Chris Brown, owner of production company SOUNd CHeK MUSIC, dealt with torrential rain and a heat index swing from 70º to 105º at the Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do stage, one of 12 at this year's New Orleans Jazz Fest.
"If you see the photos on our Facebook page, you can actually see standing water on stage at times when the rain was blowing in," Brown said. The acts, ranging from zydeco, Cajun, blues and rock, were also presented back-to-back with very quick set changes.
"Our exposure was such that, at one point on this 36 to 40 foot deep stage, we had water hitting the drum riser 32 feet back," Brown continued. "We were mixing monitors on stage under tarpaulins, but the show must go on, so, we're up and running, and once the gear is covered and in place, there's no reason why the show doesn't happen."
Besides know-how and a local's knowledge of the conditions, Brown's confidence also stemmed from using APB-DynaSonics Spectra Ti consoles for FOH and Monitors. This is the second year Brown and crew have relied on APB, largely because of their flexibility, familiarity of layout for guest engineers, and ability to withstand inclement weather conditions.
As he explains, "on this kind of job, the board constantly gets reinvented because we had six to seven acts a day with no sound checks and 15- to-25 minute set changes between acts. Anybody who's done this type of show knows it can be more difficult getting the previous act off than getting the next one on, especially if they had a great set and everybody's loving them.
"So you have to redial, reinvent, and tweak things up quickly cause you'll go from an acoustic singer songwriter to a heavy Zydeco act – where the SPL on stage can reach 122 dB. Musically, the color they go for is a big rolling bass, and lots of kick. The volume creeps up quickly with the vocals and the Cajun accordion that's in the middle of all this."
Ultimately, Brown appreciated the fact that "the APB board is familiar, with the knobs in familiar places, which means that engineers don't have to guess when they're on the board, unlike a digital console they may or may not be familiar with. We like reaching up and having a dial where it's supposed to be."
