Fronted by the inimitable Amy Lee, American rock band Evanescence just wrapped up a U.S. tour supporting The Bitter Truth, its first new album of original material in a decade, with Solotech providing a sound reinforcement system headed L-Acoustics K2 loudspeakers.
“Amy is an incredible singer, songwriter, and storyteller, so ensuring the emotional connection between the stage and audience is of utmost importance, and K2 definitely gives us that,” says Eddie Mapp, Evanescence’s front-of-house engineer since May of 2003, when the band’s career took off with the debut of Fallen. “Although the original specification for this run called for K1, production chose to use K2 as it provided a more compact truck pack while still giving us terrific vocal intelligibility, tonality, and precise control.”
With the tour stopping at a wide variety of venues, from larger clubs to arenas, the most typical PA deployment featured left and right mains of 16 K2, with six K1-SB hung behind each array, plus 12 more K2 flown per side for out-fill. “The band loves to feel the low end on the stage, so we also deployed 16 K28 as floor subs to facilitate that,” notes Hilario Gonzalez, Solotech’s systems engineer.
“There’s a lot to manage impact-wise on the low end, from the kick drum, bass guitar, Moog Taurus pedals, synths, et cetera,” adds Mapp, referring to the house mix, “and the KS28 subs absolutely deliver that in a powerful yet tonal way for both the band onstage and the audience as well.”
Across the stage lip, six Kara were provided for front-fill, while two ARCS II per side handled off-stage fills. Supplemental stage monitoring was accommodated by two more ARCS II plus two KS28 for side-fills, and the full loudspeaker complement was driven by more than 40 LA12X amplified controllers.
“K2’s high end is clear, natural, and smooth, and its low end can supply quite the punch. And when the KS28 subs are added in, the result is earthshaking, which is perfect for a group like Evanescence,” says Gonzalez. “K2 is also very versatile and lightweight, so we were easily able to modify and quickly fly our hangs for each venue. With its variable directivity of 70, 90, and 110 degrees, we were able to keep the sound off the walls yet also spread out the dispersion to cover the extreme sides when needed. It’s definitely a great box and we had so many audience members and visiting techs commenting on the clarity of Amy’s voice and how good everything sounded.”
