The load-in started with quite a trek. Together with the members of Ex-Easter Island Head, we dragged their extensive instrumentation—from percussion and prepared guitars to stage mixers—straight through an empty Grote Zaal all the way to our workspace in the Kleine Zaal. There was an immediate connection with Ben, and the enthusiasm and camaraderie of these Scousers from Liverpool stood out right away. They were incredibly helpful, and the vibe was set from the start.
The Stage Setup
For this concert in The Rest is Noise series, Daan and I worked with a dual stage setup. The support act, Sun Kit, was positioned downstage on a lower riser. Their set relied heavily on electronics, requiring us to send their dry vocals to FOH for gate and EQ first, before routing them back into their own effect chain on stage.
The main act, Ex-Easter Island Head, took up the larger riser upstage. Beforehand, both bands had voiced some concerns. They worried about unintelligible monitors and their complex effects getting lost in the mix. We dedicated plenty of time to this during soundcheck, deploying six Max15 monitors across the two stages. The best decision of the afternoon was grabbing an iPad. This allowed Daan to stand right next to the musicians on stage to dial in their monitor mixes, completely eliminating the need to shout back and forth to the FOH desk.
We had a small hickup during the build: the connection between mixing console and stagebox was degraded. After some troubleshooting I could determine that a ethernet cable was the culprit. Yes, such is the plight of an ex-software developer in the live sound world: computer troubles? Call Joost! I’m happy to oblige though.
Club Vibe in the Kleine Zaal
The concert itself drew a crowd of about a hundred people. Pauline handled the lighting design. She had placed Juno lights underneath the stage, alternating between eight or so programmed states full of bright, modern colors like blue and lilac. Because both bands specifically requested backlighting only and absolutely no front light, the beams cut straight from the stage into the audience. That specific effect gave the room the perfect, dark club vibe.