Vacations aren’t much fun when they’re forced upon you, and I’m willing to bet that most of us who work in the concert production industry have had more than our fair share of being on an unplanned hiatus. Fortunately, the gears are slowly grinding into motion. Covid restrictions are easing, and the trend for dates to fall off the calendar is abating, if not reversing. Can I get an “Amen?”
The summer gig season is upon us, so now would be a good time to check your gear, your resources and yourself, and make sure everything is ready to go. You may find that the landscape has changed dramatically from the last busy season.
Is This Thing On?
The nuts and bolts aspect of being ready for the gigging season is relatively obvious. Get your gear out of the cases and fire it up to make sure it still works! Contact manufacturers to find out if there have been software or firmware updates, and install any necessary updates while your gear is still in the shop.
Some not-so-obvious things to consider: foam rotting in your road cases, fan filters that need replacement, and sticky faders. Get out the vacuum and a clean paint brush, gently clean the fader slots on your desk(s) and make sure the faders still work properly. Way before you banished your console to a cold, lonely warehouse for a year, some of those faders may have already been candidates for replacement, and sitting around idle didn’t improved their condition. The last thing you need is faders snapping to the wrong position when you change layers on an in-ear monitor mix. While you’re at it, clean the screens, check the bulbs in the console lamps and have your interns test all of your cables.
A New Work Case
You’ll need to re-think your work case. Forget all that silly stuff like soldering gear, SPL meters and the usual tools (just kidding). The new work box is going to be packed with clean masks, sanitizing wipes, liquid hand sanitizer, alcohol prep pads, gloves and caution tape. Sure, a lot of states have lifted mask and even distancing mandates — but that doesn’t necessarily mean that venues have followed suit. Better to act out of an abundance of caution and be safe than to take chances on getting sick. I don’t think it’s out of line to ask anyone who runs equipment to use hand sanitizer before laying their paws on a desk. And don’t forget the caution tape so you can mark off restricted areas.
Here’s something you don’t want to hear — especially at the end of a long day — but consider the idea of using disinfectant wipes on your gear while you’re packing down. This applies to microphones and console work surfaces at the very least; a few stagehands can make quick work of wiping down everything as it’s being packed away. More than a few manufacturers have published guides for cleaning mics, capsules and wireless gear, so heed their advice. Encourage artists to use their own vocal microphones whenever possible, and have a dedicated MC mic even if you don’t think you’ll need it. The idea of “public” vocal microphones was never particularly attractive; in 2021, it’s downright ugly.
Advance Early
You may find that vendors or freelancers you previously relied upon are no longer available, or can’t accommodate your needs for a variety of reasons. The lack of work in our industry over the past year forced many people to rethink their careers. Some older freelancers retired or moved to other fields of employment. Entire companies have shut their doors, or sold off assets to stay afloat — assets like consoles or P.A.s that were available for rental in the past. Don’t expect to pick up exactly where you left off, pre-pandemic. Work out a contingency plan now in case a console or system processor goes down so you’re not in a panic if it happens.
This past week, I had an eye-opening experience regarding rental cars: I was unable to book one-way rentals going from an airport in Pennsylvania for return to the NYC area. In the past, this was never an issue, but rental car fleets have been downsized since the start of the pandemic, and local rental offices don’t want to lose cars by allowing them to go one-way.
Be Flexible
Backstage and front-of-house procedures for most venues are drastically different this year. Many venues are maintaining Covid protocols, and some artists are requiring that working personnel wear masks at all times, whether they’re onstage, backstage or at front-of-house — so expect that to be the case. Many venues are performing temperature checks as employees arrive on-site. Catering may be available in shifts as a means of maintaining social distancing. And the in-house catering at some venues remains suspended, so be prepared to bring food with you.
Check Your Brain
A technical note worth mentioning is the mental adjustment you’ll have to make at FOH in between sound check and show time. We’ve all done sound checks thinking, “Okay, I know this will sound a lot different with 5,000 bodies in here.” Well, that may not be the case because, at least initially, venues will not be at full capacity. “Sold out” could mean 50 percent or less of capacity, and the drastic changes in acoustics that we’ve come to expect from packing bodies into a venue may not happen.
I’ve done a whopping total of six gigs since March 2020, and I’m willing to bet you’re in a similar situation. The term “use it or lose it” has never been more true. At my last show, I sat down to an unfamiliar console and might as well have been sitting down to do an autopsy. It took about ten minutes before my brain ramped up to speed and remembered how to make the thing work! If you own your desk, get a microphone, plug it in (you won’t forget that part) and run it through the desk to the main, aux and matrix outs. It’ll help your synapses fire more readily at the gig.
Here’s hoping that the summer of 2021 is more productive for all of us than summer 2020.
Steve “Woody” La Cerra is the tour manager and FOH engineer for Blue Öyster Cult
