ADLIB Supplies LCD Soundsystem

adlib-lcd-soundsystem-46930024v2a.jpg

Liverpool UK based sound and lighting rental company ADLIB continues a busy Spring-into-Summer supplying full technical production and crew for the recent LCD Soundsystem UK and European tour.

ADLIB has worked with the band's FOH sound engineer Steve Revitte before, most recently on Hot Chip, and he was instrumental in getting them back onboard for LCD along with Tour Manager Mark Duston.

Sound

ADLIB supplied a complete monitor system and consoles for the entire tour, which picked up racks-and-stacks throughout Europe. In the UK, they supplied a full PA for the larger venues and then, when possible, hooked into those with good house speaker systems like the Academies. Richy Nicholson was the ADLIB systems engineer for the full tour, joined by Otto Kroymann for the UK leg.

The FOH console was a DigiDesign Venue, Revitte's desk of choice, on which he utilised all the onboard FX and plug-ins. The monitor console was a DigiDesign profile, spec'd by monitor engineer Christina Moon, who again took full advantage of all the onboard processing and effects.

The band were all on wedges - they had been using d&b M2s whilst rehearsing in New York, and so ADLIB provided 12 of these, plus D&B sidefills, consisting of 2 C4-Sub and 2 C7 Tops per side. These were stacked up on cases for extra height.

The band carried their own complete set of mics - primarily Sennheiser and Shure, so ADLIB supplied a package for opening act, Yacht. LCD lead singer James Murphy uses a Sennheiser 409 mic, more commonly used on guitars, but he particularly likes the sound of it.

Murphy is also a prolific music producer and a studio engineer, so knows what he wants from a sound system ... "He's very precise in terms of what he wants each day but in a really nice way," says Richy Nicholson, adding that the general chilled & pleasant vibe of the tour, also the fact that the band & crew are all accomplished professionals, made it an exceptionally nice working environment.

The band also DJ, so it's tight for space on stage, and they like it pumping as well as the continuity of kit being in the same place each day explains Nicholson, which meant applying a bit of imagination for some of the smaller stages in Europe.

For the shows where ADLIB were supplying racks-and-stacks, Revitte went for a JBL VerTec system, mainly because of its great flexibility as a flown, a ground stacked or a combined system. It was also the system used previously with Hot Chip last year. Ten VT4889 elements made up the main arrays for Brixton, with 6 x VT4880A subs per side.

These were driven by a mix of Camco Vortex 6 amps for the main 4889s and Labgruppen PLM14000s for the subs, together with one of ADLIB's standard Lake DLP racks to deal with EQ and crossovers. The Lake rack stayed on for the whole tour for general FOH EQ on the various house systems.

Lighting

ADLIB's Charlie Rushton and Neil Holloway looked after the lighting for Kansas City, Missouri based LD Eric Cathcart, whose rig was a mix of conventionals and moving lights based around 2 x 40ft trusses - front and back.

The back truss contained 3 bars of 6 PARs, 6 x Martin Professional MAC 700 Spots, 4 MAC 700 Washes and 10 x 2-lite Moles. The front truss had 4 bars of 6, 7 x ETC source Four Zoom 25 - 50 profiles for key lighting and 4 Atomic strobes facing into the audience.

The floor package consisted of 7 upright sections of 6 foot scaff on floor bases arranged in an arc behind the backline. Each of these had a 2-lite Mole on top, and they were all braced together by scaff pipes onto which 12 Sun Strips were attached at different heights, giving a sort of a deconstructed matrix effect.

Each lamp of the Sun Strips was individually gelled in double CT blue Lee 200 no colour and Lee 204 full CTO which created a richly textured white effect. The PARs were also gelled in the same 3 shades of white, and the moving lights were used for colour.

Also on the floor were 8 MAC 700 washes and 4 MAC 700 Profiles. The Washes were positioned just behind the scaff uprights uplighting a white cyc, while the profiles were just in front of the scaff, for back lighting and creating beam effects shooting through the band!

Topping the side fills - always a handy position for lights - were 2 x MAC 2K profiles per side, which were great for blasting strong cross washes right across the stage. These were also fitted with custom gobos before leaving ADLIB's workshop, so they could project sun and moon scenes on the cyc.

A 1 metre mirror ball was outrigged off the front truss - towards the audience. This was also targeted by the side MAC 2Ks, sending fragmented shards of light streaming right across the audience.

Cathcart provided 6 of his own Chauvet lasers, 3 positioned at the back of the stage and 3 at FOH, which were used during the band's instantly recognisable anthemic hit, "Yeah".

ADLIB also supplied atmospherics in the form of a Unique 2.1 hazer, upstage right and 2 Gem ZR33 smokers, placed downstage both sides, facing the audience to engulf the room for the lasers, complete with an AF1000 fan for dispersion.

Cathcart specified a grandMA light for control, and the dimmers were 2 Avo T4s and a T2.

Once the UK section was completed, the full floor package went to Europe, along with the back truss 2-lites and the mirror ball.

TM Mark Duston stated, "Adlib have proved themselves again and again as one of the best touring vendors in the world. The professionalism and support as well as their drive to do whatever it takes to make our production more fluid and hassle free has been second to none. We will be working with Adlib for a long time to come."

Steve Revitte added that “the Adlib crew not only made the tour possible but highly enjoyable”.

For more press info. on ADLIB, please contact Louise Stickland on +44 (0)1865 202679 or +44 (0)7831 329888, or Email ‘[email protected]', Contact ADLIB direct on +44 (0)151 486 2214 or check www.adlibsolutions.co.uk