American Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys made history on Friday, May 29 during their free live streaming concert, Streaming Outta Fenway, presented by Pega, as the first music event without an in-person audience at a major U.S. venue, and the first-ever music performance directly on the baseball diamond at Boston’s famous Fenway Park.
“We’ve had a lot of great experiences with Dropkick Murphys but this event was special because it was a first on multiple levels,” notes Josh Adams, avid baseball fan and president, producer, and director for live production company, Mindpool Live, which has directed two Dropkick Murphys concert films. “The band being the only ones on the field…it was a shrine to baseball. It was a legendary event in a legendary place where critical events have happened in sports history. To be able to put them right in the middle and present them in that space was incredible.”
Since COVID-19 halted the live entertainment industry earlier in the year, Dropkick Murphys did not perform for an in-person audience on St. Patrick’s Day for the first time in 24 years. Instead, the band launched its first holiday live stream concert, Streaming Up From Boston. Since its success, Mindpool had been in discussions with the band to realize the momentous Streaming Outta Fenway. However, with the novel coronavirus changing the situation daily, plans were not solidified until 10-14 days before the event, which meant a quick turnaround with a skeleton crew.
“Jeff Castelaz, Dropkick Murphys’ manager at Cast, and their director of touring, Chris Phillips, were integral in making this happen,” merits Adams. “The Red Sox were also a really good partner in this production. They had a point-person that helped us identify areas within the park and set up a health and safety system.”
Social distancing was imperative, and an elaborate system of navigating the stadium during load-in and production was necessary. The collaborators established three set of groups: the Dropkick Murphys crew, the Fenway Park crew, and the Mindpool crew. Temperatures were taken upon arrival. Every person answered a daily questionnaire that covered everything from whether or not that person was experiencing any symptoms to whether or not they had been recently exposed to anyone with the virus. Everyone had an identification color on their pass to display who they were and what team they were on. Teams had exclusive access to certain facilities. Every team had its own designated bathroom within the stadium. “The precautionary steps must have worked since as far as I know, everyone was still happy and healthy post-show,” says Adams.
While load-in took longer due to the intricate health and safety procedures, Mindpool loaded less equipment thanks to the Fenway crew. There were twelve cameras total: six robotic cameras, two live drones, and four cameras supplied and operated by Fenway staff. “Jamieson Filip, our PM and tech manager, worked with me to check all the angles and place the cameras to capture the band while keeping everyone socially distanced,” explains Adams. “We were able to maximize the band’s stage as well as show off the stadium without focusing too much on the empty seats. I think we did a good job of that. Fenway’s in-house production team was very helpful.”
The concert streamed concurrently across Dropkick Murphys’ Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch accounts as well as SiriusXM’s E Street Radio channel, RedSox.com, MLB.com, NESN.com, USO, Vulture, and more. For such a dynamic and diverse distribution of the streamed concert, Mindpool partnered with Brightcove to deliver the content across multiple platforms. “Brightcove ensures that no matter what device you’re using, the stream is optimized for that device. The distribution was solid, and their coordination spot on,” compliments Adams.
“We used Fenway’s switcher, but the transmission came out of our flypack, since we have a really scalable system. We used the house connection, a LiveU wireless backup, and a redundant house connection with three feeds coming up from the ballpark, where we could jump from one to another,” he adds.
Brightcove simplified the streaming so well that Mindpool Live’s technical producer, Jamieson Filip, never left home. “It turned out to be a good thing since there had to be so much coordination off site, and in that position, it didn’t matter where he was,” notes Adams.
Boston had an advisory curfew of 9 p.m. at the time, so the teams decided to start the concert at 6:00 p.m. in order to wrap up around 8:30 p.m. This meant that the cameras and lighting had to be balanced against the changing shadows as the sun set over the course of the show. Fenway Park’s stadium lights illuminated the venue throughout the concert. Working remotely, Jamieson created a time-of-day sequence in Vectorworks to ensure that the stadium lights remained balanced as the sun set. “He used a general idea of where the shadows were going to be by checking it virtually and having employees share pictures from certain times of day,” says Adams.
“As the sun went down and all the stadium lights were on, it felt like we were seeing what everybody’s been missing lately…a real, live show. The stadium lights looked pretty cool. They were doing a lot more work in the beginning than perhaps it looked like they were. They filled in all the shadows and helped balance out the contrast in the background. The stadium lights were so helpful to light for an at-home audience.”
Mindpool supplied LED video panels to line the edges of the drum riser. “It wasn’t a huge installation, but it was definitely impactful as it was the only LED source on the field,” says Adams. Chet Miller handled all the broadcast content playback with QLab. Band production manager, Greg “Grizz” Middleton, handled the LED video playback.
“As a producer and director, I strive to maintain an artist’s authenticity. I am lucky enough to work with artists who are as authentic as it can get,” Adams comments. “The Dropkick Murphy’s – they are what they are. And if you present that in a way that is authentic to them, you’re going to have some happy viewers.”
Streaming Outta Fenway has been viewed over 9 million times worldwide. Bruce Springsteen joined remotely for a “Double Play” featuring Dropkick Murphys’ “Rose Tattoo” and Springsteen’s “American Land.” The concert raised over $700,000 for Boston Resiliency Fund, Feeding America®, and Habitat for Humanity, Greater Boston.
“It was exciting to do this show. It was a challenge, and I am incredibly proud of our team,” concludes Adams. “I am grateful for everyone who was a part of it, from the band to the venue to our sponsors.”
Credits
Director
- Josh Adams
Executive Producers
- Ken Casey
- Jeff Castelaz
- Josh Adams
Producers
- Chris Phillips
- Sean Dore
- Amy Decker
Ballpark Announcer
- Joe Castiglione
Organist
- Josh Kantor
Steaming Outta Fenway Poster and LED Wall Graphics
- Jason Lowery
Dropkick Murphys Crew
- Evan Tolonen: Tour Manager
- Greg “Grizz” Middleton: Production Manager
- Pete Robertson: FOH Engineer
- Jon Marcantonio: Stage Manager/Monitor Engineer
- Jay Cannava: Guitar Tech
- Dave Stauble: Guitar Tech
- Connor Riley: UltraSound Tech
- Greg Allen: Pro Tools Operator
- Scott Tkachuk: UltraSound
- Luke Buckbee: Stagehand
- Shawn Flores: Stagehand
- Mike Kadomiya: Stagehand
- Ethan Chase: Stagehand
Bruce Springsteen Feed
- Rob Lebret: Audio Engineer
- Thom Zimny: Director
Mindpool Crew
- Sandi Anderson Adams: Associate Producer
- Darren Cole: Co-Producer
- Ryan Lemire-Gonzalez: Producer
- Jamieson Filip: Technical Producer
- Dan Albert: Engineer In Charge
- Megan Brandenburger: Robo Op / Engineer
- Jovan Tanasijevic: Fenway Drone Operator
- Juan Navarro: Fenway Drone Operator
- Jacob Ballin: Fenway Drone Operator
- Schuyler Ortega: City Drone Operator
- Jeff “Slim” Richard: Technical Logistics Manager
- Darren Cole: Video Editor
- Alexandria Fernandes: Video Editor
- Chet Miller: Graphics Operator
Fenway Crew
- John Carter: Fenway House Producer
- Steve Roman: Technical Director
- Jason Notermann: Engineer
- Tami Nguyen: Shader
- Mike Testa: House Audio / E2 Operator
- Luke Fraser: LED / Encoding Tech Engineer
- Stacey Lamboni: Crossfire Operator
- Pete Zamachaj: Camera Operator
- CJ Dudek: Camera Operator
- Joie Jones: Camera Operator
- Chris Shannis: Camera Operator
- Kellan Reck: Graphics Operator
Brightcove
- Jon Witte
- Laura Kozikowski
- Phil Green
- Carl Rutman
- Steve Green