FOH Interview

Scott "Scoobie" Scherban and Drew Consalvo are making it happen for "the most rock 'n' roll of rock 'n' roll bands." 

On an unusually beautiful summer night (for St. Louis), there’s a special concert at the brand new Busch Stadium: The Black Crowes are opening for the Dave Matthews Band. More than a concert, it’s an audition of sorts: It’s the one and only concert in the new stadium, and if the powers that be don’t feel it goes well, they’ll never be another. Consequently, the city’s royalty comes out to see a stage set up against the centerfield wall and over 100,000 interlocking plastic sheets that protect the precious grass.

Cubby Colby on great artists, great technology and a great crew

Fans of Saturday Night Live (I know you gig on Saturday nights — that’s what Tivo is for) will recognize the skits that all play on the “competition” between certain hosts for the record of who has hosted the show the most times. Here at FOH, it is pretty rare for us to feature an engineer in the FOH Interview slot more than once. I can only think of three: John Cooper, Big Mick and Cubby Colby.

Cubby is someone we could feature a dozen times and still not get the entire story. For those of you unfamiliar, the short version goes like this: Genesis and Phil Collins, Grammy Awards house mixer for years, more tours with Prince than any other mixer alive and a ton of other stuff.

From theatrical to R&B to church revival, Jill Scott’s show has a little bit of everything

With Masque Sound providing the audio, Jill Scott’s audience heard every malleable murmur and every vociferous vocalization equally – and with great delight. The sell-out show was a powerhouse of great music and showmanship. Scott is far from what all too often passes for a pop star these days: She’s a woman of experience, talent and effectively and sincerely connects with the audience.

The 50th Annual Grammy Awards shook up the Staples Center with a record number of performances — and challenges.

This year, the Grammy Awards hit the big 5-0. The show, at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, lived up to the Recording Academy’s assertion that it would be the biggest show yet in terms of number of musical performances: 35 songs in 19 segments. Those performances required more than 450 microphones, not including what was used on the outdoor stage for the Foo Fighters’ show.

No, we didn’t change our name to MON magazine, but this month we recognize the art of monitor mixing.

The OTHER end of the snake: A place so foreign to most of us FOH personnel that just the very thought of going there makes us shudder with anticipation of horrible-yelling rock stars in a relentless barrage of insults and abuse. In fact, as a FOH engineer, the closest I ever want to get to that world is to check mic placement on stage.

“I remember 1977. I started going to concerts and I saw the Led Zeppelin. I got a guitar on Christmas day. I dreamed that Jimmy Page would come from Santa Monica and teach me to play…”

“AM Radio”— Everclear

Like Art Alexakis, I saw Zeppelin in ’77 and can still close my eyes and put myself in that room again. This is a band that is so big and revered by so many that I have actually had a hard time getting myself into the space to get this piece put together. Imagine what it must have been like to actually mix the show.

Big Mick knows what that is like. The iconic FOH engineer, best known for his 20+ years mixing Metallica, was one of two engineers behind the desk at the reunion show at the O2 Arena in London. Mick handled the band — Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and second-generation drummer Jason Bonham — while Robert Plant’s long-time FOH guy Roy Williams minded the lead vocalist’s channel and some of the 40 effects returns. Monitors — and there were a ton of Turbosound wedges and sidefills — were wrangled by Dee Miller, Mick and Roy drove a Midas XL8 feeding an army of Meyer Milo line array cabs. And the show was — by every account I have been able to find —nothing short of spectacular. The Hammer of the Gods swings again.

It seems a fitting way to begin a new year. More than five years ago, as the very first issue of FOH was just starting to take form, I met and spent the day hanging with John Cooper at the Forum in Los Angeles where he was getting ready for his first L.A. show with Bruce Springsteen. The re-sult of that afternoon was the very first FOH Interview ever.

After spending over 20 years playing in bands in the Chicago area and the Midwest bar scene, Mitch Blumfield had a vision. You might even call it a momentary lapse of reason.

A band he was in was doing a lot of covers. However, it was their versions of Pink Floyd songs that were gaining the most attention with their flock. “There was a Pink Floyd Show that we threw in among all the other cover songs that included Aerosmith, Tom Petty and the usual cover fare,” says Blumfield. “Pink Floyd got the most attention.” So, Blumfield did the unthinkable for a single parent with a young daughter. He quit his six-figure marketing gig in downtown Chicago, got a home equity loan and went to work on a dream. 

Rascal Flatts Continues to Grow, As Do Complications

The phenomenon that is Rascal Flatts is like the universe — it just keeps expanding. And for those out on the road with the trio, there’s a pretty simple reason: The band is listening.

“These are artists who are very fan-oriented,” says Stuart Delk. “They listen to the critics and the fans. They read what both are saying and respond accordingly.” Whether it’s what song they play and where in the set list it’s placed, or what gags and dramatics garner the biggest response, Gary LeVox, Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney continue to tweak their way into stratospheric stardom.

For 41 years, the Montreux Jazz Festival has been drawing a phenomenal array of artists from all corners of the world and all over the musical map. For nearly three weeks every summer, the festival presents a diverse roster of musicians spanning jazz, rock, blues, world beat and more. With two main halls and several smaller stages, the logistics of staging a festival of this magnitude are challenging. FOH spoke with several visiting engineers, as well as the festival’s sound coordinator Pierre-André Aebischer of Niveau2, the soundco for the festival, to get a sense of what it takes to put the show together every year.

Ryan Greene has been spending the past 15 years or so working on his studio tan, helping an assortment of punk rock bands such as NOFX, Lagwagon, No Use for a Name, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes record their best offerings.

Before that run of studio work, Greene learned about audio by standing in front of bands at the front of house position with a mixing board under his hands. His first FOH gigs came in Los Angeles during the ‘80s, and he worked with such bands as Poison and Warrant, as well as a handful of local bands at venues like The Troubadour, The Roxy and The Whisky.

A couple of years ago, Greene moved to Scottsdale, Ariz., and opened Crush Recording. There, he continued to work with dozens of rock bands willing to travel to his studio. After one session, a band that he worked with was about to hit the stage and was looking for someone to mix a live show. Greene jumped at the chance.

Clair Bros.’ crew makes sure sound is everywhere on The Dark Side of the Moon

Pink Floyd’s dark, introspective music, combined with their bleak world view, made for powerful, if somewhat depressing songs — especially as Roger Waters took more creative control of the band in the late ’70s and early ‘80s. So I was caught a little off-guard when I spoke to the crew of the Roger Waters Dark Side of the Moon tour, and every single person referred to the tour as “Happyville” — and no one was joking. Bob Weibel, the tour’s systems engineer, didn’t want to tell me too much about the gags in the show because he “didn’t want to ruin the fun.” I guess when you’re touring with a rock legend and making him sound amazing you can afford a little levity.