Following his From Here to Now to You tour in 2013-2014, Jack Johnson been largely absent from the live circuit. But the impending release of a new album, All The Light Above It Too, has brought the former professional surfer-turned-singer/songwriter, actor and activist back out with his band – and Rat Sound’s L-Acoustics K1/K2 system.
Like many of Rat’s clients, Johnson has a long history with the Camarillo-based sound company, which has handled all of his tours since 2000. Although the 2013-2014 trek carried a Kara-based loudspeaker system that was ideal for the more intimate theatres and performing arts venues on that run, this latest tour stopped at much larger spaces – including California’s 17,500-seat Hollywood Bowl and Washington’s 22,000-seat Gorge Amphitheater on its four-week journey – all of which were sold out.
‘This system has been the perfect size for the tour,’ says Rat Sound System Tech and Crew Chief, Bjarne Hemmingsen, who designed the loudspeaker model in L-Acoustics’ Soundvision software each morning. ‘The show sits at around 94dBa with some very soft delicate parts, and K1/K2 is great at providing even coverage throughout each venue while still keeping a full sound at the very back.’
The tour’s standard loudspeaker configuration comprises 12 K1 plus four Kara downs flown per side, flanked by far left and right hangs of up to 12 K2. Four more Kara spread out across the stage lip handled front fill, while six ARCS II enclosures – horizontally arrayed in threes on each side of the stage – delivered out fill. Eight SB28 subs per side, groundstacked in two stacks of four, delivered the robust low end, and all systems were powered and processed by LA8 amplified controllers.
‘I appreciate that I can easily configure this system in so many different ways to perfectly suit each venue,’ Hemmingsen says. ‘For venues that don’t require side arrays but are still quite wide, we used four K1 paired with eight to 12 K2 for the mains – or sometimes just the K2s alone for even smaller venues. Being able to control the horizontal HF with K2 solves a lot of reflection issues, especially for the side arrays. Its ability to cover 70° and keep the HF off the walls really helps a lot. And the results that I get in Soundvision are always spot on.’
‘This system has a great, full, natural sound with a very controlled low end and requires almost no EQ. Jack covers a lot of musical genres with his set – from folk and reggae to pop and rock – and each variation of the L-Acoustics system worked well with them all.’
Two brief US tour legs comprised Johnson’s latest outing – an East Coast trek for the first two weeks of June, followed a month later by a West Coast run for the last two weeks of July. The system that Rat Sound carried remained unchanged between the two trips and was steered by Michael Pollock, Johnson’s FOH Engineer for the past 17 years. Key additional audio crewmembers included Monitor Engineer Casey McDaniel, as well as Rat Sound PA Tech Mike Gazdziak and Monitor Tech Kyle Rogan.
