Much like Woodstock, the odds are that if you remember what happened on the Sunset Strip in the 1980s, you probably weren't there. Hundreds of thousands of musicians, managers and hangers-on strolled up and down the Los Angeles avenue hoping to make it, bank it, or, well, you know.
One of those to make it out of there is Pete Docter, who played guitar in a handful of cover bands up and down that golden highway back in the day. Where others continued to dream the dream (some still are), Docter saw something that piqued his interest – most of the time the only one getting paid at the end of the night was the soundman.
The PA and the Van
He was already known as the dude in the band with a PA and a van, so he was halfway there. The next step was letting the rest of the local bands know that he was available to handle their shows, either with an axe or a PA. Demand grew fast enough that he put the guitar away and declared himself a full-time sound provider.
Over the past 30-odd years, Docter has gone from local Los Angeles-area gigs to the stages at the Coachella Valley Music Festival to national tours to the SOS Saving OurSelves – Help For Haiti telethon that took place Feb. 5 at the American Airlines Theater in Miami, Fla. His company, known as U.S. Audio & Lighting, has also been responsible for maintaining the 52-foot-tall L-Acoustics V-DOSC PA at the legendary Hollywood Bowl since 2006.
While Docter started as an audio provider, he moved into lighting as a necessity since clients would walk in the door asking for the service or for a referral. Turns out it made economic sense to purchase a small set to send out when needed, but it's not an area of focus for the company.
Pushing Northward
Most recently, the company has expanded beyond its Los Angeles base to the state's Central Valley to better serve the northern California market. Patrick Coughlin, who had spent 13 years heading up R&R Sound in Lodi, Calif., has been hired as the general operations manager.
The northern California office will be based in Lodi, Coughlin reports. "I'm an hour from Sacramento, from San Francisco and Oakland, and from San Jose," he says. "We're right in the middle of it all, plus real estate here is half the price it is in the Bay Area."
Coughlin is looking to build the NorCal business the same way Docter did in Los Angeles, one-off by one-off until the reputation builds. "It got to the point where Pete started to get contracted by bigger sound companies in the area to handle small and side stages," Coughlin reports, of the company's Los Angeles history.
A Tap on the Shoulder
In fact, that's how he got his foot in the door at Coachella. "Pete's got great relationships all throughout L.A. with both concert promoters and some of the larger sound companies like PRG and Rat," Coughlin says. "He often gets the tap on the shoulder to help out at those gigs. So, through his relationships at AEG, he was asked to start doing Coachella."
While U.S. won't be formally at Coachella this year – Rat won the 2010 contract – Coughlin points out that they are already getting sub-rental calls for the gig.
U.S. Audio & Lighting picked up the SOS Saving OurSelves benefit because of the relationships that Docter had built with PRG, which was handling the lighting on the show.
"The biggest challenge there was that it was so close to when the earthquake happened that everyone was scrambling," Coughlin says. "And, the logistics of it being televised on at least three networks live (including BET, MTV and VH1), thrown on top of a festival style concert, were huge to handle in a week or two period of time."
SOS: Saving Ourselves
The two-hour telethon, staged as a followup to the the initial Hope for Haiti Now telethon, included performances from Wyclef Jean, Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown, Busta Rhymes and Justin Beiber. The first step the team took was getting stage plots, input lists and needs from every artist from every production manager. "Everyone got it together pretty easily, though, for the sake of the benefit, and it came off without a hitch."
As far as boxes, the U.S. Audio & Lighting team shipped 24 L-Acoustics V-DOSC for two hangs, 10 dV-DOSC for down and front fills, 20 SB28 subs, 16 KUDOs for side fills and 12 ARCS for rear fills out of the L.A. office. A total of five Yamaha PM5Ds were also shipped.
"There was a house band with revolving artists up front and a couple of extra musicians with each act. So, we were up to about 95 inputs," Coughlin explains. "What we did was master-slave combinations at front of house and monitors with 5Ds." So, there were three PM5Ds at FOH, two for the bands and one that served as a production desk for all of the wireless mics used by the MCs, and two at the monitor location. Five splits went out to two recording trucks.
Aiming for the "Big Kahunas"
The gig across the country was nothing new for U.S. Audio & Lighting, since the company has been an anonymous support team behind some of the top grossing tours over the last 10 years, Coughlin states.
That's a market they'll continue to chase. "We're going after big concert stuff, arena stuff and tours," Coughlin reports. "We're going to stay away from the smaller festivals and stuff like that and go after the big Kahunas. We want to fill in non-production carrying arena dates and festivals of that nature." There are, he adds, a number of venues that fit that bill within striking distance, including the Sleep Train Amphitheater in Marysville, the Events Center in Reno, the Oracle Arena in Oakland and the San Jose Arena.
Adding that the area is ripe for growth, Coughlin reports that the Lodi office will be well-stocked for any project that comes through the door. "We're going to start with about 40 V-DOSC up here, probably about 16 dV-DOSC and 28 SB28 subs. We'll also have 16 KUDOs and some ARCS. For now, the consoles will be a pair of 5Ds and two Digidesign consoles – a Profile and a Venue with Pro Tools HD.
"Of course, if we need anything else we'll just call up the L.A. office," he says. "It's pretty easy to get things back and forth."
