Held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with several segments over at the Orleans Arena, Las Vegas was again overrun by the most loyal fans in music.  People were hanging out everywhere to catch a glimpse and possibly an autograph of their favorite stars.  As in years past, we got to hang out behind the scenes and check in with all of the engineers and A2′s who work so hard to make this show happen.  By we, I mean one of my Shure Associates, Jenn Liang-Chaboud and myself.  Jenn works for Market Development and has done a fabulous job at maintaining many key relationships on the West Coast and in Vegas.

We arrived on Wednesday and made a few visits to some local shows, namely Blue Man Group and the Shania Twain show.   The folks at Blue Man gave us a quick behind the scenes tour, which was amazing.  So much creativity and design goes into the many “out of the box” ideas that they create.

Thursday, April 4 was the first rehearsal day for the awards show.  If you caught the show, you saw the amazing performance by Shure Artist Little Big Town of their new single “Your Side of the Bed.”  Today, they just planned to rehearse the acrobats. The group showed up to watch and ended up singing along with the track.  Karen said to the crew “Please forgive our vocals on this as we have no ear systems.”  They were RIGHT ON PITCH!  Such talent!

Next up was Shure Artist Hunter Hayes rehearsing his new single “I Want Crazy.”  For those of you who don’t know Hunter, he learned and played over 30 instruments on his current album as its sole performer.  Quite a feet and he played them well!  This segment would segue into his introduction of the legendary Stevie Wonder, who would join Hunter and band on stage for “Sir Duke.”  Hunter and Stevie had met previously and discussed performing together one day.  That day would be April 7, 2013.  Hunter uses a UR2/SM58 on tour and that’s what he and Stevie used on the show.

The day closed with the legendary George Strait who, for this performance, also used a UR2/SM58.  He would later be joined by Garth Brooks on stage, who used the same, for a tribute to Dick Clark.

Friday Morning, we headed to the Orleans Arena to visit with Shure Artist Brad Paisley and crew. Brad would be hosting the Fan Jam concert on Sunday after the awards show.  In addition, Brad performed several slots on the show, including with Hunter and Shure Artist Dierks Bentley. Brad and Dierks both sang on a UR2/beta 58.    After that, we headed back to MGM to catch Kelly Clarkson’s rehearsal of her new single “Baby Don’t Rush” – such a great song!

Following Kelly’s rehearsal, co-hosts Blake Shelton and Shure Artist Luke Bryan were joined on stage by the Pistol Annie’s and Shure Artist Sheryl Crow for the show’s opening number called “Boys Round Here.”  Both Luke and Sheryl were on UR2/SM58′s.

Saturday’s rehearsal featured a number of Shure Artists including Dierks Bentley (UR2/SM58), Little Big Town (UR2/KSM9HS), Florida Georgia Line (UR2/SM58), The Band Perry (UR2/KSM9HS and UR2/SM58) and then Hunter Hayes w/Stevie Wonder.

All Artists on the show used the PSM1000 system for ear monitors, which were provided by ATK Audiotek in addition to the UHF-R systems.

Shure Artists that took home awards that night included: Luke Bryan – Entertainer of the Year, Little Big Town – Vocal Group of the Year, and Florida Georgia Line – New Artist of the Year.

This was a fabulous trip and it is always a pleasure to be able to maintain these great relationships and show our support at these events.

Ryan

PSM1000'S

Luke Bryan & DR. Pepper

SM57's on Brad Paisley's cabinets

UHF-R at Orleans Arena

PSM1000 packs

ACMA's from Front of House

Jeff Peterson (FOH), Ryan Smith, and Steve Anderson (Announce Mix)

Brad Paisley at Orleans Arena

Luke Bryan's Kit

…That’s what you hear as the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards go live to air in the packed to capacity Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. However, before all of the applause and packed seats of onlookers, the GRAMMYs go through a rigorous schedule of rehearsal and timed perfection. What you at home see on TV is the result of A LOT of hard work. The madness that is GRAMMY week is bigger than any single concert you’ve been to, and it is where we spent most of last week as things began to take shape for music’s biggest night.

Prior to entering the bowels of the Staples Center, Shure once again sponsored the Producers & Engineers Wing GRAMMY Week Celebration honoring Quincy Jones & Al Schmitt. Hang on… prior to that, we made a stop to In-N-Out Burger in honor of Mr. Mike Lohman, who could not be with us on this trip. It was worth the wait. It was delicious. Why don’t we have this in Chicago? Back to the GRAMMY stuff…

Making our temporary home in Studio B of The Village Recording Complex, Shure served up some fresh seafood and the latest in wired mics and headphones. It was amazing to hear so many stories about Shure mics being used on classic recordings from the engineers and producers in attendance. The Super 55 tree, as we have dubbed it, was a bit of a challenge to construct, but I’m happy to say that it made through the entire evening without incident! Aside from being in such esteemed company, the highlight of the night for me was watching a few very critical ears try on the Shure SRH940 and SRH1840 headphones and be completely blown away! That and the countless offers that were made to purchase the SM7B on site or the questions about it being included in some sort of raffle. Most visitors to Studio B had something positive to say about the sleeper hit that is the SM7B.

Okay, so breakfast at the hotel was not that good and VERY expensive, not doing that again. Never mind that, we were making our way to the tunnel into the madness I referenced (there it is on the left) to join in the fun of rehearsals, day one. By the way, the “we” in question is Ryan Smith, Artist Relations Nashville and Jenn Liang-Chaboud, Market Development Senior Specialist. There is so much that goes into this show and everything is in the same place every year… good thing, as I’m just starting to get this whole thing down. As we arrived to the backstage area, we were called into a meeting with production who were concerned about how much “fun” the band fun. was going to be having on GRAMMY night. The “fun” in question was the rain curtain you all undoubtedly witnessed, where the band, all of their instruments and microphones were all drenched in a rain storm. Of course there was concern that the mics may fail if exposed to that level of water, but we were never all that concerned… that’s how we test this stuff! Aware of production’s concern, we immediately put a few phone calls in to the home office in Chicago to have back up transmitters and capsules sent out the next day (thanks to all of the Shure people who came through in the clutch)! Needless to say, we never needed back ups. Those mics you saw on Sunday night were the same mics from rehearsal and dress rehearsal… that’s multiple rain storms!

Making our way around the arena, we found some familiar faces in Mike Parker and Tom Pisa working stage left and stage right respectively. We were also happy to see some familiar product in place as the exclusive in ear monitor system for all artists performing at the GRAMMYs. Twenty-four channels of Shure’s PSM 1000 was once again the preferred choice by production and most of the artists that performed this year. Rehearsals did not begin until about 1:30 pm on day one, so it gave us some time to catch up with everyone and provide them a little Shure swag in the meantime. It actually got cold there in California… nothing like what Chicago was going through, but even a hooded sweatshirt (this year’s swag item) struggled to keep me warm. I did refuse to opt for the winter coat stashed back at the hotel… I’m from the midwest and way too many people would be a little upset and quite possibly revoke my man card if I was discovered wearing a winter coat in California.

So anyway, as the rehearsals moved into full swing, lots of Shure mics were in some pretty important positions on stage. It was nice to see the KSM313 on the guitar amps of the Lumineers and Jack White, that’s quickly becoming everyone’s favorite mic for guitar amp… it looks pretty sweet, too! On vocals you saw Taylor Swift on an Axient Wireless System with a Beta 58, fun. on UHF-R Wireless with Beta 58s, Mumford & Sons on Beta 58As, Justin Timberlake & Jay-Z on UHF-R Wireless with SM58s… a last minute vocal mic change put Justin on a Shure mic for the evening and I thought he sounded pretty damn good on it too! Adam Levine from Maroon 5 was on a UHF-R with a Beta 58 when he joined Alicia Keys onstage, The Black Keys rocked on their SM58s. Kelly Clarkson brought the house down on an SM58! The Lumineers had everyone singing along on SM58s. Jack White tore up the stage while on an SM58. The Levon Helm tribute featured amongst others, Mavis Staples on a UHF-R SM58, Brittany Howard on a UHF-R SM58 and Mumford & Sons on UHF-R SM58s. Juanes sounded amazing on a UHF-R KSM9 and Frank Ocean debuted a new track on a UHF-R SM58. The night ended with two hip-hop icons blazing up the stage as LL Cool J and Chuck D performed on UHF-R SM58s.

All in all, a pretty good selection of Shure mics helped to provide the audio on music’s biggest night!  I would also like to mention the big win by Shure endorsers Mumford & Sons for Album of the Year, fun. for Best New Artist and Song of the Year, and The Black Keys for Best Rock Song, Best Rock Album and Best Rock Performance.

So, things are kind of normal around here now, but I would be lying to you if I said I haven’t started thinking about next year!

Rock Out!
Cory

Although, my first task when I showed up on Sunday morning for rehearsals was to try and solve a feature issue with our PSM1000 system.  Monitor Engineer Mike Parker had accessed a certain menu to take advantage of some of the “special features” of the system but could not get the unit back into it’s regular operating mode after doing so.  I called up to Shure HQ’s on Monday morning and a few emails later we had the solution.  I find it exciting to learn something new every single day!

As in the past, ATK Audiotek provided over 20 channels of UHF-R wireless systems for both vocals and instrument packs.  They also sent a rack of the aforementioned PSM1000 systems for monitors.    Shure Artists that appeared on the show this year included Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, LeAnn Rimes, and one of the shows hosts Trace Adkins, who performed alongside Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Mixing the music for the show was Randy Faustino and sending it all out to the public was production engineer Klaus Landsberg.  FOH for the venue was Mikel Stewart with ATK Audiotek.

Shure Artist Luke Bryan took home 9 awards that evening and Little Big Town brought home the Video of the Year award.  Congratulations to all of the artists that were nominated and those who won.

Ryan

Not only this, our PSM1000 system was exclusively relied upon for all wireless ear monitor mixes. 16 mixes and over 50 belt packs were used for all of the acts.

Shure artists Brad Paisley, Luke Bryan, The Band Perry, Dierks Bentley, Vince Gill, and Little Big Town all used the UR system with various capsules.

Speaking of Little Big Town, a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to them for winning Single of the Year for “Pontoon” and finally getting the award they have been working towards for 13 years, Vocal Group of the Year!

Other artists that used Shure UR handheld transmitters included Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Willie Nelson, Eli Young Band, Taylor Swift, Hunter Hayes (who won Best New Artist), Brantley Gilbert, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Kelly Clarkson, and Carrie Underwood.

As usual, I was able to attend both rehearsal and the show to hang with the crews and the greet the artists.  I was also pleased to have fellow Shure Associate Bill Ostry visiting from our Market Development team. It’s always a pleasure to have Associates come down to visit and get a taste of all of the action in Nashville.

There are plenty of YouTube videos of the performances from the show online.  Check out them all out, including a very special duet with Kelly Clarkson and Vince Gill.

Ryan

I love doing artist interviews.  It’s not just sitting down and picking the brains of our endorsers that I find engaging.  In a way, it’s a bit like doing live sound.  We Artist Relations guys often function as interviewer, camera operator, and audio engineer when we go out and shoot interviews.  There is a rush in getting everything set up quickly and making sure it all looks and sounds decent for those ten to fifteen minutes you’re hosting artists. It has been a learning process for me – much of what I’ve come to know has been through trial and error.  Like live sound we have our good and bad days.  Fortunately we’ve gotten some new production tools that have made things easy.

Shure has added quite a few broadcast production tools in the last two years and it’s been fun for me to get to know them in this capacity.  They’ve sure made my job easier.   Here’s a rundown on the gear we take to the gigs.

Mics:

VP89M medium shotgun

RPM89S short shotgun cartridge

WL51B or MX150 lavalier mic

A dynamic mic – SM57, SM58, or Beta57A

My first go-to for a mic is the VP89M.  I just love it.  I’ll engage the low-frequency roll-off because we’re working with human voices.  The mic sits in the A89M-PG pistol grip mount, made by Rycote.  In the event we find ourselves in a small space where I’m very near multiple subjects I will swap out the medium shotgun tube for the short one.  This gives a wider pickup pattern.  Lavalier mics come in handy for very noisy environments.  Some on our team prefer them over the shotgun mic.  I’ll use them if I have to, but I’ve had interviews where some unpredictable element has caused me headaches.  People move lapels, scratch necks, shake their heads vigorously, wear noisy jewelry…trying to plan for those unknowns takes time I’d rather spend getting to know the interviewee, conversing, finding a good starting point for the interview.   Of course, the most dead-simple thing to do is put the UR3 plug-on transmitter right in to the back of a mic, and for that having a dynamic mic is handy.  However, it is really only for single subject interviews and, like the lavalier, I’m dependent on the subject’s behavior.

Wireless:

UR3 plug-on transmitter

UR5 portable diversity receiver

UR1 or UR1M bodypack transmitter

Most of the time I’m using the UR3 and the UR5 together.  The UR3 fits right at the bottom of the A89M-PG pistol grip holding the VP89M shotgun mic.  The UR5 has a shoe mount and fits our HD DV video camera and our photographer’s DSLR for when he’s shooting video.  The best practice is to turn on the UR3 with the RF off.   We do an on-site scan with the UR5 receiver to find an open frequency, then sync the transmitter and turn the transmitter’s RF on.  This is to avoid stepping on anything that the show might be using at the moment.  In the event we prefer to use lavalier mics, we’ll have a bodypack transmitter in the kit.

Monitoring:

SE earphones (interviewer’s preference)

SRH240A or SRH440

If I’m flying solo I’ll just do my monitoring from the camera with my SE425-CL earphones.  I use those most of the time.  We also have a set of SE315-K earphones in the kit in the event that we left our personal earphones at home.  Earphones are not for everybody, so if we’re going to have Paul Natkin shoot the interviews on his DSLR we know to bring some headphones.  Those are usually SRH240A or SRH440.  Those take up much more space in an audio kit than earphones though.

The goal is to be set up and ready to go inside of five minutes if need-be.  The options available in our audio kit have been honed over time, though I expect that new situations will cause further changes over time.  Right now the main concerns are finding some place with decent lighting, enough space to get a tripod set up, and an area where the artist will be comfortable.  That’s very important.  If you’re going to go for great lighting but there is no place to sit or elbow room to move it’s likely that information sought will be in shorter supply.  I try to remain empathetic and listen for a natural point to start and end the interview.  Having the tools to execute the technical side of the interview without too much effort allow for the human side to show itself.  Hopefully that’s reflected in the finished interview.

Richard

Fans of metal will know that recent circumstances involving Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe had led to the cancelation of their highly anticipated tour.  It wasn’t just Lamb Of God that had people excited; the line-up was to include the live version of Dethklok, the animated band from Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse, and Gojira, one of the best up-and-coming metal bands in the world.  I’m a bit opinionated when I say this, of course.  They’re new Shure endorsers.

Gojira are not exactly a new band.  They originally formed in the mid-1990s under the name Godzilla, changing it in 2001.  Their star has been rising for years, gaining fans globally over time.  With the release of L’Enfant Sauvage this Summer, big things seem to be ahead.  The unfortunate cancellation of the LoG/Dethklok/Gojira tour is bad timing.  However, they wasted no time in booking a smaller run upon receiving the bad news.  I got a call asking about borrowing some wireless – UHF-R – for the make-up dates here in the States.  I also got the good news that they’d be coming to Chicago to play at the Bottom Lounge.  Score.

I made my way to the venue last Thursday to meet up with Paul Natkin, our photographer, so we could shoot some posed shots and a bit of the sound check before the show.  It was my first time meeting anyone from the band beyond a voice on the phone.  We called up the tour manager, Taylor, who ran out to get us.  As soon as we were inside he introduced us to brothers Joe and Mario Duplantier (guitar/vocals and drums, respectively).  The two guys were warm and welcoming – always a good sign when meeting endorsers for the first time.  We chatted about the gear they were using since the onset of their endorsement deal for a bit before lead guitarist Christian Andreu came over.  Bassist Jean-Michel Labadie eventually joined us and we made our way outside to shoot some posed photos against the backdrop of Chicago’s El tracks.  Fans had been around the venue doors noticed us and gave a rousing cheer.  The guys were gracious in acknowledging them – a good sign for career longevity in this day and age.

We sat inside for sound check as the band’s FOH engineer meticulously ran through each channel.  Paul snapped a few pics as I checked out their wireless set-ups, looking to make sure there was no RF overload on the receivers.  They are using SM58 for vocals, SM57s for the cabinets, SM81s on the cymbals and hats, and the instrument wireless (as mentioned above) was our UHF-R.  The band wrapped up and Paul and I made our way to the venue’s restaurant for some digs.  As we ate I noticed the restaurant portion was considerably more crowded than I had anticipated.  I had suspected that the show might not have done as well as all would have liked; they did manage to book it only days prior.  We finished up and went in to the venue to listen to opener Car Bomb, a grindcore/mathcore band from NY.  The room was fairly full at this point.  My initial suspicion about attendance was definitely wrong.

By the time Gojira took the stage it was getting difficult to move around.  I found myself considerably closer to the pit than I had been in years, though I didn’t mind as much as someone wearing glasses probably should.  The band started; people bumped their way past me in a rush to get to the pit; the room erupted in raised fists and horned hands.

“I was in the crowd for Car Bomb.  I love those guys.  Anyway, I noticed something – it looks like a lot of guys here are in their thirties.  Is that true?”  Joe asked.  “How many people own a car?”  Hands around me go up.  “How many people have a mortgage?”  Similar show of hands.  “It’s all the people in the back!  How about the kids?  Are there kids here?!?”  The entire front half of the audience erupted in cheers.  Yeah, OK, I’m not as young as I once was.  But I find consolation in the fact that there were plenty of young fans up front for a band like this.

Here’s hoping for a return to Chicago in the early part of 2013.  I’m looking forward to interviewing them.

Richard

@Richard_ShureAR

It was our honor to have System Of A Down as our Featured Artist of the Month for August.  We gave two tickets each to the last two shows of the tour – Detroit and Chicago.  I went down to the Chicago show to see their last performance of the tour.  I arrived and met both Chad Olech (Front of House, Deftones), whom I have known for years, and Pasi Hara (Monitors, SOAD), whom I had met previously; we walked through the backstage areas to the side-stage where Pasi had his desk set up, ready for sound check.

System Of A Down are heavy wireless users.  There are three channels of UHF-R for each Shavo (bass), Daron (guitar), and Serj (guitar) as well as Serj’s vocal channels (also UHF-R with Beta 58A mic elements).  Feeding the band, engineers, and techs their mixes are eight channels of PSM® 1000 with a PA821 antenna combiner and PWS’s HA-8089 helical antenna.  Pasi had connected everything via a 16-port Ethernet switch to his MacBook and administered the gear, held in various racks, with Wireless Workbench 6.  We geeked out a bit over the scans of the radio frequency environments; Chicago has an astonishingly crowded UHF-band.  In spite of the multitude of strong TV channels and random other radios in the Allstate Arena, everything was working and ready.

Sound check happened very quickly.  Pasi and I temporarily parted ways – he to the backstage area as I went to join Chad at the FOH position for the Deftones’ check.  He ran a few tracks recorded the previous night through the PA initially, soon joined by the band.  The empty arena reverberated as sound bounced off concrete and hard plastic seats where hours later the crowd would keep those waves all to themselves.

Deftones are also using PSM 1000.  They’re the first band I look after to use ULX-D.  Chino’s usual weapon of choice is a wired Beta 58A, taped in similar fashion to one of Roger Daltrey’s famous SM58s, though Chino’s moves can be considerably more chaotic than Daltrey’s famous circles.  The wireless version comes out when a mic on a stand is needed, ironically.  This is to minimize the liability of tripping on a cable bringing the mic and stand on and off stage.

At one point I was handed a P10R tuned to Chino’s monitor mix.  I popped in my earphones and went for a walk.  I made it through the crowd and around the circumference of the floor of the arena, then behind the stage without a single dropout.  All this was off a single, directional passive antenna aimed at the stage.  I am, of course, biased in my opinion of those units, but I thought that rather impressive performance for in-ear monitors.  Also, listening to their mix while seeing the show from the different perspectives added a sort of surreal quality to the show.  Earphones or no, the band brought it.

System Of A Down had not been through Chicago in years, which, as a fan, is not OK.  However, they brought it with a jaw-dropping set of 26 songs.  The lights went out and the set opened with the instantly recognizable staccato notes of “Prison Song”.  As the billowing shroud fell from the stage the audience turned frenetic.  As the saying goes, “all killer, no filler”.  During Suite-Pee Chino Moreno jumped up on stage to duet with Serj Tankian.  Drummer John Dolmayan was flanked by Abe Cunningham on his right and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante on the left.  System closed the set with “Sugar”.

After the gig was over I was able to meet up with Serj and geek out a bit over our ribbon mics.  He has been loving the KSM313 on the top end of his grand piano.  We covered a few other topics, including music distribution these days, before the aftershow crowd needed his attention.  I made my way to the crew bus to catch up with Pasi and Chad before heading out.

Richard

@Richard_ShureAR

This years’ CMT Music Awards was held at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Wednesday, June 6.  Shure pitched in a healthy supply of wired mics to be used on the show and Clair Nashville brought in the wireless systems.  Endorsers Luke Bryan, The Band Perry, Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town, and Brad Paisley all used Shure UHF-R wireless systems with various capsules for their performances.   Other artists who used Shure included Zac Brown Band, Toby Keith, and Kenny Chesney.

I brought in a pair of SRH750DJ headphones for monitor engineer Jason Spence to try out and he was very impressed with their response.  I also caught Brad Paisley backstage and he commented that he’s been loving his amp sound lately with just pair’s of SM57′s on them.

Little Big Town performed their new smash hit “Pontoon” on top of a real Pontoon, complete with a slide off the back and plenty of folks on board having a good time being on national television (See pictures below)

The end of show performance featured Rascal Flatts singing their latest “Banjo” with a quick segue into Journey singing their trademark “Don’t Stop Believing.” The entire audience were on their feet!  A great way to end a great show.

However, that was not the end to my week.  The CMA Music Fest would carry me through the weekend.  (Stand by, I’m going to bring you that blog right after these messages…..)

Ryan

Wireless World

Rascal Flatts and Journey backstage

Jason Spence

Little Big Town

Loading The Stage

My Creds

Red Solo Cup

The Stage

Outside the Arena

Meshuggah at the House of Blues on May 15, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Paul Natkin/WireImage)

I very much revere Meshuggah.  I’m not alone in that opinion.  If you are a fan of metal you will know that, love them or not, they are the best at what they do, period.  Virtuosic performance dresses a primal foundation.  Fans are just as likely to count out polyrhythmic elements as they are to headbang when listening to their music.

I had the opportunity to see them one other time to date.  It was in 2002 and the band was opening for Tool.  The arena in Madison, WI sat about 8,000.  It was big enough to ruin the performance with ambiance.  When you play as fast and as tight as they, reverb and reflection are not your friends.  I was thrilled then, to know that I was going to see them in Chicago’s House of Blues.

I sat down for an interview with guitarist Mårten Hagström and vocalist Jens Kidman prior to the show.  It was interesting to learn that, for as loud as they are in concert, there is almost no stage volume.  The guitars and bass are all handled by Fractal Audio boxes, leaving the drums and Jens’s vocals the only real volume on stage.  You would only know this from standing on the side of the stage though.  From out front, you needed earplugs…as much as I didn’t want them.  Shure’s part in the story?  Drums.  Vocals.  In-ears.  Mårten and Jens both professed to be fans of the SM7B.  Mårten used his in pre-production and demoing.  Jens hand-held his mic as he laid down vocal tracks for the record.  Playing live, his weapon of choice is the Beta 58A on a UHF-R wireless.  The band use PSM®900 with SE425-CL earphones, excepting drummer Tomas Haake, who uses the PSM 600 hardwired body pack.

Meshuggah at the House of Blues on May 15, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Paul Natkin/WireImage)

For showtime I was set up with a P9R body pack receiver in CueMode with every mix programmed in to it.  I mostly watched at the side of the stage where I was able to select each band member’s personal mix at a whim.  Just for fun (and to take the opportunity to go listen from the house) I went strolling out to the main room with my earphones in and the pack on.  I stopped behind the FOH board for a quick listen without the earphones, then continued on through the venue.  I had a few RF dropouts in the very back of the venue and in some of the concrete stairwells backstage – six in total.  It was amazing considering the band was using a directional paddle antenna which only had the stage in its line of sight.  Those few hits aside, I could hear their mixes everywhere in the venue through the pack.

The only place I didn’t dare go to test was in the middle of the floor.  Our gear can take some abuse, but the energy coming from the stage was driving the most prime real estate of the room in to a frenzied pit.  Cathartic it may have been, but I value my earphones enough to not have them ripped from my head and stomped to pieces.

Jens, Fredrik Thordendal, Mårten, and bassist Dick Lövgren delivered their punishing set from the very front of the stage, as if to drive home the listening experience through their physical presence.  From the back Tomas played faster and with more precision than one would suspect is humanly possible. The set started with “Demiurge” from their new album, Koloss.  Throughout the set were more from the album, along with fan-favorites like “Future Breed Machine” and “Combustion”.  As they launched in to one of their most ambitious and well-known tracks, “Bleed” (obZen, 2008), I dialed in Tomas’s mix.  If you’re a drummer, you might know what that means.

If you are a fan of metal, put this band on your bucket list.

Richard

On Nigel Tufnel Day they had a fresh album, The Hunter.  It’s not like its predecessors, which were conceptual in nature.  This album is more of a collection of very strong songs.  It may not tell a direct story, like Crack the Skye, the album that came before it, but if you have been hesitant to pick it up based on the fact that you’ve heard it is different, don’t avoid it: it’s worth the investment.  Quick divergence over, let’s get back to the show.

Six months in to touring on this last album, the band’s show was as tight as I’ve ever seen.  Rob Lightner, Front Of House engineer, really knocked it out in his return trip to Chicago’s Riv Theatre.  I made sure to grab a spot at FOH to start things out, then eventually moved upstairs to catch the rest of the show from the balcony level.

My balcony view

Note to fans wanting to grab floor space when they come to town: be prepared for intense and inspired pits.  Especially during classics like “Blood and Thunder”, which has electrified every crowd in every room every time I’ve seen it played (this is probably my eighth Masto show).

Afterward I went out with some of the production guys to discuss moving from wedges to in-ears, mic selection, and some of the challenges they face dealing with a stage that loud every night.  The band has been using UHF-R for their instrument wireless for years.

You can find upcoming tour dates at http://www.mastodonrocks.com/tour.

Richard

A couple of exciting aspects of this years’ show included the fact that PSM1000′s were relied upon as the only system for ear monitors and Shure’s new Axient wireless system made 2 appearances on the show.  The first was with artist Chris Young and then later in the show with Shure Artist Sara Evans.  Both artists used the SM58 capsule and the system sounded incredibly clean.

One emotional point during the show was when Shure Artists Little Big Town sang a song with a children’s choir written by newcomer Hunter Hayes entitled “Here’s Hope.” The group started and ended with verses from John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Another magic moment came in the form of an actual wedding ceremony, performed during the song “Marry Me” sung by Shure Artist Martina McBride who was accompanied by Pat Monahan of Train.

Rascal Flatts debuted their new hit single “Banjo”, joined by Steve Martin whose banjo was captured using a KSM137.  Toby Keith brought out his “Red Solo Cup” for Vegas and sang while wandering through the crowd, joined by the one and only Wayne Newton and comedian Carrot Top. The Band Perry debuted their new single “Postcard from Paris” singing on a trio of KSM9′s.

Another big highlight for me was when KISS walked by backstage, a couple of times.  They were there to present the award for Vocal Group of the Year.  I grew up listening to these Rock Icons and to see them that close was pretty awesome.

The crew for the show worked extra hard this year as they were rehearsing 2 shows at once.  The next day after the awards show was a special concert – Lionel Richie and Friends – to be broadcast later this month.  It’s always a pleasure hanging with this crew as they are so professional and offer great advice/commentary on current and future products.

Click on this link to see some highlights of the show and all the Shure products in action.

There are so many elements that contribute to putting on an awards show like the GRAMMYs.  To list every aspect would take too long so we’re going to focus on our side of this trip.

As everything usually comes together at the last minute for this show, we sent out a nice compliment of Shure mics to supplement what sound company ATK Audiotek already had in stock. Appearing for the first time on this show was the Beta 181/C condenser mic. We sent 20 of those and saw several get used on tympani (The Beach Boys) and occasionally on drum overheads. We also sent a few of the KSM313 ribbon mics, one of which prominently appeared on John Paul White’s guitar amp during The Civil Wars short but very effective performance in the show.

We were also very pleased to learn early on that the PSM1000 ear monitor systems would be the exclusive system for the show this year. There were plenty of bodypacks on hand for the performers and many of the crew people made a point to let us know how well the system was working for them.

Watching the rehearsal and then the performances over the course of 4 days, there were many highlights for us that sounded amazing in the house, thanks to both Jeff Peterson who finely tuned the PA and Ron Reeves who mixes the acts so well.  The Beach Boys segment featuring Maroon 5 and Foster The People was quite a thrill to hear live in the house. Each group nailed the original harmonies, it was one of the highlights of the evening. The other was seeing The Civil Wars perform on this broadcast. They have quickly become a respected group that continues to impress well-established artists like Adele, Taylor Swift and now Coldplay, who Tweeted that they are now fans of the group.

The Glen Campbell tribute featured newly signed artists The Band Perry who sang “Gentle On My Mind.” It was great to see Glen having so much fun on stage in light of his ongoing battle with Alzheimer’s.

It was especially gratifying to have the industry standard SM58 open this years’ show in front of Bruce Springsteen and then have Sir Paul McCartney close the show on a wired Beta 58A. You can’t get more Rock and Roll than that!

Seeing the same crew that has been doing this successfully for so many years is always a wonderful part of this trip. Maintaining those relationships and letting them know we are there for support is a vital part of attending this show as well as talking with them about our products. There were a lot of people who have not had the opportunity to try the PSM1000’s out. Thanks to ATK Audiotek and the monitor engineers for this show, Mike Parker and Tom Pesa, over 20 acts were exposed to the new standard in monitoring.

Special thanks go out to Michael Abbott who is the audio coordinator for the show, John  Harris and Joel Singer with Music Mix Moblie, who take care of the music mix that goes out to television and Eric Schilling who shares music mix duties with John Harris. This years’ show was monumental in size and every year, it just keeps getting better and better!

- Ryan, Cory and Jenn