The big Rock and Pop news this weekend is that Radiohead had, by all accounts, a bit of a shocker at the Coachella festival with sound problems causing them to walk off several times.
This sort of thing does happen but what’s interesting in this clip is that when the sound drops, the band carry on playing, don’t miss a beat and continue to Mak Show – entirely oblivious to the fact that the enormous PA system out front has cut dead. Of course they’re all wearing sophisticated in-ear monitoring systems which means that they’re not only hearing a very precise mix of their live sound tailored to what they need to hear on stage, they also cannot hear anything else – and if it’s so powerful that they can’t detect that the PA has gone down presumably they’re completely isolated from the great unwashed in the audience or anything else for that matter. This makes me think that ‘ver Head and other enormobands that use this kit routinely play in a hermetically sealed sound universe, obvious to what’s happening out front. Bands often talk about a gig very much being dependent on the energy they get back from the fans – presumably they just get the house lights raised from time to time so they can check it visually – as if this clip is anything to go by once you’re at Radiohead level you certainly won’t hear or feel how the audience are responding.
Radiohead sound problems – and why bands don’t hear what you hear
I think what people don’t realise is that there are two separate mixes, each controlled by a separate sound mixer. The FOH (front of house) mix goes through the PA, and that’s what the audience hears. Onstage, whether it’s through monitor speakers on stage or, in Radiohead’s case, in-ear monitors, each musician has a separate mix.
The common theme amongst the on-stage monitor mixes being that nobody ever wants to hear more drums. There’s your basic reason for at least two mixes right there.
“I need more Vim in my cans!”
It seems pretty shoddy. I can’t remember this ever happening at, say, Glastonbury, or any gig on that scale I’ve ever been to, and I thought Coachella was supposed to be the premier festival along Glasto-lines in the States.
Having said that, most of my gigs these days are non-enormodrome, partly through cost, but mainly because I enjoy being down the front. There’s nothing like seeing the whites of their eyes, whether they be big or small bands, and it’s all the more enjoyable for that. And yes, I have ear protection.
Which was largely superfluous for the ‘Head, of course.
I’d liked to have seen them this tour. The album is one of their best and they seem to be on top form.
Last expensive gig for me was Kate Bush, and although it was brilliant the prices rather put me off. Previous experience of failing to get tickets (the Kraftwerk debacle) doesn’t help me feel warmly towards it again.
No disrespect intended toward Radiohead in particular but there’s shades of Aesop in this story where one of the best bands in the world play a show and they are not aware that nobody can hear them. Perhaps if it was an egomaniac like Kanye, maybe nobody would dare tell him.
Here’s how to deal with Gremlins. Richard Thompson had already played one set that night when he and the other surviving band members played Liege and Leif in its entirety, so you can bet he knew the audience starting position was ‘follow that!’
He started off his set with a lively run through of the opening track on his new album, but unbeknown to him the main vocal mic is not coming through the PA, so when he finishes the song they actually seem to be booing him.
Watch as RT goes through surprise, to puzzlement, to alarm in a few seconds before literally taking a step back, working out what went wrong, then turning it into a joke before carrying on as if nothing had happened.
Radiohead take note – good work by RT there. P.S…isn’t that Eddie Yates off Coronation Street bringing him on stage?
Yes it is. He was a long standing part of the Fairport faithful.
I can understand that the band are on a different mix via their in-ear monitors, but surely the guys (or gals) on the mixing desk out front would have noticed and alerted them via said monitors pretty sharpish ?
Tracey Thorn mentions in her memoir that IEMs helped her to better sing in tune but killed the atmosphere on stage. It’s the difference between live gig as an event, or as the record played much louder.
I attended a local festival a few years ago. The non-entities headlining the main stage on the Saturday had similar problems, but that was due to the man on the sound-desk disappearing to the bar and not returning. Eventually someone from the crowd tried to do his best to get things working, but it still didn’t sound good.
The shows I go to don’t tend to be big enough for IEMs (as far as I can tell) but regularly see band members trying to attract the attention of the sound guys and ask for a bit more/less of this and that. Who knows what they are on about? Isn’t that what sound checks are for?
We saw a Pink Floyd tribute band recently at a small local venue and the singer was using IEMs which gave him trouble all evening. If I understand IEMs correctly, it should be easier to give the performer exactly what they want rather than when using monitor speakers. Having said that, there didn’t appear to be a separate monitor desk, monitors being run from the FOH desk so not an ideal set up.
It’s all about absorption coefficients. As soon as you put people in the room the sound changes, and so the dynamic alters.
Sound checks only give a general idea of levels and serve to ensure that the equipment is all working. At the time of the sound check.
As Paws says, the dynamic of any room alters as it fills with punters. You’re pushing air around in a space, so other things arriving there in that space will alter it’s characteristics.
Having said that, I’d have thought the dynamic of a great big enormodome alters quite a lot less as it fills up than say a back room of a pub.
It’s hard to explain how horrible in-ear monitors are unless you experience them for yourself.
The thing is they isolate you from all the ambience of the room. You feel like you’re in a bubble. And when you sing, it’s really off-putting because you can hear your voice in your head, the same way as if you were singing with your fingers in your ears.
Plus they are not as easy as you might think to get the sound balance right. You tend to want to keep turning them up, which I suspect must cause a good few cases of tinnitus in the long run.
AND unless you have a separate stage mic mix, you can’t hear each other talk on stage.
I have real respect for anyone who can use them and still perform to the best of their ability. And real sympathy for anyone who has problems – Remember that Eurovision act a few years ago, who were singing off-key? I bet in-ears were the problem.
That said, wasn’t there a thing for Folk musicians in particular…. putting a finger in the ear to hear themselves better?
I think being the person in charge of the monitor mix must be the worst job in music. The Front of house engineer can hear what’s going on and they can tweak it, while hearing (at least from their vantage point) what the audience hears and what the band can’t hear. The monitor mixer on the other hand is at the side of the stage so has to interpret what several musicians need and strike a balance – ‘more keyboards’….’less drums’ etc.
As for poor old Jemini – no idea what happened – the backing singers appear to have some monitor speakers (but also appear to be miming) – I suspect they’re props and you’re right that faulty in-ears are probably to blame (the song doesn’t help though – stinks the place out)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu5kgSeZHfw
Jemini, that was it! Oh, painful to watch.