Martin Audio’s WPC line array provided the audio when the psychedelic US group Flaming Lips recently performed their classic album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, live in concert. The performance took place on July 17, at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, North Carolina, US.
The band played two distinct sets. After performing the album from front to back, they followed up with a typical concert set from their general repertoire.
Hired by the venue, live performance production company Soundworks of Virginia selected the Martin Audio line arrays. The PA comprised 12 WPC elements per side and eight SXH218 subwoofers. For sightline purposes these were arranged four-a-side (two wide, two high) bridged.
Four WPS were set along the front stage lip and another two on the stage left subs as outfill to cover the asymmetrical audience arrangement. In addition, they provided XE500 wedge monitors and CDD-LIVE 15s atop SXP218s for sidefills.
Nestled in a grove of stately pines, and owned by the town of Cary, Koka Booth Amphitheatre is an unusual venue. Bryan Hargrave, senior tech, Soundworks, said: “It seems they cleared just enough of the forested area to plunk down the venue and left all of the surrounding trees and foliage intact – which makes a lovely setting. Technically, loading dock, power and rigging are all straightforward and completely adequate. It was a very easy space to work in.”
Hargrave had to cater for a 5,000-cap audience out on the grass, and a 75ft travel distance from stage to front-of-house. Hargrave commented: “We shot the PA 225ft and used the house delays for the very back of the venue. The PA will easily cover 250 ft if we tell it to, but we opted to use the house delays for the last bit and that worked fine.”
Soundworks are no strangers to Koka Booth, having produced shows with Little Feat, Collective Soul, Switch Foot, Trombone Shorty and Big Boi in the past.
Hargrave commented: “After the first time in, we had an accurate slice [calculated in Martin Audio’s proprietary DISPLAY software] so it’s easy to generate the necessary files to load into the iKon amplifiers. We just change for temperature and humidity, although we may move DSP allocation for ‘Hard Avoid’ based on the act, and whether they feel they are getting any slap from the back wall.”
By this he was referring to the covered bar/seating area with a wooden wall 250ft from the stage. He concluded: “The house has delays installed that do a pretty good job covering that area. We stop the audience area in DISPLAY in the middle of that seating area, which draws most of it in a little closer sonically without hitting the back wall too hard. If the band’s FOH tech has an issue with the slap, we will simply move the Hard Avoid from stage to the rear wall and the problem disappears.”
