Okay, you purists out there may insist that summer doesn’t officially kick in for a couple weeks, but it sure feels like summer, for a lot of reasons. The weather’s heating up, the kids are out of school and, if not summer, well… the travel season is well underway. And if truth be told, the sound season is off to a good start and showing signs of good health.
June Madness
June is also InfoComm month, although given my choice, I’d go back to having the event follow the old early-spring NSCA dates, rather than schedule a show during one of the season’s busiest travel times and, frankly, a period of substantial activity for sound providers. Summer is tour season. It’s also the semi-official kickoff for outdoor events of every sort, including weddings, street fairs, state/county fairs, winery shows, pre/post baseball game shows and festivals of every type — both concert and theme-oriented.
The latter category has expanded into a huge industry over the past couple decades or so, especially when you consider that nearly every municipality seems to organize local festivals focused on art/wine/jazz/crafts/and foods of every description, ranging from garlic to apples to peaches to ethnic celebrations of every variety (Scottish/Italian/Greek/Celtic/etc.) — any excuse to party. In fact, my town once hosted an annual Peanut Butter festival, solely because the city once had a Skippy processing plant. But nearly all of these events include one (or more) stages of music, and somebody’s gonna make some money providing the sound system and mixing the acts.
Travel: The Dark Side
As anyone in the industry who travels a lot can attest, whether you’re a manufacturer’s rep or a touring pro, travel is nowhere near the non-stop excitement that non-travelers seem to think it is. That is, unless your idea of excitement is rushing to catch a plane, standing in endlessly long security lines or trying to catch a couple hours of sleep on a crew bus between finishing a 2 a.m. load-out in one city and an 8 a.m. load-in some 400 miles away. That’s about where the glamour aspect of the biz wears off really fast, and things like truck stop food and bad weather don’t help the picture much.
But aside from issues such as thunderstorms, blistering heat, tornados, mosquitoes and even scorpions (as one sound guy this month reported finding in his cable runs during load-out), there are other complications involved for the sound traveler. In “The Biz” on page 64, Dan Daley talks about the problems that engineers (from both the U.S. and abroad) sometimes encounter in their attempts of getting work permit visas to tour with their band while offshore. The issue? In trying to protect its workforce, many countries (including the U.S.) may try to deny entry to a touring FOH mixer, because that job should be done by a local worker. Here, the attitude is that “you’re just a sound technician” and they have plenty of those who need work. If it was a punchline to a joke, it might be funny, but it’s not.
And it happens every day, either in advance, by denying a visa (or greatly delaying the visa process) or simply refusing entry beyond the immigration control gate once you arrive somewhere. While traveling to Vancouver to write an article about a Canadian company, I was once nearly denied entry because someone in immigration felt I was taking a job from a local. After more than an hour arguing my case in a back room (no, they didn’t use the lamp-in-the-eyes technique and I wasn’t waterboarded), I was finally allowed to cross the border. Next time, I’ll just say I’m in town for the Molson festival…
Travel: The Bright Side
Travel’s not all bad. In fact, it’s much more enjoyable, especially when you’re prepared. This month, David Morgan even got a few days off for R&R in Iceland after mixing James Taylor’s European tour and relates a few interesting anecdotes about suddenly being presented with an unfamiliar console hours before the show (see page 62). He also offers solid tips about digital survival, especially when you’re dealing with iLoks and USB drives that not only store your show mixes and console setups but also thousands of dollars in plug-in authorizations. It’s great advice and a must-read for anyone working in the digital domain.
We were also given inside access to the Rammstein tour (page 38), which is especially interesting, because Berlin-based sound company Black Box Music carried 100 percent of the band’s backline and the entire production — including a 120-box L-Acoustics rig — to the States. Company representative Jannice Kluck talked about the tour and the logistics, carnets and paperwork involved in major international touring.
It’s Showtime!
As I mentioned earlier, it’s InfoComm time. And maybe it’s the prospect of all those upcoming prune festivals, motorcycle rallies and July 4th concerts on the horizon that has the industry in a tizzy, but there’s a real feeling of optimism in the sound reinforcement biz. We’ve definitely noticed it here with this month’s record-setting issue, and there’s an upbeat vibe among both manufacturers and showgoers about InfoComm 2012. Speaking of that, we’ll provide complete coverage of the show highlights — both online and in next month’s issue — and if you’re at the show, stop by our booth (#C5349) and say hello. See you there!
