An Audio Engineer's View From the Road by Jarrett Pritchard

My good bud, Jarrett Prichard, always tells the best stories after a tour.  He's worked with some big names- 1349, Skeletonwitch, St. Vitus, Impaled Nazarene, and his own band, Eulogy, to name a few.  I thought it'd be rad if he could put some of those stories in writing to share.  So if you dig tour antics, tour crises, and/or audio engineering, you'll dig this. -Thepitgoddess

In August of 2008 I got a call from Tony Laureano about mixing FOH (Front of House) for the Norwegian band 1349; supporting the return of the mighty Carcass. I was reluctant at first, since I had been retired from live sound for many years due to family and work etc. In 1995, after dissolving the Florida death metal band Eulogy, I chose the engineering route and had a pretty good run mixing television and film as well as live sound. In 1998, I decided to get out of the venues and concentrate solely on studio production and sound for film. By 2005 I moved on to teaching engineering at a school for media arts. I was far from a “road dog” at this point in my career, but the chance to mix a true Norwegian black metal band and see Carcass 17 times was too much to pass up. That tour began an adventure that has lasted for the last 2.5 years. These are some amusing memories from my most recent trip with 1349.

In the spring of 2010 I got the call to do an insane tour. The bill was a great line up, with Cannibal Corpse headlining and a package covering the whole spectrum of punishing metal sickness: 1349, Skeletonwitch, and Lecherous Nocturne. As FOH for my already longtime brothers in darkness, 1349, I was already going to be on the tour.  I had been on the road with the mighty Goatwhore, when Sammy suggested I call about picking up Skeletonwitch, who were friends of his. After a chat with the ever friendly and workable Scott Hedrick, I secured a deal. And Lecherous Nocturne, whose last album I mastered and had vocalist Jason Hohenstien pick up vocal duties on the new Eulogy demo recordings, would be out as well. Not to mention Rob Barrett was the acting second guitarist in the new Eulogy and I had been friends with the guys in Cannibal since 1992. This was going to be a great tour!!!!!!!!!!!

           

For several weeks leading up to the start of the run I became aware that 1349 were having trouble getting into our country. This was not a good thing. This was to be the first time Frost had played for them in the US. Normally the US drum duties were handled by skin destroyer Tony Laureano, due to unfortunate legal issues involving Frost overseas. This was a big deal for the band and black metal fans alike. In the days nearing our first date in Orlando it became painfully obvious that the guys might not make it in at all...

           

I began the Evisceration Plague Tour in O-town at the Firestone (quite possibly my least favorite venue in the US- the PA is configured in an absolutely ridiculous fashion and so far the staff have been totally “Romperally,” which is Norwegian for ass rally. From horrible feedback in monitors, to absolute indifference from the crew, and let’s not forget the fleet of geniuses interning from Fullsail, to not wiring my stage, to….) Well moving on… The show happened and I met the amazing and super accommodating tour manager engineer Pete Robertson, who would be handling Cannibal on this run. Things kicked off pretty well- except for the fact that 1349 were stuck in Norway. I climbed into the van with my brothers of Lecherous Nocturne and headed north hoping that my Black metal brothers would pick up the tour in the days ahead. 

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After several days of uncertainty and many phone calls consisting of “what’s going on? Do you know? I don’t know,” between myself, Tony, Robert (my assistant engineer), the labels, and of course the guys in the band - I got the word that they would make it in by The New England Hardcore and Metal Fest.  I was, to say the least, ecstatic! There was a catch: Frost would not make it in by this date. He would join us several days later. Tony would once again be on the skins blasting away this blasphemy of a dying breed of true full on church burning corpse painting low-fi, hi-energy dark ass Norwegian Black Metal.

The Paladium in Worcester, Mass. was a metal extravaganza. It’s always so much fun and filled with good crowds - promoter Scott Lee is such a good guy that you really don’t mind the 3.5 second natural reverb that exists in the Palladium. Makes for an interesting sounding room for sure but it is well powered and can be done well. Saw my long time friend and influence Paul Babician (FOH for Amon Amarth), watched the engineer from Eluviete tongue lash the house people for refusing to understand that folk metal bands don’t fit into a normal festival patch (which was damn funny and maybe a little quick on the draw, which also brought out the diplomatic side of “Johnson” Babician. Extremely funny because if a guy nicknamed “Johnson” was being diplomatic you can imagine it was a quick fire scene at the FOH), and was beginning the day eagerly anticipating the arrival of 1349 to climb on stage and fuck shit up!!!

           

Lecherous kicked off early and did a great set. (I think that people are just starting to get this band and they do absolutely shred.) Even early there were some people in the big room, which really helps kill the echo when there are meat baffles (people) in a concrete echo chamber to soak up some of the reflections. Not too long after, Skeletonwitch took the stage and tore it up. At the time, I was new to the Skeletonwitch camp.  They have since become a mainstay client as well as my very close friends. I remember clearly being really impressed with their efficiency at getting it happening and consistently playing well. Everything was going as planned: my bands were killing and 1349 were in the air on the way. Robert and Tony had taken off from Tampa. Everyone was headed to Boston to pick up a rental minivan and drive out to Worcester to play the metal fest…

Unfortunately the best laid plans… well you know the saying. Nothing is easy for some reason. Basically it was brought to our attention that a certain booking agent had cancelled 1349 for the Fest without permission and that their slot was filled by a non-black metal band. For those of you who don’t know, this meant that the guarantee for 1349 had also been spent elsewhere to have a band replace them. Much to our dismay, and the Norwegian black metal chaos mongers in the crowd, 1349 were not able to play. Disgust was rampant in our camp. The guys, tired from travel, went back to a hotel and I stayed to hang out and see Amon Amarth, Behemoth, and Cannibal top off what had been a great day.  I ended up hanging out on the Amon Amarth bus with Babician and having a beer before finally giving in to the exhaustion, walking back to the hotel, and turning in from a long day.

           

The next day, we all piled into this tiny domestic soccer mom transport mini van with guitars and luggage and, oh yeah, 3 Norwegians, Robert, Tony, and myself in and headed to Long Island with the intention of playing the gig at the Crazy Donkey, and then on the day off renting an RV. Apparently there had been a bus reserved for this run, but with the uncertainty of the bands arrival it had been cancelled. So we took the mini van to Long Island. Super fun.

The Crazy Donkey is a very unique venue on Long Island. It has an interesting stage that is actually built on top of what was a bar, complete with wooden boxes on the stage that look like emo kid ego boxes but are actually covering the old beer taps. You don’t want to stand on these things. Nor do you want to kick one or you will, according to the staff at the Donkey, shower yourself in beer. Now, depending on who you ask, that may not be a bad thing but you will probably also have to pay for it and that’s not conducive to any bands touring budget. There is no indoor staging area so the drums end up out side to stage left in an abandoned walk-in freezer. The dressing rooms are destroyed RVs in the parking lot. It’s a trip for sure.

           

Back inside, the venue has a very small short throw PA with a soundcraft spirit at FOH. Small P.A.s, underpowered rigs, and broken rickety ass shit, is part of the deal when you mix extreme music. I’m fine with all that. The real problem is the raging DJ speaker that is literally 110db right over your right shoulder at FOH blasting away in your ear. Of course this makes hearing anything coming out of the mains impossible in between sets when you’re trying to line check. No matter how loud you scream at the DJ to turn it the fuck down, the local hero just stares at you blankly as if the bullshit intermission music is more important than the line check for the bands you paid to see. I don’t get it.

First up is Lecherous Nocturne, and the PA was enormously inadequate within a proper gain structure keeping to about a +6 peak on the desk. It was just really not working for me. Here was a band like Lecherous onstage raging away and it was really like a mild stereo in the room. “That’s it!!!!” I said, “I’ve fucking had enough of this shit.” Luckily I could see the amps off stage right and I just buried the 2 buss and multi bussed every channel on the desk pushing for every single tiny bit of gain I could out of this thing without clipping the channels or the 2 bus or the amplifiers in the wall. Low and behold, it actually started to sound like a fucking concert. So much for proper gain structure. Fuck it, this was starting to sound like a show.

 
The Witch took the stage next and proceeded to assault the room with some deep Ohio thrashing mad destruction. By this point I think I was about on 7 shows with these guys and I was stuck. I was part of it. I loved this band. They were so fucking tight and dedicated and cool. Not to mention that I personally have to get on board with any band that ends a gig with “Eat Some Fucking Pussy.” I mean seriously what better advice could a band give its followers?  The girls are happy, the dudes have a mission…

Now came the real fun for the evening. The mighty 1349, after much madness, was to take the stage. As I was prepping the stage I met a gentleman in a pink painters cap, tight pants and white shoes who claimed to be the local DJ for some radio station or other. I was also informed that it was the intention of the venue to have this person onstage with 1349 “introducing” them. “Not happening.” I replied. “Oh yes he’s the DJ, just going to say a few words.”  “Not happening,” I replied once more. “You have a very simple choice to make here, what is going to happen is that I’m going to play some evil ass noise and these dark Norwegian mother fuckers are gonna take the stage and chop heads. Without your DJs help. So you have a choice to make here: either he is going on or they are but that is how it is and that is how its going to be.” To which the club became instantly quite agreeable. “Perhaps our DJs services are not needed this evening.”

And Just as I said it would be 1349 took the stage for their first appearance supporting Demonoir and proceeded to kill. Everyone had a good night and we packed it in and got in our mini van, found a hotel and went to sleep. The next day was an adventure all in itself but that is a story for the next time…..
-Jarrett Pritchard