LIVE SOUND ENGINEERING
BERKLEE NYC: BLACK BOX / FIVE ANGELS THEATER / WANDERING OAK / STAR & SHADOW CINEMA / STEEZY NIGHTS
BERKLEE NYC: BLACK BOX
The beating heart of the Live Music Production and Design graduate level program at BNYC is the Black Box Theater. Equipped with a Digico Quantum 338 digital audio console powering FOH and monitor mixing, Waves Superrack Live Box for plugins, Shure wireless microphone and in-ear monitor systems, surround sound capable FOH speaker system, a robust Dante network, a 20ft Roe LED wall, Eos Apex 10 lighting console, and full lighting grid, the Black Box Theatre features some of the most cutting edge technology experienced in live performances.
In this space, I setup and ran audio for live performances, speaking events, and workshops, like the one pictured with Chris Sclafani, renowned producer, demonstrating his workflow when recording vocal sessions, on stage with a live audience.
FIVE ANGELS THEATRE
Through working at BNYC, I also performed live sound duties as Five Angels Theatre, 52nd St. Project for large public addresses. This would involve setting up our own wireless microphone systems, projectors, and playback systems, using the house Yamaha LS9-16 audio console.
WANDERING OAK
North Eastern promotion company Wandering Oak have hosted an onslaught of amazing acts: Viagra Boys, Squid, SLIFT, Snapped Ankles, Black Country, New Road, Japanese Television, King Hannah, Kikagaku Mayo, Girl Band, TV Priest, Still Corners, Psychic Markers.
Working a Wandering Oak meant loading in each act, setting up the stage, sound checking each act, transitioning between each seamlessly, and packing down all equipment and often the stage at the end of a show. Great fun and hard work.
STAR & SHADOW CINEMA
The Star & Shadow Cinema is an independent cinema and live performance venue. I worked a lot of different shows there, from Afro-Latin funk extravaganzas Ladies of Midnight Blue, industrial techno pioneer JK Flesh, through to double-drummer noise brigade Cattle for the eighth Great Northern Amplifier Worship Festival, and a punk show by Blóm following the screening of Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution, a documentary about the queer punk movement.
STEEZY NIGHTS
Kay Greyson is an act I worked with multiple times. Twice was when friends and I put on shows at Bar Loco and Kommunity. We hustled to scrabble together the PA speakers, a mixer, a set of CDJs and whatever audio console, microphones, and cables we could get our hands on to pull it off. Following the success of the first show at Bar Loco, we were able to hire the huge Common Unity Sound System for the Kommunity show. A great DIY experience.
Aside from organizing the event, I would also run live sound. With most performers running playback, we would typically run playback through CDJs, with each performer having a mic. We often had large, raucous groups onstage, which was tons of fun.