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March 2012 entertainment, presentation, installation

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Singin’ in the RainMaking a splash at London’s Palace Theatre

Swedish TheatreThe Helsinki venue reborn

Also Inside:

Snow PatrolLive at the Motorpoint Arena

Perfect PlatformUAL’s new Kings Cross theatre

Mar_Cover:Cover 07/03/2012 11:16 Page 1

I write to you this month fromthe cold, wintery grope ofSwitzerland - a countryrenowned for its immenselylong tunnels, secretive bankaccounts, snow-coveredmountains, cows, chocolate,clocks and cheese. Being anEssex boy, the majesty of themountains exerts a childlikegiddiness on me, and all I wantto do is walk around in thefalling snow. I’m sure thenovelty will soon wear off. Thelong, icy, needle-like fingers ofmother nature are lockedround these mountains. Thetemperature is struggling tocreep past -10°C by day, thenby night is devoured by someunthinkable Siberianbitterness. The water in thevan is solid, and the cans offizzy pop are bursting throughtheir aluminium prisons. Thelocals try to convince us thatthe weather is unusually cold,and how their hearts bleed forthe tourists. Having spent somuch money, the holidaymakers feel they must endure -25°C punching them in theface as they hurl themselvesdown a mountain, appearingas an incarnation of Sasquatchupon their arrival at the bottom. . . Novelty.

It’s been quite some time since I engaged in the duties of TourManager, but this last month hasseen my reintegration into suchcircles, as well as my usual roleas FOH mixer for the Californian,Hanni El Khatib. For those of youwho aren’t familiar with his work,imagine on a late whiskey-soakednight you stumble across thedoor to Hunter S. Thompson’smind: he would be playing onthe clichéd sliver sequinnedVegas stage inside. The twopiece stage setup is simple: a guitar amp, with various pedalsand a drum kit. The vocals are a little more interesting, onevocal mic runs through a slapback echo pedal, giving it a very1950s feel, possibly evenharking back to the Joe Meeksound, and the other is very thin,megaphone like.

This tour has so far taken usthrough the UK, The Netherlandsand Belgium. We’ve now made itto this mountainous region, andit’s here that we are playing a rather interesting show. Set inand around Geneva, the AntigelFestival puts shows on in ratherpeculiar places. With their out-of-the-chocolate-box thinking, itwould appear that the archetypalvenue and 12-band bill no longersatisfies the appetite of the usualSwiss festival-goer. Velodromesand abandoned warehouseswith various sports affiliated withthe event which the attendeescan participate in are the courseof the day. It should be called‘Gigs in Acoustically StupidPlaces’, but nevertheless, wedrive into an outer suburb ofGeneva to find the venue du jour,a local swimming pool.

The irony of this, as I’m sureyou are all aware, is that audioengineers everywhere like to say‘It sounds like a swimming pool’whenever they come across anacoustically challenging venue.Imagine my surprise when I foundmix position precariouslylubricated between the hot tuband main pool - a little too muchelectricity and water for my liking.The temporary stage built into thecorner lacked support and wastherefore more like a diving boardthan a performance area. Whenthe drums entered into a morevigorous beat, the mic standswould do a little dance, and thereverb inside the guitar amp wouldspring into life. Addressing thisslight inconvenience with electricaltape and different amp placement,we cracked on with sound check.

The choice of venue presentedsome rather unforeseenadvantages. Once the doors hadbeen open, the over sized winterjackets, jeans and snow bootshad been replaced with flip flopsand bikinis. Those who wouldnot bare skin removed theirshoes and rolled up their jeanslike a new castaway on a beach.Apart from the obvious boyhoodogling, there were someacoustical advantages too.

The Grateful Dead’s engineer,the late Owsley ‘Bear’ Stanley,said that the best temperatureand humidity for a show was 80°and 80% humidity. Things in herewere slightly different, it was morelike 90% humidity, but thetemperature was pretty muchbang-on. The PA system, a smallbox-on-stick affair, which wouldnormally get laughed at, alsoadded to the sonic fidelity.Because of the smallness, themore point source arrangementdidn’t acoustically charge it’senvironment, it merely sat in andreinforced the sound from thestage. The absorbency of theaudience also helped.

Despite the hard reflectivenessof the surrounding architecture,the sound felt more intimate thanI could have possibly imagined.It reminded me of those goodold days at some of Berlin’swarehouse parties: nice, clean,transient lines, just enoughacoustical energy to react withthe crowd, but not enough toover-react to the room. Therewere, of course, some extensionof the lower bass frequencies,but that was barely a noddingacquaintance to the show’s vast,tiled surroundings.

By not trying to pummel theroom into submission with a huge PA system and justletting the band do what they do,the outcome was great.

I suppose, just like an architectwho not only thinks about his orher building, but also thesurrounding area and the impactthat their building will have onthe community, we too as sonicarchitects should be humbledtowards our environment. Wemight have our favourite tools,but they aren’t always going tobe the best for the job in hand.

Now, for me at least, there isa great ambiguity in the phrase‘It sounds like a swimming pool’.What will you say next time youhear that phrase?> www.hannielkhatib.com> www.antigel.ch

LSi - March 201270

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Live sound engineer Dave Swallow sounds off.

This month: Gigs in Acoustically Stupid Places

“It reminded me of

those good old days at

some of Berlin’s

warehouse parties: nice,

clean, transient lines,

just enough acoustical

energy to react with

the crowd, but not

enough to over-react

to the room.”

Mix_Position 06/03/2012 14:40 Page 70