Last month, the Flaming Lips visited Bimbo’s 365 (San Francisco) as part of the regional Noisepop festival. FOH engineer Chris Chandler had to pare down the band’s usually extensive equipment package, yet managed to reproduce the Lips’ big sound in a relatively small space. “In a smaller spot, I just make the most out of what they’re giving me from stage volume, and supplement whatever is needed vocal-wise and with the DI’d instruments,” Chandler says. “We also know we can only bring in one small rack with few essentials: The Boiler [Ridge Farm Industries] is a great stereo compressor for a tight, punchy sound. A Lexicon PCM 42 is perfect for rich, long delays. A McIntosh MM4 tube mixer gives us a fat bass and drum sound. I’ll also bring a Roland [RE-501] tape echo—a great tape delay for getting sound-on-sound and delay feedback effects, and a Distressor [from Empirical Labs], which is my favorite vocal compressor.”
