Jeffrey Cox

Saturday, October 27th dawned sunny and clear, and your humble correspondent motored up into Topanga Canyon, to hear Little Feat play through a set of dV-DOSC. No, this doesn’t stand for digital video, it is the designator for L-Acoustics’ smaller line array cabinets, a miniature version of the V-DOSC.

The dV-DOSC are often seen as downfills with large V-DOSC arena rigs.

The amount of sound they put out for their size (two 8” speakers and a single 1.4” compression driver) was a revelation. I expected the high fidelity, but three dV-DOSC a side emitted enough level to get over a band that has been touring for 25 years. Two guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion, eruptive drumming and a powerful female lead vocal – a mighty thick gumbo.

Roz Jones handled front of house, and US Audio supplied the entire system. Roz works for US Audio while at home in Los Angeles, and also tours with Little Feat as their regular monitor man. I met up with Jeffrey Cox, who had invited me, and greeted long-time Topanga resident Mark Gander of JBL.

The location was a bowl-shaped amphitheatre originally built under the auspices of Will Geer, known to many as Grandpa of the Waltons. It is called Theatricum Botanicum, and people proudly pointed out the cabin where Woody Guthrie used to stay when he visited, making it especially fitting when Little Feat finished their set with “This Land Is Your Land.”

Le dV-DOSC et les fleurs

I know this is off topic and not supposed to be a concert review, but it was an amazing sight during the set, as the theatre people danced and whirled through several costume changes, next to the band and on a hillside behind them. It was a colorful, relaxing afternoon, exactly what the rock’n’roll doctor had ordered, as we all try to deal with the national tension. Back to audio! Roz worked with his mix to get it to where he was making very few fader moves, and the band basically took care of their own dynamics. Keyboardist Bill Payne thanked Roz from the stage, and even told the crowd to give him a round of applause.

There were two L-Acoustics SB-218 subs on each side. The kick was present but not overpowering, Lee Brenkman and Dave Stevens would have approved. (Inside joke for LAB regulars only.) The combination of the subs and dV-DOSC tops made for a tonality that I was honestly surprised by. I had always figured that the smaller cabinets would be great for speech intelligibility when used alone, but I had no idea just how full and musical they can sound.

Of course, the program material and the ace at the console had something to do with that. I know this because the same day I continued up the coast, to hear the L-Acoustics ARCS boxes, newly installed at the Ventura Theatre. “You might not have picked the best night to hear them,” head of sound Jim Mee commented wryly.

The headlining band was the Dropkick Murphys, who combine punk rock music with their mad bagpiper, Spicy McHaggis. They and the other bands on the bill were mixed in a smeared and hectic fashion, which reflected what was happening onstage. Everyone was just spraying energy, and you know what, that’s OK! Those darn kids!

Each band’s mixer tried to not involuntarily amplify what was undoubtedly a hellish “more more more!” stage mix. The first band had an upright bass player, whose amp started feeding back. The way the monitor guy proved that the bass amp was indeed the culprit was by briefly turning off the monitors.