Once again stomping across North American arenas in support of last year’s hit recording entitled Hail to the King, Avenged Sevenfold is giving hard rock and metal aficionados the intensity and volume they seek on the current “Shepherd of Fire” tour.
Rat Sound Systems is carrying an L-Acoustics-led main system featuring left and right hangs of four K1-SB, 12 K1 and four KARA for down fill, plus 12 new K2 enclosures per side flown as out fill arrays.
For low-end thump, two dozen SB28 subs are grouped into six sets of four and stood on end along the face of the stage, which also features three KARA across its lip and six ARCS II as needed for additional fill. All systems are powered by LA-RAK touring racks each loaded with three LA8 amplified controllers.
According to FOH engineer Dave “Shirt” Nichols, “We’ve gotten compliments every night from the band’s fans and promoters alike on the overall sound, which is fantastic. The coverage is amazing and very linear in terms of the transition between the K1 and K2, not to mention the nice wide vertical coverage we’re able to get with our outfills thanks to K2’s 10 degrees of splay. I have great sound sources, a good selection of mics, a great console and an amazing PA. That’s all I need.”
Rat Sound’s Ron Kimball further appreciates the system’s rigging simplicity. “On our previous tours, the outfills were KUDOs, which were great, but the K2 is far easier and faster to both put in the air and take down,” he says. “We are sending PA back to the truck before we even have a truck ready now! Stagehands are amazed that it’s so easy to fly this system. Not like those other guys…”
“Also, K2’s Panflex horizontal steering technology, which combines adjustable fins with DSP, makes configuring them far easier,” adds systems engineer Jim Lockyer. “We typically open the K2 arrays up to 110 degrees since we’re usually in arenas and seats open up upstage of the side hangs. But it’s nice to be able to quickly switch them over to an asymmetrical 90 degrees in smaller venues, like Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida, which nicely keeps audio off the upstage and offstage walls.”
Avenged Sevenfold began its current run with supporting act Hellyeah on April 12 and wraps up its spring leg on May 17 with a headlining set at Columbus, Ohio’s Rock on the Range Festival. After spending the month of June touring Europe, the band will return to sweep North America once again for its summer leg in July and August.