Production Profile

Imagine you’re a tour/production manager and share audio duties with another. You’re having to choose the sound gear for a 10-person revue. And the entire rig you go out with — including a 48-channel console — needs to fit in your wife’s 2004 Hyundai Elantra GT. Such is the case for one Bill Girdwood, who adds, “and that leaves room for me — I’m seven feet tall and weigh almost 300 pounds!” However, he is quick to add that he’s not recommending the Hyundai as an alternative to the traditional tour bus.

For three wild days and nights June 14 to 16, BamaJam 2012 fired up the area just north of Enterprise, AL, with lights, video displays, music and sound… plenty of sound. Located on the 1,600-acre grounds of BamaJam Farms, 35,000-plus music enthusiasts from all over the Southeastern U.S. converged and revelled to the sounds of Tim McGraw, Eric Church, the Zac Brown Band, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock and a long list of additional artists. With three stages spread across the area — one of which was a double stage that alternated acts on each half — along with a wealth of lighting and video displays, the logistical and technical aspects of bringing BamaJam 2012 to life were nothing short of massive.

X Games — the World Cup of extreme sports — may not have as much music as Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Coachella, Outside Lands or any of the other seemingly endless seasonal music festivals that line up every summer like inbound traffic over LAX. But it does share with many of them a lengthy pedigree — this year’s Summer X Games that took place at downtown Los Angeles’ 27-acre LA Live campus from June 29 to July 1 was the 18th consecutive event — and, like several of them, it’s a fast-growing franchise.

Without contradicting himself in the least, FOH engineer Jason M. Tarulli describes how his job is not hard, yet is difficult at the same time. The Black Keys are a two-piece band that’s a four-piece, and at the end of the day can take up to 60 inputs.

Rob Zombie takes no prisoners. His live show is a full-on assault every second he and his dynamite band — guitarist John 5, drummer Ginger Fish and bassist Piggy-D — are onstage. The group’s blazing metal/hard rock sound pummels the audience, but it’s the multimedia spectacle accompanying Zombie’s dark, tongue-in-cheek songs that really whips them into submission: Thousands of bizarre images flash on screens behind the stage — everything from hypnotic op-art visuals (on “Living Dead Girl”), to flowing blood (on “Dragula”), to eerie old black & white footage from a 1930s Frankenstein film (for “Jesus Frankenstein”), to flashing patterns, flaming pentagrams, pyrotechnics and the occasional lyric prompt for the crowd to shout out with the charismatic Mr. Zombie. Real flames burst up from behind the band, skeletons adorn the sides of the stage, and other strange characters appear for a few moments, then vanish in this macabre rock nightmare.

Coming on the heels of a sold-out European arena run, German hard rock band Rammstein continues its Made In Germany tour with 21 dates throughout North America. A lot of offshore bands play in the States, but this time, Rammstein brought its entire production. And this was not some partial system with locally supplied racks and stacks. For this tour, a full-tilt, 120-box L-Acoustics rig came along for the ride, assembled, tried and tested before being packed into sea containers for the three-week ocean voyage to the States.

A Conversation with FOH Mixer John Cooper and Solotech’s Mario Leccese

A Bruce Springsteen tour isn’t just an event; it is a movement celebrated by fans in packed venues around the world. And in an era when groups are scaling down with smaller ensembles, acoustic shows and looking at “more intimate” venues, Springsteen brings his own version of intimacy to stadiums and arenas, staying just as much in touch with audience members in the front row as the people in row YY on the second deck.

Lady Antebellum is an American country music group, fronted by the tight harmonies and songwriting trio of Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, who also plays guitar and mandolin. They’re currently touring in support of their third album, Own The Night, released last September, which won Best Country Album at this year’s Grammy Awards, following their previous album, Need You Now, which won five for a career total of seven.

As a recently-married man, I’ve found that there are traditions that you marry into. One of those traditions is annually joining my wife aboard The Rock Boat (therockboat.com), a themed music cruise which is now preparing for its 13th installment, hosted by the band Sister Hazel and boasting 2,000 attendees. The producer, Sixthman, who formed alongside the original Rock Boat more than a decade ago, provides themed cruises for artists as diverse as Kid Rock, Weezer and Zac Brown Band.

Katy Perry rose to fame with her 2008 single, “I Kissed a Girl.” Her 2010 album, Teenage Dream, which debuted at number one, included five number one hits (with a sixth on the way up) — a feat matched only by Michael Jackson’s Bad. She is also the first artist in history to spend 52 weeks in the top 10.