then publish a story that is completely removed from the facts. Some
headlines:
• “Radiohead’s Coachella set besieged by audio problems” –
Consequence of Sound
• “Fleetwood Mac fans leave Wembley Stadium concert early
after complaining about ‘horrendous’ sound” – Metro
• “Spice Girls tour suffers ‘awful’ sound problems for second
night” – CNN
The third is particularly notable, as the engineer at the helm is some-
one I look up to as the industry standard of live mixing. He has mixed
the only show Shawn Mendes has ever raved to me about for its sonic
excellence. Ever.
It’s nauseating the role that social media now plays when things
go wrong. Various theories are thrown around groups on Facebook like
“Bobnet,” “Live Sound Engineers,” and “Riled-Up Roadies: A Safe Space for
Those Who Don’t Tour and Weren’t Actually There to Explain How They
Would Have Done Things Better.” (I might actually start that last one…)
I want to be absolutely clear about this: NEVER will you find an en-
gineer destined for success, re-posting a sonic horror story on Facebook
with the caption: “I wonder what happened here?” or worse yet, “Some-
body is getting a Greyhound ticket home.”
Why? Because any decent engineer or member of a touring crew
understands that these horror stories are just that: stories. The general
public and the news outlets they hold dear typically don’t have a clue
about how a show goes together. No amount of theorizing or guess
work will put you in the shoes of that engineer during that issue. Your
public inquest makes you look like an inexperienced twat.
Many of us have been to see artists we love and left feeling that we
could do a better job of the mix. Yearned for a shot at the gig. Having
been there and then been offered a shot at mixing a band I listen to for
pleasure, I immediately understood why things sounded the way they
did. I realized that my previous opinions had no basis in fact.
Salt Lake City. Show 21. North American Leg.
(The Issues of This Magazine Are Too Far Apart)
While I’m lucky that Shawn and I hear ear-to-ear and I’m able to mix the
show in a way that I find thoroughly enjoyable, this is not the scenario
with every artist I have or will ever mix. What the boss wants and what
the audience wants overrule my taste and enjoyment every time. I firmly
believe that being conscious of the differences in taste within your
audience, be it gig to gig or even song to song, is vital to continued
employment.
One of my greatest fears is to find myself loving a mix that everyone
else thinks is shit. I regularly use Ticketmaster to keep track of audio re-
views on this tour. Every few days after load-in I will sit with our Systems
Engineer and flick through the website. I love it because you can only
leave a review of the show if you actually purchased a ticket. So far, this
is the best source of information I have found to keep track of what the
fans think of the show.
The vast majority of people think that we rely on the venue to
provide the PA every day. Next, most of the negative reviews that we
do receive focus on coverage issues; however, the reviewers in question
typically aren’t able to differentiate a coverage problem from something
like feedback – or the mix just generally sounding crap.
For example, we did a show in Salt Lake City midway through the
tour. Jeff Wuerth, my SE, told me way in advance that due to the ludi-
crously high ceiling, there was only so much we could do to cover the
extreme top seats. We have a generous amount of PA on this run and
we deployed it in a way that would have been comparable to any other
major tour in the same venue with great techs and engineers. We did
32 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
everything to the best of our ability and 99 per cent of the reviews from
that day were great. One was not.
Here are four reviews from Salt Lake City in the exact order they were
posted:
Well, April from Salt Lake City, I did his soundcheck. Guilty as charged. Al-
low me to take this opportunity to formally apologize for the shit sound
and ruining your fucking Christmas. Frankly, I have no idea why Shawn
didn’t make sure it was good? What an arsehole. Our bad.
Now, it is fair to assume that April and her family were in the worst
seats in the house for system coverage. Next time we’re in Salt Lake City,
April, you can come and stand with me. Promise.
I invite anyone to go to Ticketmaster and read the reviews for Shawn
Mendes. I’m proud of them and everyone on the tour should be. I’d
rather send a link to this any day than attach a resume for a new gig. The
problem is, it only takes one negative review in the wrong context to
light the fuse on a shit storm of ignorance. Imagine the headlines rever-
berating around Facebook if only that one review got out…
“Mendes’ FOH engineer destroys family’s listening experience
while pissing on Xmas presents.’’
All of this, generated by someone who has no practical understanding of
how a show goes together.
The learning point is to remember that not only do we all hear dif-
ferently by human design, but also by room design, particularly in larger
venues. Taking time to embrace, listen to, and understand the negative
feedback will make you a better engineer overnight. So will understand-
ing when not to listen. It’s a confusing balance to get right. Half of the
people within the music industry that got a pass to come out and see
your show will relish the opportunity to blow smoke up your arse about
how great it sounds, even if you know it sucks that night. Find a reliable
source of feedback that you can trust. It’s probably not your account rep
at the sound company. Sorry.
Who the Hell Is Shawn Mendes?
The entire North American leg has been leading up to a sold-out, home-
town show headlining the Rogers Centre in Toronto. My first run with
Shawn featured a whole lot of stadiums when we opened for Taylor Swift
on the 1989 Tour. Granted, things were pretty different then; the show
was quite literally just Shawn and an acoustic guitar. I had barely mixed
an arena at that point in my career, so to say I was nervous on the first
day walking into Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, LA would be an under-
statement. One bus with a trailer, playing on average to 50,000 people
every night. What a ride that was.