It’s mid September already? Where have the past few weeks gone?

8/31/08: Six Flags Dallas, Texas

We arrived early for this one. Well rested after a nice night at the hotel, we journeyed over to the Six Flags in Dallas. At 11am, it was already 95 degrees outside. When we arrived, I found to my displeasure that they already had mics on everything. Oh well, a little explaining the house guys pulled their mics and I threw up all of mine.

CAUTION: SOUND NERD STUFF:

Next up on the bill was listening to the PA. Hm… I spec’d an EV X-line system… What did they provide? Electro-Voice? No way! SOUNDBRIDGE! I had 12 of the XYON boxes a side, and 10 subs per side too. Not really ideal, but I had to fire it up to see what it sounded like. So, I play my usual test tunes, and sadly, the PA was not having a good day. The coverage was uneven all throughout the arena and it sounded very thin and harsh. The low mids pretty much disappeared halfway back. The PA was also lacking in the get up and go department. Struggling to hit 103dBA, it was not looking to be a fun night. I spent about an hour EQ’ing the system to get a usable sound out of it. I had a 15dB cut at 160hz, another 15dB cut at 2.5k and a few other cuts around 630hz, 6.3k, 8k, 1k, and 3k. Once I finally gave up and settled for “good enough,” we proceeded with sound check. Everything sounded thin, harsh and muddy. All at the same time. It was a real challenge to get a good mix going. I did manage to make it “good enough” and I lived with it. As I walked around during sound check, I noticed that coverage dropped off very quickly off to the side, and down front it all just became a muddy mess. Even with front fills, it still didnt sound too good down front.

END SOUND NERD STUFF.

Come show time, the place really got packed. About 6000 kids piled into the arena excited for a good show. It was HOT in the arena. Tyga opened the show, and Katy Perry was direct support for us. The kids seemed to enjoy Katy’s set. She has a pretty good live show. When we hit the stage, the crowd was still strong and LOUD. During our opening song, I was completely out of gas and was just driving the piss out of the PA trying to get it loud enough. I finally got it to where it was enough, but it was not too good sounding. I really didnt like the PA provided at all.

This was an interesting venue though. The stage had wings that went a solid 50′ out into the crowd. There was no protection between the crowd and the wings. So basically, if the crowd wanted, they could jump up onto the wings, and run right down to the stage. During the openers everyone seemed to behave, but about 3/4 the way through ATL’s set, the crowd started jumping up onto the wings and hugging the guys when they would come out onto the wings. A few kids were even brave enough to run from the wings all the way down to the stage. Just to try to get closer to the band. Security was attempting to stop kids as they went running by, but some of them were just too fast. I saw one cop jump at a kid running by, but the kid just jumped over the cop and made it right to the stage. It was crazy.

In the end, we still had a decent show. It could have been a lot better with a better sound system, but I survived and everyone had a good time.

9/1/08: Six Flags San Antonio, Texas

An early day for everyone. We flew from Dallas straight to San Antonio in the morning. We arrived around 11am at the venue. Since today was Labor day, a lot of special events were taking place in the park throughout the day. One of them happened to fall right at 1pm. Meaning, that we couldnt make noise on our stage during that time. So, we had to set up and check before 1pm. It was a little rushed, but we made it just in time.

It also helped that the PA was much nicer today. The rig I wanted was actually there. 6 EV X-Line boxes a side, 8 EV XLD218’s a side for outfills and 14 EAW SB850’s. It sounded awesome right out of the gate and only got better with a little EQ.

Come show time, we were ready to rock. This was the final stop on the Six Flags Tour, and the house was packed. Sold out at 5200, it was looking to be an awesome show. The only down side was that there was this “VIP only” area in front of the stage. They had this HUGE section roped off for “VIP only” people. While the rest of the place was packed, the VIP section was pretty empty. 3 songs into our set, Alex told everyone in the crowd to come closer. He said that there shouldnt be VIP sections at these events and everyone should come up to the stage. So, around 3000 kids rushed the stage. The 3 security guards watching the VIP section stood no chance. Kids came rushing down from every direction. The security person next to me got completely trampled. It was like a battle scene from the movies, and the kids were winning! But, now the stage area was a lot more packed and everyone was even more pumped. Once I hit 107dBA at mix position, I turned the dB meter off and stopped worrying about it. Everyone was rocking out, and I decided to as well.

It ended up being the best Six Flags show out of them all. We all had a great time, and I would love to do this again next summer.

We’re off for all of September, so it will be nice to catch up on some things at home, and spend some more time with the loved ones.

Back to the world of rock and roll…