Accompanying the release of their eighth album Heaven :x: Hell, Sum 41 announced Tour of the Setting Sum, a multi-continent arena tour that marked the close of their 30-year career. Throughout Asia, North America and Europe, the Canadian pop-punk band played more than 100 shows for fans eager to see them for the last time. The 24-venue run in Europe culminated in a sold-out performance in Nanterre, France.
With AudioRent Clair deploying the audio system each night, 16 Cohesion CO12 boxes – Cohesion being the preferred choice of Production Manager Ivan Copelan for ‘the sound of it’ – comprised each side of the main hangs, with 12 CO12 boxes hung on either side. An additional six Cohesion CP218 II+ were hung per side, with 12 CP218 II+ were on the ground, and a CP118+ used as a drum subwoofer.
‘The CO12 goes so low – the subs are there for lifting,’ says FOH Engineer Bryan Campbell, who has also mixed for Papa Roach, Breaking Benjamin and Of Mice and Men. ‘I’m mixing punk rock, so I want that kick drum at 60-70Hz, and I want that bass to have that dog-snarling midrange tone. I’m not looking for oomph, I’m looking for coverage.’
‘The CP218 is the most musical, most powerful sub,’ says Valdrian Sulejmani, System Engineer for the European tour. ‘I have never run out of headroom with it. I think it’s the best sub out there.’
The team opted for eight Cohesion CO10 as front fill to provide ‘a much fuller signal for guitar and bass’. The tour also carried 12 Cohesion CM14 for supporting artists Dynamite Shakers and Neck Deep to use as stage monitors.
The performance in France required additional PA to allow 40,000-plus fans to best experience Sum 41’s final European show. The side hangs were increased to 16 CO12s, and additional rear hangs of eight CO12s were flown. Six more CP218 II+ were added on the ground, and all subwoofers, flown and on the ground, were deployed front-facing. Four delay towers of 12 CO12 each were deployed – a necessity for full coverage in Nanterre’s Paris La Défense Arena, Europe’s largest arena.
‘In the past, they might have said, “we can get by”, but now “lLet’s spend the money, let’s go it’s the final run”, says Copelan. ‘We didn’t max out the budget using Cohesion; we actually saved money. The most important thing at the end was the sound quality and consistency for singer Deryck [Whibley]. That France show was fun, intense.’
The musicality and clarity of the PA held up to Whibley’s scrutiny, who ‘came to FOH every day to listen to the mix with Bryan and get what he wanted on stage’, according to Sulejmani. ‘That was important to him.
‘Coverage is always number-one,’ Sulejmani continues. ‘Bryan was mixing like a studio track. He wanted the PA to translate the mix to real life. Normally a rock band’s priority is the midrange, but the whole spectrum was important. We needed an even and equal low end through every venue as well. This PA, especially in the midrange, is so consistent no matter where you are in the venue. You can get to those upper levels, and you don’t have to overshoot. I’ve worked with a lot, and Cohesion is my favorite PA.’
Setting Sum travelled from Netherlands to Nanterre, with more than 20 stops between, so the audio system needed to meet the demands of the production team. ‘The size of Cohesion worked for us. We had the PA in one truck through Europe,’ says Copelan, who previously managed tours for Wiz Khalifa, Megadeth, Incubus, and Dogstar. ‘It was compact and quick to get up, and it packed a punch. It sounded amazing.’
‘The fans have been insane – we started in Asia, and then we’d see the same faces flying into Europe, just to see one more show,’ says Campbell. ‘It was electric every night. It set in when the band was done for the night, and they took a bow. You could tell they were emotional, thinking, “this might be the last time we ever play Germany, or Paris, or anywhere”. It was electric every night; it was magical.’
More: www.cohesionaudio.com
