FIREAID & Nirvana

How amazing to see!! Nirvana reunited for FIREAID to benefit those affected by the fires in Los Angeles. With Dave Grohl on drums, Pat Smear on lead guitar, and Krist Novoselic on bass, the band was rounded out by a rotating cast of female vocalists filling Kurt Cobain’s role. First up was "Breed" and guest vocalist St. Vincent; the band put on a powerful performance showcasing her chops on the guitar. She wailed and wailed like Kurt could do! Vincent had sound issues from the start—her microphone was dead as she began singing. She tapped her right ear repeatedly, signaling that her in-ear monitor wasn’t working correctly. As I have many decades of experience as an audio engineer, this experience is relatively common in a festival situation where the bands are rotating every hour. I will go into detail in a later section with a critique and general issues that arise.

Next up, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth fame steps up to nail "School" with Nirvana. The band nails the song School with plenty of the grit and angst the song always has. Her performance was spot on with the sound dialed in even if her vocal was a tad low for my engineer ears. She stays on stage for the next two songs, playing guitar and bass on different songs. Right behind her was Joan Jett, and she also had issues with her in-ear monitor with her tapping on her ear. That is a long-held code to the Front of House Engineer that the monitor is low or dead. Joan, like a pro, rolled right through it with minimal signs of issues. She rocked it even if her voice was wrecked from years of rock. My hat's off to anyone still rocking with vocal damage as the '80s rockers do as they age out. Bless your souls.

To close out this surprise reunion was the 18-year-old daughter of Dave, Violet Grohl, with the massive hit "All Apologies." This was a very touching performance with no technical issues to speak of. Violet does have the ability to sing, and I hope she has a beautiful career lifting people up. She is rock royalty, and the doors will open if she chases music as her life depends on it. That's how it has always been done; it is a job that will make or break you. As exciting as the reunion was, the production side had its share of struggles—something all audio engineers know too well.

I have watched much of the FIREAID benefit concert, and like many festival setups like this, there are issues. Let me explain some details of the insane world of Rock festivals. One of the first issues will be the huge number of audio inputs required today. After some research on modern tours, I have confirmed they are common and need 100 or more audio inputs. Today, there are 16+ mics on the drum kit alone on a straight rock kit. The guitar and bass amps will have two mics each and often a direct nonamp signal as well. The keys in the band will typically be stereo channels and not just one instrument, often 3 or 4. My total so far is 36 with no vocals, no backing tracks for synth sound, and no video/audio tracks for intro/fill/outro. With that list in mind, realize that it is one band! So, how do we flip this all for the next act? Well, there is not much choice. You swap mics around to the next setup. The Grammys are very much rehearsed and planned out very well. Bonaroo puts hours between acts for a strike and set while another stage is performing. It was obvious to me that FIRE AIDS was not well planned. The many issues with in-ear monitors indicate there was not a dedicated monitor engineer on stage. That appeared to be the biggest issue, which was the lack or poor training of the monitor tech. There were also many issues with vocal mics being too low or not working at all. This could be a simple case of human error (or as we jokingly call it in the industry, an I.D.10.T. error). Another possibility is that the noise gates were set too high, preventing the mic from activating properly in the main mix. In the end, I feel for the FOH and Monitor Engineers. They had a bad day, for sure!

Kris Robertson

I.D.1.0.T. = Idiot :-)