SHAWN
MENDES:
THE TOUR
TOM WOOD AT FOH MIXING
SHAWN MENDES ON AN AVID S6L
Reports from the Road – Part 2
By Tom Wood. Photos by Jeff Wuerth.
In the second installment of this Professional Sound exclusive,
U.K.-born, Canada-based FOH engineer Tom Wood checks in from
various dates on the second half of Shawn Mendes: The Tour,
which finds the artist and his team trekking the globe throughout
most of 2019. The five-leg outing began in Amsterdam on March
7 th and is expected to wrap in late December with a trio of dates in
Mexico City.
“Bad Reputation”
That’s my favourite song to mix. It has everything I crave as a sound
engineer: a delicate and exposed piano introduction; a tom pattern that
is so deeply tribal it feels practically genetic... It stirs something inside,
something that has been sleeping for millennia. The vocal melody is des-
perate and haunted. It’s at war with itself. Low-fi delays with the feedback
cranked to 200 carry the fight through the masses within the arena. To
anyone walking in now, this is a colosseum. The FX track pours out suf-
fering, chains being whipped form a dark and dissonant bed within the
mix. The tension escalates into near chaos. The only thing controlling this
beast is a calculated intent to deliver pure evil into the hearts of those
brave enough to listen. The VCA fader all but flies off the board as a guitar
solo to make Slash himself weep blood pours from the fingers of our MD,
Zubin Thakkar. Shawn fills his lungs, hunting for his next note with a ded-
ication that would rival an animal stalking its prey, focused and prepared
to exhale a melody of pure hellfire. This, the answer in harmony to the
climax of Zubin’s solo. Shawn leans towards the microphone…
And then, nothing.
Abso-fucking-loutley nothing.
30 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
Portland. Show 1. North American Leg.
Now, I must beg of you some poetic justice here. The truth is we didn’t
even make it that far into the song. Not even close. On reflection, that’s
probably for the best.
After two months on the road in Europe, we finished three back-
to-back nights at London’s famed O2 arena with a feeling that we had
delivered a well-executed, minimal-issue tour – certainly nothing close to
a showstopper.
The end of the Euro leg tour party happened at a bowling alley sit-
uated amongst the various bars and restaurants that line the exterior of
the venue. It was better than it sounds. Alas, I don’t remember much of
that evening, but I do remember discussing with our monitor engineer,
Mike Flaherty, how much we were looking forward to getting back to
North America. After all, everything is easier for a Canadian artist there –
the local crews speak the same language, the arenas are in themselves
far more consistent than some of the wildcards Europe can deliver. Given
the relative ease of the last two months, the upcoming three-month
stretch should be a dream!
Well, dream on, team audio. Dream on…
The moment I realized something was wrong was shortly after
hitting my next snapshot button to fire “Bad Reputation.” Several bars
passed in the intro. That’s when I heard our MD, Zubin, in my shout
speaker: “GUYS! GUYS, WHAT IS GOING ON!?”
It became evident quickly that what was going on existed on the
monitor side of the snake. FOH was still alive and well, but the band mem-
bers were reporting white noise and a total loss of signal in their ears.
Having done nothing differently from 27 shows in Europe, this was