Playing a succession of festivals around the globe, including Download, Hell Fest and BottleRock, Orange County punks Offspring put in a 30th anniversary concert in celebration of their Smash album at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. With Greg Bess at FOH mixing on Cadac J-Type analogue console and CDC four compact digital mixer, and Jesse Cantrell mixing monitors on an SSL 550 Plus, the PA fielded by Britannia Row was centred on L-Acoustics’ K1/K2 line arrays.
‘Anaheim was very special,’ Cantrell reflects. ‘I’ve listened to this band since I was a kid, and probably played some of these songs in my own bands in high school, so to get to be there when Smash turned 30 was an experience I can honestly say I never thought I’d be a part of. I feel so lucky to have been there.’
Not afraid to mix things up, The Offspring’s engineers are no strangers to jumping between riders. ‘One of my favourite parts of the gig is getting to work on the mighty Midas Heritage 3000, but this year, we swapped it out on some shows for an SSL L550,’ Cantrell says. ‘The show is growing. Dexter [Holland, frontman] and the band have some cool ideas to take it to a new level and we needed more flexibility at monitor world to allow that to happen.’
The band – completed by lead guitarist Kevin ‘Noodles’ Wasserman, drummer Brandon Pertzborn, multi-instrumentalist Jonah Nimoy and bassist Todd Morse – have retained loyal fans for over three decades now, and are promoting new album, Supercharged. Moving between analogue and digital as needed, Britannia Row has provided every rider request as looked after by Account Executive Ed Shackleton.
‘Brit Row and Clair Global have been amazing to work with,’ Cantrell continues. ‘With so many locations around the world we can always be sure to get what we need. And the service is unbelievable; no matter what time zone we’re in, someone always answers our calls. Ed has been delightful to work with and is always trying to make things both easier and better for us.’
Cantrell is supported by Monitor Tech Emily Adams, and credits her expertise in producing a stress-free show: ‘With Emily on stage I can trust that everything is patched and miked up correctly,’ he says. ‘She takes care of everything so I can focus on mixing.’ He chose the SSL for his digital desk as it sounds ‘as close to analogue as it can get’, and ‘was the right choice’.
Cantrell also uses a Rupert Neve Shelford Channel on Dexter’s vocal, in line with the analogue rig. ‘I wanted to make sure the change wasn’t too abrupt for him, and the swap went flawlessly.’
For wireless needs, Cantrell, who is managing 15 mixes, opts for Shure PSM1000s, and Shure Axient: ‘Shure is always reliable and so easy to manage with Wireless Workbench, and the sound quality is top notch. On top of everyone using Ultimate Ears IEMs, we use d&b audiotechnik M2 wedges and two L-Acoustics A15 over one KS28 sub for side fill.
‘Everyone except Dexter has a stereo band mix in their ears with themselves on top as standard. Dexter only wears one ear and has his vocal and guitar through it. His wedge is mostly his vocal and some guitar, while the rest of the wedges are vocals and drums. The side fill mixes are mostly drums, bass and vocals and they are loud.’
Long-serving FOH engineer Bess reflects on the system design at the Anaheim show: ‘We did slight modifications from our standard K1 over K2 configuration. We carefully matched the angles of the hangs to keep phase alignment as close as possible. For side coverage we had K1SB over K2 and kept our two centre hangs of Kara to fill the elusive centre coverage, which can be missed by stacked front fill. ‘For ground subs we used KS28, one high across the entire width of the stage in a sub-arc set-up. This prevents annihilating the first few rows of the audience with inordinate amounts of low end. Overall, our coverage and punch were fantastic.’
Complementing the Cadac, Bess has outboard including a Lexicon 960L, Gentner Audio Prism, Universal Audio Little Labs IBP, SPL Stereo Vitalizer Mk2-T 9739, and a Valley People PR-10 Rack loaded with Kepex II gates.
A recent addition to the FOH camp is Audio Tech Jess Loma, enlisted to be Bess’ ‘extra ears’, checking coverage and balance in every venue. ‘When I first joined this team, I was very excited to see that they were using analogue desks at both FOH and monitors. It’s a very energetic show and I think Greg does a great job at making it sound so clear and dynamic,’ she says.’ He’s got so much knowledge and experience; I feel very privileged to work with him.
‘We’ve been playing a lot of festivals and old amphitheatres around Europe and South America this year, where we’re often not able to do a full soundcheck. I’ve started to work on the multitracking/streaming feeds, which allows Greg to focus on getting his mix levels for the show while I get the levels for any streams and multitracking. For outboard feeds, we work on the same desk and so at the same time during soundcheck, we need to make sure that we tell each other if any adjustments are needed that could affect each other’s feed.’
For the festival control package, Bess has an ATI Paragon II P2P desk modified with a reduced frame size, and custom-built API group/matrix outputs. ‘The channel direct outputs are fed to two 24-channel JoeCo BBR1-B recorders for tracking as well as a Sennheiser Ambeo VR mic for audience pickup through a Black Lion Auteur Quad Mic preamp,’ Cantrell says. ‘For streaming and media feeds we use multiple matrix mixes to change the balance of the signal to suit the difference between the main mix and a more appropriate balance sent to two track feeds. Additionally, we have another mix sent to a Tascam Portacapture X8 for quick transfer to social media shots.’
Having worked with the Britannia Row team consistently this year – The Offspring hit North America, Europe and South Africa in the coming months – Loma notes the vendor service has been on point: ‘Britannia Row is great; the gear is always impeccable, and the communication is so quick and easy.’
More: www.britanniarow.com
