Most importantly Leeds is fluent in Mandarin, understands the culture, and knows how to secure the best audio gear and technicians in each city.
In fact he flew his “A” audio crew from Beijing to Shanghai to ensure performance quality and continuity with the acts on each stage.
3BM was responsible for all technical rider fulfillment, coordinating with the band mixers and production managers.
From these requirements 3BM developed an equipment plan to support seven performance areas, three in Beijing and four in Shanghai.
In Shanghai, staging and production equipment were contracted through Shanghai Real-Live Production.
With the exception of principle act backline gear and one lighting console which flew between cities, all gear was sourced locally.
Relatively Smooth
Festival headliner Thirty Seconds To Mars arrived at the site in the early afternoon with front of house mixer Stephen Taylor, accompanied by monitor mixer Jon King and audio tech John Hill. In typical fly date fashion, their backline gear did not arrive from air freight until about 5:30 pm.
This made for a compressed pre-show routine which the experienced crew handled in stride. Taylor used this free time to set up the dedicated Avid VENUE desk at front of house, while King prepared his in-ear mixes on a matched console.
The Opposite Stage functioned like any other festival main stage. Fortunately, changeovers ran smoothly and six acts as varied as Taiwanese superstar singer Hebe and Atlanta’s hip-hop master Ludacris entertained a mixed Asian and ex-pat crowd in advance of the headliners.
Independent Beijing-based mixers Jack Guo at front of house and Wei Xing on monitors should be commended for keeping the turnarounds to schedule, and the JBL VerTec PA sounding good to this listener despite windy conditions. While on the surface this seems unremarkable, remember what lurks below the surface in China.
Three other stages completed the musical offerings. The Stage Left Stage featured eight bands, including Yellowcard, who were scheduled to perform in daylight at 4:45 pm – tough to do if your backline gear doesn’t show up until 5:30. They swapped slots with another band and delivered a strong evening performance.
Daryl Bentfield is both tour manager and front of house mixer for Yellowcard. “One reason we are able to get the gear onstage and ready after having received it so late is that we carry everything on stage except mic stands,” he explains. “We use Line 6 rack mount pods instead of instrument amplifiers, and have of all our own stage cabling and sub-snakes. We even bring a small Crest XRM monitor desk. If we didn’t travel this way, we would never get the show up.”
Regarding the local crews, “The Chinese are eager to jump in and make it happen. This seems to be cultural, and if you can get past the language they can help you. They don’t have the experience of mic’ing the stage. We do it ourselves. Generally they are helpful but it all comes back to experience. Honestly, we don’t have that much control in festivals, but I really enjoyed it, and if something was done differently than I’m used to, I just sat back and looked at it, and took it all in.” Despite festival conditions, Yellowcard’s sound mix by Bentfield was excellent.