GEARFORCE
GOES BEYOND
THE VIRTUAL CONCERT MODEL HAS KEPT THE SPIRIT OF THE “ LIVE SHOW ” AFLOAT ; BUT IS IT HERE TO STAY ?
PHOTO : BRANDON ARTIS
JANN ARDEN PERFORMS ON THE 1000-SQ . -FT . GEARFORCE WAREHOUSE STAGE
By Andrew Leyenhorst
At
long last , live , in-person concert experiences are beginning to trickle back into the zeitgeist after nearly a year and a half of dormant stages , seats , and standing areas . To bridge the gap between performers and audiences over this period , the live concert industry has largely recentred its efforts around the livestreaming model , which has become somewhat of a standard by now . Undoubtedly , the meteoric rise of livestreaming in the concert business has done a lot of good for the industry , allowing artists to continue to put on ticketed shows and even go beyond their usual audience outreach ; but as true live music experiences make a return , it begs the question of whether or not livestreaming is here to stay .
Gearforce , based near Vancouver , is one such production house that made the switch over to livestreamed events mid-pandemic , and did so in a way that was quite unique in comparison to other entities . However , this isn ’ t much of a surprise , as in non-pandemic times , Gearforce supplies gear for shows by artists like Bryan Adams , Jann Arden , Diana Krall , and Michael Bublé , and has collaborated on countless
26 | Fall 2021 other high-profile events , including Red Bull Crashed Ice and the NHL ’ s Heritage Classic . With this pedigree in mind , there are few better candidates to discuss both the present and future of the livestreaming concert model .
At the helm of Gearforce ’ s operations is Rob Nevalainen , a 30-plus-year industry vet , most prominently as a touring monitor engineer whose body of work includes mixing The Tragically Hip and serving as Bryan Adams ’ monitor man for the last 23 years .
“ To be honest , I wasn ’ t ever thinking about doing streaming ,” Nevalainen explains . Initially , he ’ d been asked by a few clients to help out with their own livestreams , but he found himself dissatisfied with the overall quality of the productions being put on . “ I thought that , especially for the bigger acts , seeing them in their living room once is kind of cool , but if you ’ re charging your fanbase , then you should probably be giving some level of production ; some value for the fans outside of just the music ,” he says . At that point , Nevalainen decided to get in touch with some other industry collaborators to put his plan in motion .
“ So , I got Christie Lites to get involved , I got my friend who owns a broadcast truck to get involved , and I talked to them and said , ‘ Listen , I think we could turn my warehouse that ’ s not being used right now into a live performance space ; a good-sized live performance space , not just something that ’ s , you know , 10 feet by 10 feet . We were able to do about 1,000 square feet , which is basically like a theatre stage , and we could create real production on it , a real lighting show . I also wanted to make sure that the quality of techs was high , so I asked a few friends of mine that are techs who were also not working to come in and get involved . We were able to plan out something that I wanted to be able to pitch to the higher-end acts as a place to come and play if they ’ re dying to play somewhere .”
As such , what they ended up creating was essentially a 33 x 33-ft . black box theatre , with drapery from floor to ceiling , and either four or five lines of truss depending on the act , which gave Nevalainen and crew a blank canvas for any incoming shows . In terms of the visuals for the black box , Nevalainen explains , “ There was a basic 24-fixture moving light system that we could add to with ground lighting , some drop truss lighting , practicals , whatever we wanted to , show-by-show as well . And then the video