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The First of the UnseenEventYou! goes deeper |
By Florin Tibu, Editor, Software Reviews
12th of December 2006, 16:12 GMT
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OK, so it passed the Samael interview, now it's time to start writing some words on what was behind the lights and sound; it's time we went behind the scenes and have a chat with those who make gigs happen, the ones who are in the business, whether they are working in sound reinforcement, security or are the producers of the show. People usually come to gigs and enjoy very much what they see and hear (provided the show ain't a lame and lousy event), but most of the times, they have absolutely no idea on how was that show made at all. The goal of EventYou! is to bring the staff in the spotlight: men and women you don't see and most of the times you don't even know they're there, either working (or having worked) their best for things to go well or ready to jump in if someone might be in need.
It's these people, sometimes noticed (most of the times -not) who have some sleepless nights until the venue returns to its original state and everybody is gone, all the gear has been carried away and all is quiet again, be they security, paramedics or show organizers. Softpedia has been behind the scene at the Samael show and has spoken with a lot of people; now it's time for you to find out more about what that event meant...
Psychology and sports make good security
Whenever many people gather round there is a security issue, especially when we're talking about a musical event. If it's about a metal gig, the need for security is even more obvious, not that metalheads' manifestations would require special security measures, but we must admit that having 2000 people seated for a symphonic concert is one thing and having 2000 people standing or wandering in front of the stage at a rock concert is a totally different one. The fact that at rock/metal shows there is usually a lot of beer involved makes the need for security a very stringent one - hence the greatest problem: how should the security force act like since metalheads act themselves in a very particular way? Well, I must say I am glad to see that Romania has finally made a decisive step in the right direction; it wasn't made at the Samael show - it's just that here I have had the opportunity to catch a better picture on what was going on. At the venue I haven't seen much security personal despite the expected 2000 people for the night; and since I was there for business, I asked one guard to tell me some things about their job for the oncoming event. I was totally pleased to hear the guy saying that he's not going to tell me such things as it wasn't at all his job, but instantly offered to introduce me to his chief of operations. Thus in some 2 minutes I was already speaking with Andrei Irode from the Bucharest security company Bidepa -he was the head of security for the Samael gig.
I could hardly manage to dissimulate my astonishment as I started to talk to Mr. Irode and realized that I wasn't talking to a thug (as I must confess I was expecting) but to a very calm, intelligent and very determinate man, sworn to make things right and do his duty as good as possible. A Psychology and Sports graduated, Mr. Irode, kindly told me that Bidepa and the team he was leading have become one of the favorite security companies for metal events especially due to the special training of the security guards. Both he and his superiors have realized that rock events need a totally different approach as metalheads aren't at all different as humans and there is no need for frowned foreheads among the security guards at such an event.
Mr. Andrei Irode also told me that for the oncoming evening, he was commanding only 15 men, all carefully trained for what was about to take place and he also confessed that he was more than confident that the evening will end
with no nasty things as the audience has begun to understand that the commando-dressed guys behind the stage fence were there to help and not to "hunt down" metalheads. He mentioned the last big event held some 1-2 months ago in Bucharest, in a public plaza, where he and his team managed to do things perfectly without the fences as the local authorities didn't want to get involved in the respective gig because it was a protest one, bringing together dozens of bands and several thousands of people.
"Thank you very much! What could I ask for?"
I could really see the satisfaction on his face as he kept on telling me that his men, together with volunteers, have played the role of the stage fence for that event and no one was hurt in a way. "We decided we should sponsor that show and so we actually did! I can't tell you how happy I was at the end of the event as I have seen the way people have actually helped us do our job...actually they have helped as much as we did for the perfect conditions...especially that police denied any help. We have even brought our own paramedical team... the "SOS Medical" are our long-time partners in such cases and I really feel much better knowing they are totally prepared for almost any emergency you might think of. This is the way we do our job and I guess this is why the rock concerts organizers ask more and more for our services; we are specializing in such things as well. I am proud to say that I and the men under my command are the best team for this!", said Mr. Irode.
Before we ended our small discussion, he told me one last thing, the way some metalheads remained stunned as they fell behind the fence and the Bidepa security guards helped them come down, assured they were OK and had not been hurt during the "mosh" and finally, kindly led them aside and allowed them to return to the audience. "Once, some long hair guy stopped me on the street and said What more could I ask for?" added Mr. Irode before he excused himself as duty called.
"Is it loud? If we crank up the volume it will hurt!"
Back behind the stage; in fact I'm on its right side, talking with Mr. Sandu Constantin, the head of the sound reinforcement company, Sincron Music and he looks quite amused by the questions he's hearing from me. After some initial words, he understands that I really need his answers and decides to give them while still being surprised that he sees a press guy interested in gear and logistics more than in "glamour". Mr. Constantin looks with a loving and at the same time proud look at the gear. "What do we have here?" I ask. "Sound and lighting, I mean". "We brought in about 40.000 Watts of sound, but I guess we won't have the chance to go that loud. It will hurt, you know... As for lighting, I'd say officially about 100.000 Watts, but both you and me know it's more," he laughs. "The organizers were very tight in what the stage should be like; they're way younger than I am but they were very strict. Lucky me, I complied with their requests; as a matter of fact, we had some small issues with the technical rider but we managed to set things right", Mr. Constantin added.
"We worked a lot, but without having to go crazy. Seems like we're good, ha-ha."
Altogether, Sincron Music have put up more than 20 hours of work to build the structures and install everything; more than 10 hours have been dedicated to setting up the sound gear. The approximately 40.000 Watts arranged in the now classic hanged array, with 8 mid-high power-boxes on each side of the stage and the bass woofers on the floor in front of it. Onstage, full gear you'd expect at any major gig. One thing was different though! As Mr. Constantin declared, Samael have put him through some hard times as far as lighting was concerned; he told me that for about three hours, both the band and the Sincron Music techs have worked on coloring the moving heads and setting up the proper trajectories they were about to run on.
Much to the band's great satisfaction, things have been solved in a very professional way and the show benefited from a very nice integration of both sound and lighting, exactly the way Samael has become known for. Without breaking any records (as 40kW sound and more than 100kW lights aren't something extreme at all) it's obvious that the Romanian sound reinforcement deserved to be mentioned here: Samael was not by far the first or the only foreign band with high demands in what tech is about. Uriah Heep, the UK classic rock legend, have also gigged in Romania on a Sincron Music stage and they were extremely happy with it. As a matter of fact, Mr. Constantin told me that apart from the usual concerts he's at, he begins to like more and more working with metal bands, especially from abroad, as this is sometimes some sort of testing the capabilities of both gear and professional prep of his men.
Sincron Music has been able to meet the technical requirements of both band and organizers and have deployed a massive amount of gear to the venue. With the kind permission of the Metalfan crew who have provided me with additional technical data regarding the Samael gig, I will reproduce here a small list of what was onstage; Sincron Music came up with a 54 sq.m. stage surface on which a Dynacord Wave PA was set up for a total of 120dB SPL (Sound Pressure Level) with a Midas Heritage 1000 FOH (Front Of House) mixing console. They also brought in a nice backline consisting of 2 Marshall guitar amps (JCM2000 Superlead and JCM800) with 4 Marshall 1960 cabinets, one Ampeg SVT4 PRO bass amp head pumping lows in an Ampeg 8*10 inch cabinet; lighting came from 60 PAR cans and 20 moving heads. From the basic white lights to huge panels for the 2 video projectors Samael used thoroughly during their entire performance, everything went close to perfection so every party involved in this show was happy at the end.
Without being an immense, never-seen-before deployment of both gear and human resources, the Samael gig was one nice piece of show put up by the Romanian crews involved, whether we're speaking about OneEvent, Metalfan, Bidepa Security or Sincron Music; you all know the saying "all is fine when it ends fine". As I was talking with some acquaintances and friends after the gig, there were of course people who claimed that the sound wasn't loud enough or so - fortunately, I know this thing very well, as well as the way some metalheads think (I AM a metalhead myself after all): a metal concert can never be loud enough, should we believe some guys :). I decided to open the EventYou! series with Samael just because the band itself and its music are some things which are rather unique in the showbiz, therefore, I was pretty sure that the concert would be a very interesting one - and it was... you'll see in the third and last part of the Samael EventYou! issue, in a short time.
This last part will consist of exclusive information directly from the organizers, a small interview with the Romanian sound technician and more exclusive content regarding the show. I won't review the proper performance as this isn't by far the purpose of the EventYou! Series; and I just know that those who liked the first EventYou! editorials will appreciate the more technical approach as well as the "hidden" story of events. Having said this, I invite you to check the pictures below and I warmly salute you.
On behalf of Softpedia.com, Florin Tibu, Audio Editor.
Note: All pictures taken by and copyrighted to Lorin Popovici and used with his kind permission.
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