TODD RUNDGREN & THE LIARS
Production
coverage by Bruce Jordahl. |
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Visionary musician Todd Rundgren has worn an incredible number of hats during his 35+ years in the public eye. From teen leader of The Nazz to engineering, producing and playing on numerous releases in the 1970s and 1980s, to bandleader of two seminal versions of Utopia, from video pioneer to the current title of ‘solo artist’ he comfortably maintains today - Todd is never short on creativity or opinion. There are many that share the opinion that through dozens of releases, he remains one of the premier singer/songwriters of the rock era. His latest release, Liars, finds Rundgren as energized as ever - preaching a cutting doctrine on the evils of modern politics and the pitfalls of simple human nature. While it’s a thrilling experience to watch Rundgren control Utopia or his ‘big band’, in recent years, Todd has favored touring solo over ensemble. This journalist last spoke to Rundgren in 1993 during his No World Order performances, where surrounded in a pod-like womb of Trackspots, Todd was demonstrating the upper creative limits of a MIDI-controlled rig. Thankfully, this latest amalgamation of Todd talent makes full use of his cooperative powers. The touring Liars are comprised of drummer Prairie Prince, Kasim Sulton on bass, Jesse Gress on guitar, and John Ferenzik on keyboards. With five superlative players/vocalists, the sound is simultaneously orchestral and choral, and fans are treated to a performance every bit as rich as those ‘big band’ tours of the early 1990s. Granted, the sound and performance is noticeably edgier, and 2004 finds Rundgren’s music far removed from the piano ballads his oldest fans cherish. But this is a good thing - the sounds are contemporary, and reassure you nobody up there on stage is living in the past! Their live show is divided into two segments (not unlike the ‘easy’ and ‘difficult’ side of the Hermit of Mink Hollow LP), where during a solo performance that included Red Rider’s ‘Lunatic Fringe’, band members change from their multi-cultural religious garb into pimp-daddy-approved soul gear. The opening set is a showcase for new material from Liars; the closing conjures up familiar live favorites like ‘Feel It’, ‘I Love My Life’, ‘Hello It’s Me’ and the perrenial show-stopper, ‘Just One Victory’. All
in all a great show, but this tour is significant to the production
community for additional reasons. The lighting is 100% Color Kinetics
LED fixtures and effects, providing a rock lighting show the world
has never seen before. Mighty bold talk? While LED has been used to
complement conventional and automated lighting on many shows in recent
years, it’s never been the lone source of illumination. For
reference, think about your first VARI*LITE show!
PRODUCTION He’s another touring vet that appears to have ‘done it all’ - tour managing, technician, audio engineer - all skills that he employs daily on this production. This is Stephen’s first tour with Todd as PM; he says he was hired in January, and started advancing shows on February 1st; rehearsals kicked off April 2nd. Now based in Scottsdale, AZ, the Long Islander worked with Cheap Trick for several years as a guitar/bass tech, as PM and technician for The Band, worked with Stevie Wonder for half a decade, and so on. The basic look Rundgren envisioned for the staging was a ‘blown out cathedral’ look. With the rig and touring method being so unique (ground supported LED rig, etc.), TP US figured there had to be a production challenge or two lurking in the shadows. “Well, rigging isn’t really an issue,” Stephen laughs, sharing our often warped sense of humor, “but there are issues with stage size. Often the stages are not adequate to put our full production in, so I have to make decisions and cut elements.” Bearing that in mind, there’s only been a few occasions where the band had to perform sans cathedral. “We can’t lose any arch truss sections; it’s programmed to work together,” Stephen continues. “So if we lose any pieces, it’s the guitar and bass risers for Kasim and Jesse. We keep the keyboard and drum risers up, so we won’t lose the effect. But we have gotten into situations with low trim height, and have had to go with house conventional lighting and no set! “It’s still the same - rigging or not - if you have a production of 40 people or four people. The same challenges exist on the road, and I’d rather have rigging and fly a sound system, because it goes a lot faster and smoother – than these load-ins, which are always a challenge with space and time.” Todd
Rundgren and the Liars do day show travel, meaning that following
the gig, they spend the night in a local hotel before hitting the
road at 9am for the next location - a theory that makes for rested,
happy band and crew, but an early afternoon load-in. “They’re all a big help for me,” Stephen adds. “Randy’s an old friend, and I know I can count on them. It is an unconventional way to tour because of the way we travel, but we stay at nice hotels and get treated very kindly, which helps when you work a 20 or 22 hour day!” Splitting his day between stage manager, tour manager, backline, referee, etc. has become second nature to Stephen. “I have it down,” he confessed. “At night I’m the tour manager, in the morning I come in and do all the production work and set up my office, and then I have my backline time ... hopefully before soundcheck ! I take care of the wardrobe, we soundcheck, then I go back to production.” The only traditional vendor on The Liars tour is Upstaging (www.upstaging.com), who provided the lighting system, though Patacchiola said he did have Joe Gallagher from Accurate Staging working on a hinged structure. “It was Todd’s call,” Stephen explains. “It would have taken 45 minutes to set up and 15 to bring down - where as now our ins and outs can be three hours, depending on locals - and it can be grueling. But that was Todd’s call,” he says. Patacchiola says the trailer originally started out as a 10-footer. “At first, we had all the backline and sound in the base of the bus; we got a 16-foot trailer that we fit in ‘comfortably’.” In closing, TP US asked Patacchiola how he felt being the PM on a tour approaching uncharted territory. “Todd’s always been on the cutting edge, but he calls it the bleeding edge, which I find very humorous,” Stephen adds, “but I was up for the challenge. I don’t go on the road very much anymore, but if a certain artist calls me – I jump right on it. And I knew this would be a challenge, and be very rewarding.”
AUDIO An independent engineer that worked with Rundgren on film scores at Bearsville Studios, Robert mixed Todd on his solo shows, and also works with The Tony Levin Band (with Gress on guitar). Speaking to Todd about three months before rehearsals, Frazza was told of the initial concept of the cathedral. “His request was that nothing be on the stage,” Robert explains. “There are no amplifiers, instead we are using the Line 6 Guitar Port. During the show, you’ll see Todd working on a computer tablet – it looks like he’s writing something, but he’s changing his guitar sound.” Robert’s next move was to get beyerdynamic involved, who are supplying the wired and wireless mics for the tour. “I had used the beyer microphones with Todd on the last two tours; on the solo tours I’d use the TGX60 – it’s just perfect every night. You could plug it in and it sounded pretty crystal clear – anything else I’d have to EQ it a bit, so with his voice I tend to go with beyer. It’s less work for me.” Other than Whirlwind DI’s handling the stereo sends where applicable, it’s a beyerdynamic world on the Liars stage. Todd sings through a beyerdynamic SEM-881 while Kasim, Jess and John use SDM-860M models. Drummer Prairie Prince is using the beyerdynamic Opus 54 headset. Drums are all Opus models, with a 99 on the kick, 87 on the snare, 83 on the hi-hat, 88’s on the rack and floor toms, and a pair of MCE 90’s as overheads. Shure 700 Series wireless systems and E05 in-ear monitors rounded out the package ... except for Todd; this is where the new Bose L1 cylindrical radiators enter the picture. With the anticipation of the drum kit being the only stage-audible source, Frazza began to research the Bose system, and actually visited Bose in Massachusetts to meet the system’s designers. “They invited me to a jam with a blues bar band,” he explains. “I showed up at soundcheck and was standing at one end of the stage and realized, for the first time, I could hear the guy at the complete opposite end of the stage – just as clear as I could hear the musician right next to me ... and that pretty much did it for me! “Even though we’re not using them as Bose suggest (as a self-contained FOH/monitor system controlled by the musician), they work great,” he continues. “We employ them more as sidefills - as a mix to Todd. He’s not using in-ears, and tends to be all over the stage from one end to the other. And the Bose’s clarity is just so even across the stage – if you’re used to wedges it sounds really weird at first. In this application, the first thing you have to do is forget about stereo – the way they advertise them. I’ve actually clocked them at 110 db, so they thump, but I’m trying to keep that down, as far as his mix is concerned.” Racks
and stacks are provided by the venue or a local provider. This show
saw a beefy JBL club system throwing out copious amounts of low end
energy. Frazza uses his ears and a pair of graphics to pull the room
into shape. “The latest record I’ve been using as source
material is Raintree Crow by David Sylvian – it’s heavy
on the drums with a lot of atmosphere, so it gives me a lot of space,”
Robert adds. Frazza uses Logic Audio to run ensemble and pitch plug –ins in real time on the background vocals. “I’m able to do this because the D2000 has Lightpipe,” Robert enthuses, “so I showed up at rehearsal, plugged my laptop in, and got eight more channels of effects!” Robert also calls up Propellerhead Reason for sequencing on some of the tracks. Robert says his main charge is riding shotgun on the vocals, and uses EQ to spread the five voices out in his mix. “Todd has a really strong voice – it’s incredibly strong,” he laughs. “I was using another microphone and he was so loud that he was compressing the diaphragm – so we had to make a change!” Next, TP US tackled monitor engineer / drum tech extraordinaire Randy Brown to explore the multi-personalitied side(s) of his gig with Todd and The Liars. The heart of Randy’s system is a Roland VM-7200 console and two processors, a beyerdynamic Opus 800 series modular wireless system, the aforementioned Bose L1 Cylindrical Radiators, and Shure psm 700 series wireless systems. “I didn’t know Roland made a live monitor console, but it’s been a very good tool,” Randy points out. Originally, each band member was to use one Bose L1 system, which ‘was a bit tricky ‘ says Brown. The multi-L1 system was used for the first few shows, before reverting to the in-ear systems. Brown praises the simplicity of the monitor design. “We’re gating some things, and compressing vocals – on the console,” he says, “without external gear – and it’s fabulous! At first I was against it ... I’m just used to looking at the console and my compressors – but with the time we don’t have on this tour, it’s really paid off. We get in between 1pm and 3pm, and if I had to blow through wedges, and set every compressor and gate, there’s no way we could do 8pm shows.” Brown, who also works with Trans Siberian Orchestra and Joan Jett, uses 21 scenes for The Liars. “I tried scene-per-song, but ultimately broke it down to different instrumentation groups. If I had a good mix going, I didn’t want to go to a scene I might have had two nights before. And for the first ten shows, I was still programming the console during the show!”
LIGHTING Interestingly enough, the impetus for CK’s LED product came from Rundgren himself, who had some of their lights installed in his Hawaii home. Todd called Color Kinetics, who referred him to Mike Creager at Upstaging to work out the touring intricacies of this equipment. Working with Mike and John Bahnick at Upstaging, Todd and his design team chose to wander down a historical path in the evolution of tour lighting. Both Skowron and Bullock looked at this project as a challenge not to be missed. “I received a call from John Bahnick back in January ,” Alex recalls, “and nothing developed until around March – but the whole LED concept held my curiosity, and I wanted to be a part of it.” Skowron
says the LED concept was driven not only by creativity, but also ease
and speed of setup. “Todd wanted something small and compact,
yet unique and individual to him, and that could be set up quickly –
and fit in the trailer behind the bus,” he adds. Similarly,
using the effects engine eats up too much memory, so virtually ALL programming
was done old-school. “I’m down to about 189 cues open, and
once you’re under 200 the Hog will start to exhibit some erratic
behavior.” Skowron also has to reckon with the visual impact of the individual mixed colors - a by-product of the fixture’s operation. “In order to get amber, you have to bring green in – and if you’re looking at the face of the fixture, you’ll see these little green LED’s glowing, but it’s emitting amber light.” Cool and creepy! Lighting
treatment of the first half is very stark – white light and variations
of white, CTO’s and CTB’s. “We created all sorts of
weird colors,” admits Alex. “Normally you only have 20 or
30 colors for a show, and this one we were getting 40 or 50,”
Bullock adds, “and you can get some really nice lavanders. Plus,
whenever you make a mixed color with the RGB, it’s probably going
to be brighter than a standard color, because you’re turning on
two sets of LED’s versus introducing multiple flags in the optical
path.” Bullock says his current favored CK units are the strip lights – the Color Blaze 72 and 48. “Using them to light drops is great. They get a beautiful, even spread with a 22 degree beam angle getting out, so it’s a fairly narrow beam. If you put them on a truss pointing out at an audience, you’ll see them - no matter what – but primarily they’re very functional as base wash units.” Alex uses Upstaging on 99.9% of his projects. “I’ve worked with them for 16 years. If you need anything they’re not afraid to FedEx to you ‘priority’, or to buy gear if that’s what you need in your design. Their stuff is always maintained, and their guys are top of the line. They make me look good!” With no hazers or foggers onstage, atmospherics are kept to a minimum with a Le Maitre Neutronics onboard for microscopic particulates. Two rented Phoebus spots lit Todd, while a Production Intercom system enabled chatting. Upstaging provided their data distribution plus significant and probably historic modifications to the Color Kinetics luminaires to make them connectable, roadworthy, etc. In our book, these guys are legendary, but here’s what they thought. Asked about the impact of his lighting, Skowron says, “It’s a very in your face show - when it’s supposed to be, and it’s laid back when appropriate. We really didn’t have any limitations – and the fact we didn’t have gobos, pan and tilt, etc. didn’t really slow us down in creating the show.” Bullock concludes, “It’s the challenge of using color and intensity as opposed to gobos and beams. You want to make something textured and kinetic, but that falls into the constraints of monochromatic vs. polychromatic – those conditions are great when you have normal lighting – but when it’s three channels of RGB it’s a different matter to consider!
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