, I opened the rig up some more and hit 110dBA @ FOH, and the system wasnt even struggling. I was still 20dB down from limit on the mains!

After that show I would say 9:30 club has the best installed system in the country. It absolutely blew me away.

After the show, I got to head home with Roxanne and spend a nice relaxing night at home. Cant beat that!

Back to the world of rock and roll!

The moment everyone has been waiting for…. The fall tour!

At last, our first major headlining tour. We’ll be traveling the whole country rocking city to city night after night. Only this time, we get to be the stars. No more sharing or just being support. Life is good.

We’ve got a lot of new, fun toys for this tour. I’ve updated the monitor rig, and we’ve got a ton of new stuff on stage. More on this next in my special behind the scenes blog.

Since this was our first big headlining tour, we decided that it would be best to have a few practice days beforehand. So, 2 days before our first scheduled show, we headed down to a rehearsal space, set up the full production and ran the show a bunch of times. Our new LD Sarah spent both days programming the lights and learning our songs. I spent the time setting up our new gear and fine tuning the setup.

Now, the plan on the second day of rehearsal was to load up the semi, get all of our stuff on the bus and drive down to VA for our first show. But, since things were going so well for the first day, everything should be good for day 2, right? Of course not! We get a call around 4pm that the bus had broken down and was at least 8 hours away. Ok, not a big, we can manage. Around 6pm we get another call saying that the mechanics had broken something else while trying to fix the original problem, and that the bus wouldnt be there until 5am. Now, it’s a 5.5 hour drive from MD to VA without traffic, and we were going to be hitting rush hour traffic on the way there, so there was basically no chance that we would make it there in time for the 11am load in.

So, the bus company decided to fly us out of BWI and over to VA. That meant the crew had to wake up at 5am to make our 7am flight. We arrived at the Norva around 9am and our crazy adventure was finally over.

So, at last, the first show of the tour: The Norva in VA.

10-09 Norfolk, VA @ The Norva
Attendance: 1375
Cap: 1425

After our long morning and hardly any sleep, we loaded into The Norva. What a great venue to start the tour. They have a nice V-Dosc rig installed, and a pair of Yamaha M7CL’s. Load in started with trying to figure out how to fit everything on stage. Our backline setup is 33′ wide, and The Norva’s stage is 34′ wide. The only problem is that the entrance to the stage is at the rear of the stage. So, it was very tight getting around everything. The other problem was trying to fit another drum kit in front of our riser. There was only about 6′ of room in front of our riser. We ended up pushing everything back into the curtain a little giving the opener enough room(barely).

In the end, it ended up being a pretty great first show. Everything went very smoothly and it sounded great. I came out of the gate around 108dBA, and averaged 103-106 for the rest of the set. You just cant beat the sound of a V-Dosc rig…

How sweet doses our stage look?

10-10 Cheswick, PA @ Gravity Nightclub
Attendance: 1500
Cap: 1700

This was an interesting “club.” It was an old skating rink turing into a venue. They still had all the roller blades stashed back in the dressing room, so a lot of guys were out skating around during sound check. This was not a fun day though.

Load in was up 2 flights of stairs into the venue. So that meant they had to carry a complete 48′ semi worth of gear, double stacked front to back up a flight of stairs. To add to it, 90% of the cases were not under 200lbs! And another issue was that the loaders were all younger guys that were the size of me. None of these guys knew what was coming until they saw the truck. Needless to say, load in and load out was long and painful for everyone. It took about 2 hours to load in, and close to 3 hours to load out.

The PA was nice again though. It’s really nice when people actually read my rider. I had another v-dosc rig. 5 mains, and 6 subs per side. Another M7CL out front too. It was going to be a good day. Come show time, it was packed inside, and HOT! 1500 kids in a confined space creates a lot of heat! But, the crowd was great and everything ended up sounding pretty good.

10-11 Allentown, PA @ Crocodile Rock Cafe:
Attendance: 1400
Cap: 700

Yeah, you read that right. 1400 kids in a 700 cap room. Not ideal at all…

This is one of the smaller clubs of the tour. It has an underpowered, tired KF650e rig, with SB1000z subs. It’s not a good sounding venue at all, and the stage is tiny. After 2 nights of V-Dosc systems, I was not looking forward to this. It seemed like most of the subs were blown up, so life was not good. Come show time, it must have been 90 degrees in the room. There were so many kids packed into this small place. The crowd was louder then the PA at some points. I just had to ride it out and hope for the best. The show went fairly well, but it just would have been nice to have more PA.

Oh well, life goes on…

Back to the world of rock and roll…

Every so often Ill get an email or someone will ask me “how do I get a job in this field” or “what kind of schooling do I need to do this?” I never really have an answer for them, because it’s not as simple as one would think. The music business is really a different creature from the usual 9-5 office job. There are no set hours, set pay or really anything written in stone.

When asked “Where did you learn everything you know,” everyone is always shocked to hear that I never attended any form of school for audio. I taught myself everything I know. Either from reading articles online, participating in online discussions or just doing it myself. I learned early on that a piece of paper will get you no where in this business. It’s all about who you know, and most importantly who knows you. If your skills are good and people know you do a good job, then the work will come to you. No school can guarantee you a job in this business when you graduate. Unless you plan on going into the studio business, I highly suggest skipping school. Make connections with people. Get a job with a local production company, and work your way up. Dont expect to start mixing right away. Dont expect to even touch a console outside of it’s case for a long time. You’ll probably be stuck soldering cables for a long time before you ever make it to the gig.

Once you start learning the basics, get an internship at a local club. You’ll get to mix in a controlled environment and you will learn things very quickly. Just remember to keep a good work attitude. People remember how well you work very well. A good attitude will get you further in this business then any degree.

I got very lucky. I met the guys in All Time Low back when they were playing small church halls in town. I had my little production company and I did sound for them back then. As time went on, and they started looking for a sound guy, they came back to me, as a friend that they knew and trusted. If I didnt know these guys, I could probably still be stuck at home waiting for my chance. I highly suggest that you make friends with local bands. If you can mix, and you can prove it to them, you might just get lucky. I know I did.

My only advice to people interested in doing what I do, is that if you really want to do this, get out and do it! You are never too young to start learning. Just remember: Owning a sound company may sound cool, but it is very hard to make into a profitable business. You need a lot of gear and a lot of connections. Your best bet is to tour or hook up with a regional company that has already established itself.

Back to the world of rock and roll…

It’s mid September already? Where have the past few weeks gone?

8/31/08: Six Flags Dallas, Texas

We arrived early for this one. Well rested after a nice night at the hotel, we journeyed over to the Six Flags in Dallas. At 11am, it was already 95 degrees outside. When we arrived, I found to my displeasure that they already had mics on everything. Oh well, a little explaining the house guys pulled their mics and I threw up all of mine.

CAUTION: SOUND NERD STUFF:

Next up on the bill was listening to the PA. Hm… I spec’d an EV X-line system… What did they provide? Electro-Voice? No way! SOUNDBRIDGE! I had 12 of the XYON boxes a side, and 10 subs per side too. Not really ideal, but I had to fire it up to see what it sounded like. So, I play my usual test tunes, and sadly, the PA was not having a good day. The coverage was uneven all throughout the arena and it sounded very thin and harsh. The low mids pretty much disappeared halfway back. The PA was also lacking in the get up and go department. Struggling to hit 103dBA, it was not looking to be a fun night. I spent about an hour EQ’ing the system to get a usable sound out of it. I had a 15dB cut at 160hz, another 15dB cut at 2.5k and a few other cuts around 630hz, 6.3k, 8k, 1k, and 3k. Once I finally gave up and settled for “good enough,” we proceeded with sound check. Everything sounded thin, harsh and muddy. All at the same time. It was a real challenge to get a good mix going. I did manage to make it “good enough” and I lived with it. As I walked around during sound check, I noticed that coverage dropped off very quickly off to the side, and down front it all just became a muddy mess. Even with front fills, it still didnt sound too good down front.

END SOUND NERD STUFF.

Come show time, the place really got packed. About 6000 kids piled into the arena excited for a good show. It was HOT in the arena. Tyga opened the show, and Katy Perry was direct support for us. The kids seemed to enjoy Katy’s set. She has a pretty good live show. When we hit the stage, the crowd was still strong and LOUD. During our opening song, I was completely out of gas and was just driving the piss out of the PA trying to get it loud enough. I finally got it to where it was enough, but it was not too good sounding. I really didnt like the PA provided at all.

This was an interesting venue though. The stage had wings that went a solid 50′ out into the crowd. There was no protection between the crowd and the wings. So basically, if the crowd wanted, they could jump up onto the wings, and run right down to the stage. During the openers everyone seemed to behave, but about 3/4 the way through ATL’s set, the crowd started jumping up onto the wings and hugging the guys when they would come out onto the wings. A few kids were even brave enough to run from the wings all the way down to the stage. Just to try to get closer to the band. Security was attempting to stop kids as they went running by, but some of them were just too fast. I saw one cop jump at a kid running by, but the kid just jumped over the cop and made it right to the stage. It was crazy.

In the end, we still had a decent show. It could have been a lot better with a better sound system, but I survived and everyone had a good time.

9/1/08: Six Flags San Antonio, Texas

An early day for everyone. We flew from Dallas straight to San Antonio in the morning. We arrived around 11am at the venue. Since today was Labor day, a lot of special events were taking place in the park throughout the day. One of them happened to fall right at 1pm. Meaning, that we couldnt make noise on our stage during that time. So, we had to set up and check before 1pm. It was a little rushed, but we made it just in time.

It also helped that the PA was much nicer today. The rig I wanted was actually there. 6 EV X-Line boxes a side, 8 EV XLD218’s a side for outfills and 14 EAW SB850’s. It sounded awesome right out of the gate and only got better with a little EQ.

Come show time, we were ready to rock. This was the final stop on the Six Flags Tour, and the house was packed. Sold out at 5200, it was looking to be an awesome show. The only down side was that there was this “VIP only” area in front of the stage. They had this HUGE section roped off for “VIP only” people. While the rest of the place was packed, the VIP section was pretty empty. 3 songs into our set, Alex told everyone in the crowd to come closer. He said that there shouldnt be VIP sections at these events and everyone should come up to the stage. So, around 3000 kids rushed the stage. The 3 security guards watching the VIP section stood no chance. Kids came rushing down from every direction. The security person next to me got completely trampled. It was like a battle scene from the movies, and the kids were winning! But, now the stage area was a lot more packed and everyone was even more pumped. Once I hit 107dBA at mix position, I turned the dB meter off and stopped worrying about it. Everyone was rocking out, and I decided to as well.

It ended up being the best Six Flags show out of them all. We all had a great time, and I would love to do this again next summer.

We’re off for all of September, so it will be nice to catch up on some things at home, and spend some more time with the loved ones.

Back to the world of rock and roll…

Wow, Im slacking at updating this. The “Ill update this tomorrow” syndrome has plagued me throughout the past few shows. It’s amazing how tired I’ve been traveling so much lately. Between the 5 hour van drives, 6 hour plane flights, jet lag and various hotel rooms, I havent had much time to sit down and relax lately. It’s very hectic as we’ve been traveling. So, since Im stuck on a plane for the next 5.5 hours on my way back to America, I figure Ill update this… So, where did I leave off? Ah, yes. Six Flags.

As the summer continues on we are slowly making are way around to most of the Six Flag’s in the USA. We started with St. Louis, the Atlanta, and now Baltimore. This was the first, and only Six Flags show we were not headlining. It was also close enough that I rode down with my brother, and Roxanne in the car. But, what happens when you do a show that you’re not headlining? Yep. You guessed it. Hurry up and wait. Boys Like Girls(headliner) was about an hour late and put everyone behind the schedule. What a great way to start the day. We rushed to sound check after they finished and I got things roughed in enough.

The PA itself was pretty awesome. We had a d&b rig consisting of 6 Q1 mains flown per side, and six additional Q1’s flown per side for outfills. Subs were 6 d&b B2’s per side. Out front I had the usual Yamaha PM5D. The rig was awesome sounding right out of the gate and really didnt need too much EQ. Just a little cut at 630hz, and another at 120hz. Otherwise, it was just fine. The B2 subs absolutely slammed. They are my new favorite subwoofer. They have LF extension further then any other sub Ive ever worked with. We were in a bit of a clamshell setup with stadium style seating around the stage. The bleachers would rattle like crazy from the bass.

The show was pretty stacked with artists. Katy Perry(I Kissed a Girl) opened the show, Metro Station(Shake it) was 2nd, we were direct support and Boys Like Girls(Great Escape) headlined. Come show time for us, the place was completely packed. I’d guess that there were around 5,000 people there for us. Everything was in place for a good show, except for one thing…. The lead singer was having a bit of an off day. Between being sick and not able to head himself in the monitors, it made for a rough show. The band was also still tired from Warped Tour and played a little sloppy. I also seemed to be having a little bit of an off day. I just couldnt get things to sit the way I’d like in the mix. The combination of all the these things made for a slightly rough show. In the end, things stilled rocked and the kids were happy.

After this show we had one day off, and then we were going to start our great adventure. Baltimore to Boston to London to Boston to New York to Baltimore. Yeah. That’s a lot of flying!

Our first stop on the journey was Massachusetts. We flew out to another stop on the Six Flag’s summer tour. The weather was beautiful, the plane ride was smooth and everything was going great. It looked to be a perfect day for a rock show. When we arrived at Six Flags I looked at the stage and noticed something missing. There was an apparent lack of any PA. Lets see…. It’s 11am when we arrive, and sound check is scheduled to start at 12:30pm. Maybe the sound company was running a little behind schedule and didnt have anything flown yet? So, I walk out and have a look, and to my surprise there was nothing there at all. Just the lighting guys. Well, that cant be good. One of the stage hands tells us the bad news…. The audio semi flipped over on the way to the venue. Now thats a shocker. You dont hear that every day. The audio truck flipped over? From what I was told, the truck’s brakes failed as the truck was getting ready to exit off the highway. The driver couldn’t slow down and ended up in a ditch off the side of the road. All the gear on board was pretty much destroyed. Amp rack’s shot through the roof, console cases were destroyed, speakers were broken and just about everything was lost. Luckily the driver was ok.

After hearing that news, I was wondering how we were going to do the show. The good news is that they had another PA at the shop and were loading another truck to get out to the show. The shop was 2 hours away, so we had another day of hurry up and wait. The original spec’d PA was 16 EAW KF760’s, 12 Meyer 700HP’s a Digidesign D show and more. I was pretty excited to mix on that rig. The rig they were bringing out to replace it was smaller, but it was that or nothing. I had 10 Meyer Milo’s, 8 Meyer 700HP’s and a D-show coming to replace what was destroyed. All we had to do was wait for it to show up…

Come 3:00pm the new truck finally arrives. Doors are supposed to open at 4:30pm. It’s going to be a tight squeeze to get everything done in time. 4:00pm rolls around and everything is up and running. We run some tunes, get the PA sounding good and start sound check. Those Milo’s sound good, but Im running out of sub quick. Oh well, the show must go on. I get a good mix up and we call it quits. They backline the other band, sound check the opener and open the gates. I was standing at FOH as the mob of kids came running down from the back of the field. This was probably the coolest thing Ive ever seen. Thousands of kids just running down the field. A huge stampede. The all fill in and the show starts.

Come 8pm, we get ready to roll. Around 6,000 kids are in attendance. ATL hits the stage and the crowd goes nuts. The PA is just about out of gas, but it’s pulling through. Everything sounds good, and the band is playing very well. Yup, it’s going to be a good night. I was hovering just below limit on the whole rig all night, but everything survived. The sound company did an amazing job getting everything up and running and my hat goes off to them. Losing that much gear would put smaller companies out of business. These guys held their heads up high and pulled off a great show.

After the show we crashed at the hotel for the night. The following day, we started our 2 hour van drive to Boston’s airport. Got through security, and headed off to London. We arrived around 6am in London to start a very busy day. Our buddies Phil and Ben from the UK were nice enough to drive us around in their van. We were supposed to have a bus for the trip, but thanks to Matt’s awesome planning, we ended up with a van. Come 8am we’re sitting in the parking lot trying to hunt down a trailer to haul the gear. It took a solid hour to find one, again, thanks to Matt’s awesome planning. So, once we got everything together, we packed 10 people into a 9 passenger van and started our 3 hour drive to Reading Festival. This is one of the countries largest music festivals. With over 6 stages of music and over 120 bands playing, it was quite an impressive site. Over 100,000 kids were in attendance at this festival. We played one of the smaller stages, with about a 5000 cap. We arrived around 11am, and we didnt have anything to do until 6pm. Since I hadn’t slept in almost 24 hours, I decided to catch some sleep in the van.

Our set finally rolled around at 8pm, and we took the stage. I made my way to FOH to find that I was stuck with a 98dBA limit at FOH. SWEEET! Rian’s cymbals from the drums were louder then 98dB at FOH, so it was pretty rough. My mix consisted of kick, toms, bass, a little guitar and vocals. Not a good night for me. I survived the set, even though the crowd singing was louder then the band at some points. The crowd was pretty cool. Over 2000 people were watching the band.

After the show we went right to the hotel and collapsed. It was a long day, and I had no energy left. We woke up around 10am the next day to head out to the next gig. A short 5 hour drive got us to Leeds Festival. Same deal as Reading, just in a different town. No dB limit this time though. We had a TurboSound Aspect rig both nights, and a Yamaha PM5D out front. Good gear all around. Things went much smoother at this show, and I pulled off a pretty good mix. The only let down was that the headliner the previous night blew up half the subs, so I didnt have a ton of bass.

Day 3 in the UK consisted of yet another 4 hour drive to the next venue. This was very well planned out. No drives were less then 2 hours long. It was awesome. We arrived at the venue around 2pm to load in. This was the Scala in London. Right in the heart of the city. An 800 cap room with another Turbo rig. Very good sounding! The only downside was that the room was very live. There was no acoustical treatment, and the room was all hard wood, so it was very live sounding. Sound check was 106dBA without the PA on. When I kicked it in, I was averaging 112dBA to get a balanced mix. It was not ideal. Come show time with 600 bodies in there, it was much better. I was only averaging 106dBA with the kids in the room, which was much better then 112dBA. The show ran very smoothly.

Our final gig in the UK was in a venue called Rescue Rooms. This was a much smaller room. At a capacity just over 400, it made for a “in your face” show. The PA consisted of 3 Nexo PS15’s flown per side and 4 unknown 18″ subs under the stage. The rig was limited way to early, so I was struggling to get a good mix. The limiter started to clamp down around 90dB at FOH, so it was tough to get it loud enough. My mix consisted of vocals, guitar, a little bass, some kick and toms. Every time I got the kick loud enough, it would suck the rest of the mix down and make a nice pumping sound. I opted to keep the kick low in the mix. It was a pretty rough night on my end. The 400 kids in the room over powered the PA a few times. I just ended up riding the rig right under limit all night.

But, thats enough sound stuff. How about some London stuff…

Americans have it rough when the come to the UK. The US $1 is only worth about $.50 here in Europe. Everything is super expensive. Also, there is almost no free wifi. An hour of internet costs $10+. It’s not cheap at all. Also, fuel is quite expensive.

When I was here, I also learned to speak “English.” Phil taught me how to speak “properly” and fit it. I gathered that the letter “t” is not pronounced. Rather, it’s replaced with an “uh” sound. So, “butter” becomes “buher.” BUT, the word “butt” does not become buuh, because it would make people sound stupid. So their word for “butt” is “bum.”

Some other translations:
Trunk = Boot
Electrical wiring = Electrics
Road work = Works
Drinking & Driving = Drink Drive

Food is also very different here. They sell sandwiches in prepackaged cartons at the stores. Nothing is really fresh made in front of you. Cookies are rare, as are other common American snacks. Breakfast foods are also very different. A normal american breakfast cannot be found. They serve mushrooms, ham, steak, tomatoes, and more. I passed on their stuff and went with cereal each morning

And thats it. We’re off to New York next to do a college show, and then we’re home for a day.

More pictures:

Back to the world of rock and roll….

Home at last! No wait… It’s only been 8 days. Home too soon?

7/18-7/19:
One of the most hyped up and talked about shows of the year. Ok, maybe not, but it’s still a big show! 2 nights at Rams Head Live in good ol’ Baltimore. All Time Low is the first band to ever sell this venue out 2 nights in a row. 1825 tickets sold for Friday and Saturday night. Holy crap! These were going to be some big shows! Thanks to the awesomeness of selling out 2 nights in a row, everyone at Rams Head Live gave us the super A+ treatment. I’ve never seen the staff at this place in such a good mood! Even with the task of loading in a 20’ trailer packed to the roof and a box truck, everyone was in good moods.

Anyway, since this was such a big event for the band, and us I decided to make it the best show of the tour. I hired in a ton of extra production for this show. Yup, nothing like a 14’ box truck loaded up with extra sound stuff just for ATL. Speakers, consoles, amplifiers, mics, and more! Oh goody!

Caution: Sound nerd stuff, EXTENDED VERSION!
Normally Rams Head Live is a terrible sounding venue. There are 2 main reasons that cause this. The first, and the biggest reason is the house PA. Someone really screwed up with this. It seems like the people installing the sound system said to each other “Lets take all the most expensive gear we can find and put it into this venue, even if it’s entirely wrong for this place.” That basically boiled down to 6 JBL Vertec 4888’s and 2 JBL VT4880’s flown per side in this club. Somewhere along the way, they also decided it was a good idea to put some EAW SB1000z’s on the floor.

Now, this venue is not very deep, and is pretty wide. It also has 3 balconies. So basically, you end up with a PA that doesnt cover the first 10 feet of the audience, and in order to get it loud enough on the floor, you have to kill the people upstairs. It’s not uncommon at all to see SPL levels around 120dB upstairs, while only being around 106dB downstairs. Their solution to the crap install is to supply 2 JBL VP series front fills to cover the front bit of the crowd. Sadly, they are run in full clip/limit all night just trying to do their job. But, thats only issue one.

The second issue with this place is the lack of any low end. 4 EAW SB1000z’s and 4 JBL VT4880’s supply bass. The SB1000’s are on the floor, on an aux. 2 of the subs fire into the crowd, and 2 of the subs fire into a wall 10′ away. Not what I’d call ideal at all. They destroy subs weekly at this place trying to get enough bass.

This room also has some very weird summing issues with the PA. The VT4888’s seem to sum right down the middle of the room and create a massive pit of 630hz. Feedback comes quick if you don’t EQ it out in advance. The room is also very bright sounding. Concrete walls, floors and metal everywhere doesn’t help either.

So, I had a pretty fun task ahead. My goal was to use the least amount of the house rig as possible to make ATL’s set sound better then this place has ever seen before. So, with the help of Jim Bowersox, we brought in 12 Turbosound 21″ subs to cover the bass, and 4 Turbosound flashlights for “front fills.” I also had 3 Community RSJR’s as lip fills across the front. Finally, I brought in my own console for FOH, as I hate mixing on Midas Legends. We fed the house vertecs with a Matrix out on the Yamaha M7CL and only really used them to cover upstairs.

The end result, was a much better sounding, bass heavy sound system that was ready to rock. And rock is exactly was it did. During sound check, it was around 107dBA on the floor, and a comfortable 103-105dBA upstairs. Though, I did have to EQ out the usual 630hz death trap in that room, and the 6-8k harshness of the JBL’s…

/Sound Nerd stuff..

Once 1825 kids piled into the room, I realized it was going to be an amazing show!

Night one offered a few minor issues. I expected some problems, as they can be quite common. The first one was that mixing monitors from Front of House was not as ideal as we thought it would be. The second issue is that some band members in certain bands are basically deaf, and require monitor mixes beyond any reasonable level… The result of that was a blown horn in one of the wedges… After talking to everyone, it was decided that the openers would be left to RHL’s house staff, and we would only worry about ATL. Night 2 went much smoother. Well, at least in terms of getting the bands up and running. Since the openers were only using the house system, it was quite harsh! I forgot how bad it sounded…

But, All Time Low’s set ran very smoothly both nights. Everything sounded very good, and I had plenty of PA. For the first time in a long time, there was more sub then I needed.

ATL played a few older songs both nights, since it was their hometown. Circles and The Party Scene was crowd favorites both nights.

In the end, I couldnt have asked for much more. I was very happy with both nights, and the crowds were just amazing.

The RHL Crew. From left to right: Tom Manchester - Matt Moser - Jim Bowersox - ME - Roxanne

A BIG thanks to the amazing TOM MANCHESTER for driving down from DE to help out, and Moser and Brianna for helping with stage changes and load in.

7/20- The National, Richmond VA

This was my last stop with the boys for this tour. And, I picked a good day to call my last. I had a very nice theatre, and a very nice L’Acoustic V-dosc rig to work with. Sound check went very well. I only had 2 complaints- Going from 12 21’s to 8 18’s is not fun. I had “enough” sub for this gig, but man, I missed all the extra PA. The V-Dosc’s were also almost too “dull” sounding to me. This was a very reverberant room, and the extra HF could have helped a bit. But, I still managed to pull of a very good sounding mix.

This was a smaller show, crowd wise. As of the show day, there were only 374 presales. Luckily, the total crowd topped out around 800 kids for the night. Since it was a smaller crowd, I took it easy on them all and mixed around 101dBA most of the night. I had a very solid, lower SPL mix going. There were many compliments on how everything sounded.

No pictures from this show yet. Coming soon!

I cant believe this tour is already over. Just as soon as it began, it’s already over. Oh well, thats the way it goes. Look for BIG things in the fall!

Back to the world of Rock and Roll…

Another day, another dollar.

7/14/08: Tennessee- Rocket Town.

This was a rather unique venue compared to most. The combined a skate park, restaurant, and 2 venues all into 1 venue. This place is a completely non-profit complex, and all the money goes into the building and Community. I walked around and explored most of the venue throughout the day. It seemed like a great place for kids to have a good time and skate. Though, I also got a good laugh watching all the 14 year old kids attempt to act like Tony Hawk in the skate park. They would attempt some random trick, and end up sliding down the ramp on their back… It was awesome.

Caution: Sound Nerd stuff-

It seems EAW KF850’s have become the standard rock and roll club install box these days. Sound companies are ditching them left and right because they are big, heavy, old cabs. Not to mention most guys are following the line array route these days. But, the good news is, that makes these boxes very affordable for clubs across the country. No one wants to haul them around anymore, so clubs can pick them up for a pretty good price. That gives the club a pretty affordable, good sounding, loud speaker system. 90% of the venues on this short tour have all had the KF850’s. It’s amazing though how one night they can sound amazing, while the next night they just suck out loud. I find that the venues where they suck all have come up with their own “presets” for the speakers, and while it may sound good to the half deaf house sound guy, they just end up sounding horrible for the common mixer person. I notice 2 things with these boxes when they are setup wrong: They need a huge cut around 160-250hz or, they need a huge cut around 2-4k. I believe mot of these issues could be solved by simply turning one of the band passes on the cabs. But oh well, what are you going to do?

Anyway, back to the show…

I fired up the rig at Rocket Town to find an extreme lack of anything below 100hz. And I mean an EXTREME lack of ANYTHING. I asked the house guy if the subs were even on, and to my surprise, they were in fact on. I walked up to the subs, and they were in fact making noise. Normally, I wont say anything to the house guy, but this was just too unbearable. I had him turn the mains down by 12dB, and that seemed to do the trick. Everything was a lot more balanced sounding. Though, the W-Bin style subs were not the greatest sounding. They didnt have a lot of impact and were really boomy. But, with some EQ, they ended up sounding good enough. At least the mains sounded pretty good.

Sound check ran pretty smoothly. So, it was off to the bus to take a quick nap before the show. Come time for ATL’s set, a solid 1100 kids had packed into the venue and things were sounding very good. ATL’s set went very smoothly, and the night was issue free. Another great set from ATL.

7/15/08: Cleveland: Peabody’s-

Wow, talk about a small, crappy venue. The say it’s a 700 cap venue, but it looks more like 400 to me. Any lack of real lighting in the venue made load in and setup pretty fun too… Come show time, it was PACKED. It was hot hot hot, and the kids were packed in. First song kicks in and Im into the red. Yep, it’s going to be one of “those” nights. I was in solid red the whole set just trying to get on top of the crowd. The little mains were not loving it, nor were the subs. The low amp thermalled about 4 times during their set as well. It was not a fun night. I left my camera on the bus, so you dont get any pictures.

7/16/08- Detroit: St. Andrew’s Hall-

We hit this venue on the AP Tour back in April, so I already knew what to expect here. When the AP tour came through, half the PA was not in working form. Subs were blown, and a few horns were out on the mains. 3 months later, it’s no better. Normally you walk into a room and see 8 KF850’s and 12 SB1000e’s and think to yourself “SWEET!” Not the case with this system. 4 of the 12 subs dont work at all, and a few more rattle and sound like they are on death row. It also sounds like 2 of the horns are dead and possible a mid driver…

Anyway, sound check rolls smooth enough. The venue has absolutely no Air Conditioning, and once 800 kids pack into this club, it becomes quite the oven in the main room. Come time for our set, I’d say the ambient temperature in the room was hovering around 100 degrees, with 80% humidity. Not fun at all. I was breaking a sweat just standing at FOH. I felt sorry for Danny and the band on stage. It must have been even more miserable on stage with all the lights. The humidity was doing wonders for the already bad sounding PA too. It was killing the highs and making a muddy mess of everything. I ended up going for a slightly brighter mix just so people could understand everything. It wasnt the best show, but I made it through the show, and I think the PA did.

Load out was another story. About 20 minutes into load out, the skies opened up and it started pouring down rain. So, all the gear and the crew got soaked during load out. Alex on the other hand, along with a few other band members used the time wisely, and took a “Shower” out in the rain.

PS- You can thank our light guy Ben for the amazing lights.

Back to the world of Rock and Roll….

7/13/08- DAY OFF
Having an off day at Myrtle Beach is awesome. I rolled out of bed around 1pm and stumbled down to the beach to relax for a few hours. The water was great, and the weather was better. At a nice 86 degrees and not a cloud in the sky, it was a great day. Not to mention, the water temp was around 80 degrees as well.

After a few hours at the beach, we went up to Matt’s condo and chilled for a while. The night before we had ordered 10 pizza’s for everyone, and there were still about 3 boxes left in the morning, so that ended up being my lunch for the day.

I walked around for a few hours checking out the area. It’s a nice area down here and makes for a great resort town. We couldn’t have asked for much more for a day off. I didn’t do any work all day, and it was awesome. But like everyday, it has to come to an end sooner or later, and I watched the sun set on a perfect day off.

Back to the world of rock and roll.

Back on the road again, but this time it’s only for 11 days. Im out with All Time Low on what is now being called the “Shortest Tour Ever.” We’ll be hitting a bunch of cities all over the east coast. This time, we are also heading out with an amazing lighting engineer named Ben. He’s bringing the show to life with a pretty amazing light show.

________________

7/10/08-
The first show of the tour was a pretty smooth one. The Lincoln Theatre in North Carolina- a smaller venue with a cool vibe. This room was smaller then a lot of the AP Tour venues, but it wasnt too bad. 800 capacity, and a balcony. The PA consisted of a dieing Yamaha M3000 at FOH, 4 EAW KF850e’s and 4 EAW SB850e’s. A nice little PA for a nice little room. When I first fired the PA up I noticed that things were very out of balance. Way to much high, not enough mid, and too much low mids. I had to pull 160-250hz about 10dB to even things out.

The show itself went pretty smoothly. No major errors, except Danny tripping on the power cable for the lighting and unplugging it a few times. Other then that, the show went very smooth. Sadly, I forgot my camera and was unable to take pictures at this show.

7/11/08-
Greensboro, NC: The Green Street Cafe: Another small venue. 600 cap, a tiny stage and a PA not up to the task at hand. I had an ancient Tac console at FOH, and a mix of Community and Electro-Voice mains. Bass was provided by a pair of JBL SRX728’s. Sound check was pretty rough, and I was hoping the show would be better. Once 600 kids piled into the room, things did tighten up a bit, but the PA still sucked. I was solid into limit the whole time. The horns ran out of gas first, followed by everything else. It was worse then the night before.

But, all in all, everyone still had a good time, and the venue even gave us a DVD of the night.

7/12/08-
Myrtle Beach, House of Blues: Wow. You dont realize how much you miss quality PA and staff until you go 2 shows without it. Another KF850 rig today, but at least this one sounds good. 8 EAW SB1000z’s under the stage and a Midas H2000 out front. Talk about a good PA. Sound check was a breeze, and I got a good mix up and running very quick. I love House Of Blues shows. They are just so easy. Great staff, great PA and they treat you right. Since presales were a little low, they closed off the balcony so the bottom would be full. We had a solid 1000 kids show up and it was a great show. You just cant beat HOB shows.

Everything was going great until the final song of the set. Alex’s guitar went silent right as they went to start Dear Maria. Hmm… What could be wrong… Bad wireless? Nope. Bad cable? Nope. Bad guitar? Nope! Crap. What’s going on… While Matt and Danny are trying to troubleshoot, Alex has to keep the crowd entertained. 5 minutes passes, still nothing. They decide to play a song without Alex on guitar to kill some time. Another 5 minutes pass and still nothing. They decided to play Dear Maria acoustic to end the night. After the show, we looked at Alex’s head, and sure enough, it stinked like burning electronics. Yep. The head’s dead. Luckily we have a spare head and will be able to do the rest of the shows while Alex’s head is off being fixed.

Oh and an extra bonus: Matt has spelled my name wrong in the tour book 2 times in a row now. During the AP Tour he spelled my name as “Evan Kirkland” and now during this tour, it’s “Eva Kirkendall.” So, just for fun, Matt left me this at FOH:

Back to the world of Rock and Roll….

Hey check check 1 2. Is this thing on?

Man, it feels good to be back. After a month of local shows, I finally get to do some real shows again… We had 2 in a row this week(6/7). Thursday in St. Louis and Saturday in Philly.

Our trip out to St. Louis was quite the journey. Even my drive from my house to Rian’s house was an adventure. I drove through a massive thunderstorm on the way to his house. It was so bad, that I couldnt see the road at some points. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 7:35pm, but thanks to the various thunderstorms rolling through the area, it was delayed 2 hours and we didnt get off the ground until 9:15pm. I was very happy to have access to WIFI, otherwise I would have lost my mind.

We arrived in St. Louis around 11pm and checked into our hotel. Our hotel was literally about 500′ from the park. It was a pretty cool/spooky hotel. Matt and myself had the task of getting the bands gear from the parking lot, up a tiny ramp, around the building, into an elevator, through a hallway and a few doorways, all the way to the hotel room. We had one cart to fit all the gear on. It was quite the adventure. We wondered around looking for the room for a long time… This hotel was pretty big and easy to get lost in…

Anyway, we got to the park around 2pm and started setting up. We didnt bring most of our own gear because of the plane ride, so it was fun trying to hook our stuff up to the provided gear. But, after a little bit of work, all was up and running.

The amphitheater at this place was huge. It holds around 10,000 people. The sound system provided was also pretty much on spec with what I wanted. I had 6 EV x-array series mains per side, 10 EV MTL2 subwoofers in the middle and a Yamaha PM5D at FOH. After firing up the rig it was clear that it was going to be a good night.

We started soundcheck around 3pm and already had a crowd of about 100 watching us. They was quite happy to hear some of the songs the band played during sound check. We finished around 4pm and took a much needed dinner break. We all pretty much collapsed after a long morning of work.

The gates opened at 6pm and the crowd slowly filled up the theatre. Come show time we had around 2,000 kids. Its no 10,000, but we were all very happy with the turnout. They played a solid hour set. Everything ran pretty smoothly. Well, except for the fact that they had to keep the set clean. Alex slipped up about 5 times in between songs. Other then that, the show was pretty much issue free.

We had a 6am flight out of St. Louis and that pretty much sucked. I rolled out of bed half asleep around 3:45am to start getting ready. I arrive home around noon and went to bed.

Saturday: Journeys Back Yard BBQ

You know those days when you just don’t want to leave the house? Yeah… This was one of those days. I woke up at 7am to catch the van call at 7:30am. We were driving up to Philly to do an outdoor show. I usually love outdoor shows, but this one was nothing to be happy about. It was over 100 degrees with very high humidity. As soon as I stepped out of the van, I was sweating. It was that hot. And to top it off, the provided PA was nowhere near enough for the expected crowd. The band didn’t have to show up until around 3pm, so we were stuck out in the heat all day. I retreated to the mall close by a few times just to cool off. I don’t know how some of the kids do it, but a very dedicated few braved the heat all day just to see the band.
The show time temp was around 110 and probably even more inside the mob of people. As soon as the band took the stage, I was into the system’s limiters. I normally mix them around 106dBA, but this PA couldn’t get past 97dBA. I watched the sub and low limiters on the DSP stay full on during their whole set. The crowd was basically overpowering the band for the first few songs. 6 KF750’s and 4 SB750’s is not enough PA for 1600 kids… Plus KF750’s just sound bad. But, whatever…. We made it through the show. We took our sweet time packing up and finally got on the road around 9pm. It felt great to be out of the heat…

6/12- Thursday: Six Flags GA

ATL is in ATL. Another fun day of flying… Thanks to Matt’s awesome booking skills, we flew out of BWI at 6:30am, landed in Tennessee at 10am and we on our way to GA by 12:30pm. We arrived in GA around 1pm and made our way to the park. Wow, this place was huge! And I thought the last one was big…

The stage was massive, and the seating section was even bigger. The PA looked to be decent as well. I had 2 hangs of EV XLD218’s with 10 elements in each. I had 6 EV XLC118 subs per side on the deck as well. I also had a Yamaha PM5D out at FOH- just as I requested. I love when production companies actually fulfill riders. I fired the rig up and noticed right away a lack of mids and a ton of low mid gunk. It was even more apparent when I started line checking the band. There was almost nothing in the 2-4k range and waaayyy too much in the 200-400 range. I ended up dumping everything in the low mid section a ton to smooth things out. I got a pretty good mix up and running, and then went off to the dressing room to sleep. Everyone was dead tired after getting up super early and transferring between 2 flights.
This show was a real rock show. The other 6 Flags show was just ATL playing. Tonight’s show featured 2 openers, which were quite good. They were different then the usual stuff and I really enjoyed their sets.
We had a much smaller crowd this time though. Thanks to the crappy weather, there were only around 800 kids at this one. The place looked quite empty.

The stage at least looked good thanks to the backline company. They provided us with 4 guitar cabs and 1 bass cab for each side of the stage. It really filled things out, and made the stage look a lot fuller.

In the end, it turned out to be a fun gig. The crowd was energetic and as always, I had a blast mixing the band. After the gig I went back to the hotel and crashed.

Back to the world of Rock and Roll…

Wow, I forgot how boring home life was. Im completely bored out of my mind during the day and have to come up with new things daily to entertain myself. I miss the road. I miss waking up in a new city each day, facing a new challenge and dealing with new people. I miss the screaming fans and the sold out shows. I’ve done a total of 2 local shows since Ive been home, and Ive been pretty bored at both of them. The smaller crowds, with much less energy just isnt the same.

The AP tour was one of the most fun things Ive done in a long time, and at the same time one of the hardest things Ive done in a long time. It was a ton of fun with the guys, but it was hard being away from home and the ones I love. Would I do it again? You know it. I had a blast touring the country and doing what I love every night.

This time 8 weeks ago I was counting down the days until I left for tour. It was going to be a new experience with a lot of new things for me. And just as fast as it came, it’s over. I cant believe how fast this tour flew by. I had so much fun throughout the tour and met a lot of great people along the way. We all became a family over the tour, and it was weird not seeing them on the last 2 days. I really hope I get to cross paths with everyone again in the future.

Im really looking forward to future tours. All Time Low is really getting big, and I jumped on the train just in time. I have a great band to work with, and a great crew to support them. Matt Flyzik really runs a tight ship and keeps things running smoothly. Alex Grieco is a great drum tech as well. For the fall tour, Ben will be joining us to do lights for All Time Low. Who knows what else the future holds. I really hope I get to bring my own console on the winter tour, and future tours. These guys have a ton of potential, and I just hope I get to stick around for the rest of the ride.

This is what I’ve wanted to do all of my life. I feel like Im living my dream right now. I’ve watched these guys grow up over the years, and always got excited when I got to work with them locally. It’s been a dream come true for me. I never thought this would really happen, but it finally is. Life is great.

Back to the world of Rock and Roll…

The final 2 shows with All Time Low.

I woke up today and things felt different. No Rocket Summer, no Sonny, no anyone. I walked off the bus and wondered over to this massive stage. Yep, it was HUGE. This show was pretty big too. Camera’s everywhere, crew talking, the works. This was the filming for MTVu’s campus invasion. Over 4,000 ticket presale. However, thanks to the crappy weather, we only had around 2,000 kids show up. It was a little bit of a bummer.

Anyway, we had all morning to soundcheck and get everything up and rolling. All Time Low played 4th, right before Cobra Starship. It was pretty cool how everything was set up. Each band set their drums up on a rolling riser and it was left pre-wired. When your set time came along, you would just roll your drum riser out, patch in a multipin snake and be good to go. Sound checking each band in advance seems like a good idea in practice, but in reality, it takes a long, long time… The 2 acts after ATL went an hour over their time, and caused our sound check to be cut short. We ended up rushing, and really making life hard for me… FOH was a DigiDesign D-show, and I had never mixed on one before. And, to top it off, since we were rushed, I didnt even touch the board during sound check.

The crowd was at it’s peak right before ATL’s set. We had around 2000 kids there. The band strikes their first note, and bam. Silence. I had my faders way to low, or so I thought. I push everything up, and something still doesnt seem right. Yup, only half of the PA is working… The house sound dude, scrambles and figures out that the dbx 160a for the right side of the PA was not working… It somehow lost power during the set change… So, he gets it up and running and everything is going smoothly. Well, as smooth as you can be with 9 JBL vertecs per side. Wow, it sounded like an AM radio! To top it off, we had 30mph winds blowing the sound everywhere. It sounded like the mix had a phaser on it ah FOH… I was not having a good time. I just dealt with it and did the best I could…

The set went fairly smooth though. No failures on stage. But, since this was going on TV, ATL couldnt cuss at all. It made for quite an interesting set. They had to change the words around in some songs to make it work, and they couldnt use their scrims on stage. I was laughing at them as they tried to keep it clean on stage. But, if you want to see their set, it will be on TV May 12th!

BAMBOOZLE!

The best way to sum up this show is simply: wow. We had over 15,000 kids watching ATL’s set. Now, they werent just watching, but they were rocking out. EVERYONE in the crowd knew the words and was singing along! I was completely baffled. It was an amazing experience and I really enjoyed it. We had a great day for the show.

But, as always, something had to go wrong. Since this was the last time I was mixing ATL for a few months, I decided to crank ATL’s intro! I had the fader maxed out and everything was rocking out. Then, just as the band kicked in, I lost all bass. I asked the house guy “where’d the bass go?!” He was a little confused, and proceeded to check my EQ settings. Yep, everything was fine. He radioed the monitor guy, and figured out what was going on. I managed to take out 12 sub amps all at once. Blew the breakers all at the same time. Man, I rock! But, we got the amps back on mid way through the first song, and all was good. The rest of the set rocked.

And thats it! 8 weeks of touring has finally come to an end. I look forward to waking up in my own bed tomorrow morning!

Tour Wrap up and pictures coming soon…

Today marked the final day of the AP Tour 2008. It was quite the bittersweet end to an amazing tour. We played the Cleveland House of Blues, with a sold out crowd of 1300 kids. We couldnt have asked for a better end to an amazing tour. The kids were amazing, the show was amazing and everything went very smoothly. PA, as with any HOB was quite nice. I had 8 Electro-Voice XLC127 mains per side, and matching EV subs. I have become quite fond of this rig. It sounds great, and really gets loud. It was a great system to end the show on. I hardly had to touch the EQ, except to dial some of the highs out.

This show had a lot of twists and turns as we did one final show together. During All Time Low’s set, we had a guest singer come out on Coffee Shop Sound track. He did a pretty good job, and interacted with the crowd quite well:

Then, during All Time Low’s cover of “Umbrella,” Sonny Moore came out and sang. Talk about a rough song. he forgot just about every word to the song, and Alex had to help him out. But, it made for an interesting song.

Finally, during All Time Low’s final song, just about everyone came out on stage to rock out one last song. They all grabbed guitars, mics, or whatever else they could find and jammed one last time. It was quite a site to see everyone on stage. Though, the song was a complete mess. Not to mention, since they dont run any monitors, no one could really hear anything on stage…

Overall, it was a great show. I had a blast. The show went very well, and everyone had a great time. We couldnt have gotten a better venue to end the tour…

This tour was a complete success, and probably the most fun I’ve had all year. I’ve met so many amazing people over the past 8 weeks, and we’ve all become a family. It was tough to say a final goodbye to some of the guys. I really hope to cross paths with everyone again. It was fun working with everyone, and we all got along great. I sometimes wish this tour could keep going, but at the same time, Im kind of happy to finally be going home. We have 2 final shows this weekend before we finally head home. MTVU campus invasion on Saturday, and Bamboozle on Sunday. It’s going to be a fun weekend…

Picture time!

Forever the Sickest Kids:

Sonny:

The Matches:

Our homes:

AP bus:

Matt Flyzik:

Myself and Brent(TRS Sound):

Kyle(TRS guitar Tech):

Myself, Danny(TRS Guitar Tech), Kris(FTSK Guitar Tech):

Bryce(TRS):

RH(Sonny manager):

Seth(TRS Guitarist)

Alex(ATL):

And thats it. This time 8 weeks ago, I was sitting at home waiting for this tour to start. Now Im sitting on the bus wondering what happened to the tour. I cant believe that its already over. You know what they say: Time Flies when your having fun. Well, I must have been having a ton of fun, because time just flew by! I had a blast, and I cant wait for the future tours…

Off to the festivals…

And we’re back. The final shows of the AP Tour. Everything is coming to an end…

So, how have some of the past shows been? Some great and some OK.

Sat/4-19 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Revolution - SOLD OUT

This was a cool place. Sadly, we were treated like crap all day by the crew. It seemed like everyone was in a bad mood that day. Anytime someone would ask a question, they would basically yell at us for asking a question. It took them 30 minutes to patch in my split snake for monitor world. The whole time I was listening to them say “this is a stupid idea, this is such a pain, you guys need to get your act together” and blah blah blah. If you cant deal with a simple monitor split, then you shouldnt be in this business IMO.

But, come show time everything went pretty smoothly. I had 6 Turbosound Floodlights per side and 8 21″ subs to fill out the low end. I was hitting the subs pretty hard all night, but the rest of the rig was just sailing along.

Sun/4-20 St. Petersburg, FL Jannus Landing- SOLD OUT

Another cool show. It was our second outdoor show of the tour. I had 4 EAW KF850’s per side and 12 EAW SB850’s for PA. It did a surprisingly good job for the crowd. We had over 1300 kids there, and they were really into it. I had a great time. Everything went very smoothly.

Tue/4-22 Little Rock, AR Juanitas - SOLD OUT

Ah, the smallest show of the whole tour. A whopping 374 people packed into a little room. We tried so hard to make this an acoustic show, but in the end, everyone ended up playing full band. We somehow packed 5 bands worth of stuff onto a stage smaller then anything else on this tour.

The PA itself was pretty decent for the room, but nothing to brag about. EV MTL2’s, and matching mains. It got loud enough, but because of the small room, Rian’s cymbals were just killer. Thats the only thing that sucks about playing small rooms with a loud drummer. The cymbals just get so loud, and it becomes white noise…

Otherwise it was a pretty decent show. Better then I expected!

Fri/4-25 Milwaukee, WI The Rave - SOLD OUT

Welcome to the haunted mansion of this tour. My camera was dead for this show, but I wish I had it. The vibe walking into this place was pretty creepy. The room had a single light in the middle of the room that cast an erie, orange glow over the whole room. There was one window all the way up at the top of the room that cast a single ray of light into the room. The room was very cold, and all concrete.

Downstairs was the showers. To get to them, you had to walk through a long, dark hallway. There were a few dim lights lighting the path. Upstairs was a massive ballroom. It was almost pitch black, except for a few lights casting weird shadows in the room. You could hear it creaking as you walked around. I had to leave pretty quickly. In the basement is an empty swimming pool. People say ghosts live down there.

Everyone has stories about how the place is haunted. The stories are easy to believe, just because of the vibe of the place.

But, in the end, it ended up being one of the best shows of the tour. I had 4 EAW KF850’s(everyone loves these boxes) flown per side and 8 EAW SB1000z’s. The rig slammed. I had a crufty old Yamaha PM4K @ FOH though. There were a few scratchy pots and faders, otherwise it was pretty solid. I wasnt prepared for the crowd though… I always try to start off the set a little on the quiet side, but that wasnt happening. The crowd was completely over powering the band during the first few songs. The PA was hitting 106dBA, but the crowd was easily over 110dBA. I ended up running with the crowd and keeping it around 110dB at front of house. It was one of the loudest shows of the tour. The crowd was awesome though…

Sat/4-26 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall - SOLD OUT

This was another good show, however: If you think putting 6 60x40 JBL cabs per side is a good idea, then you shouldnt be in this business.

Caution: Sound Nerd Talk: Wow, what a mess for a PA… I forget the model PA, but it was JBL’s venue series speakers. 6 boxes per side, stacked 3x2. No splay, no EQ, no nothing. As I walked across the floor, I could hear all the comb filtering going on between the speakers. It was a mess. It sounded entirely different in each spot of the room. At Front of House, I could move my head around from side to side and hear all the different horn patterns combining right at my location. It was pretty bad. I wish I would have gotten pictures of the stacks. Sure it got loud, but man, it didnt sound good at all.

Tue/4-29 New Haven, CT Toad’s Place - SOLD OUT

We went back in time visiting this venue. I had a mono PA cluster in the middle of the room. Wow. Mono? Yes, I said mono! If you’ve ever been to this venue, you also know how small it is. The capacity is 750. However, we managed to fit 1004 kids in this place… It was hot, sweaty and crowded. You couldnt move at all if you were buried in the crowd.

Poor kids:

Now, if you think this was just going to be another smooth show, you are completely wrong. Just about everything that could go wrong did. It all started in Jasey Ray. About 30 seconds into the song, the right side of the stage lost power. No, we didnt blow any breakers, Alex Greico, our wonderfuly clumsy drum tech pulled power out of the wall when he was wondering around behind the cabs. Luckily we got things back up and running pretty quick. But, it didnt stop there. Next up, the other side of the stage lost power! One of the fans on stage managed to pull the power cord out of the wall on the other side of the stage! It took Matt a little while to figure this one out. Alex ended up singing the rest of the song alone, and it turned out pretty cool.

But wait, theres more still! All of the power amps for the PA were located at Front of House. Directly under the mixer, and right in front of my knee. Yup, you guessed it. I turned off about 4 different amps throughout the set… I kept kneeing the amps and hitting the power switch. That sucked…

Otherwise, the show went pretty smoothly…

Thu/5-01 Pittsburgh, PA Diesel - SOLD OUT

Night clubs gone rock. Not exactly what you’d expect, right? This room was clearly a night club with a stage tossed up at one of the room. It was a very small room, with 2 levels. Upstairs was only 21+, while downstairs was all ages. Well, seeing that 99.995% of ATL’s fans are under 21, the downstairs was PACKED. Meanwhile, we had about 100 moms and dads watching upstairs. Now, it would have been great if I was downstairs with all the kids, but NO! I was crammed upstairs at the ledge of the balcony. And the best part is, I couldnt even hear the PA downstairs. Now, a smart club would put the same model fills upstairs to cover the top. But again, no, my life cant be easy… EAW KF650z’s downstairs, and EAW LA460’s upstairs… They sounded completely different… Now wait, to top it off, the downstairs was sooo packed, that I couldnt even get down there to listen. Right at the bottom of the steps was a wall of kids. So, I was stuck upstairs all night guessing what it sounded like down there… Not a fun night at all.

Fri/5-02 Cleveland, OH House Of Blues - SOLD OUT

This is the final show of the AP Tour. I’ll tell you about it next time…

Back to the world of Rock and Roll…