NEW YORK, NY—These days, bedroom musicians can become the next big thing overnight from a YouTube video, so the idea of a band touring the world, album after critically acclaimed album, playing upwards of 250 shows a year—in other words, paying its dues—sounds positively retro. Perhaps so, but that’s what Brooklyn, NY-based The Hold Steady has been doing for the last year, supporting its fifth album, 2010’s Heaven is Whenever.
“I guess that in some ways we’re a very easy band to mix, and in some ways it can be difficult, given the room or the size of the PA, because, well, we’re a pretty loud rock band,” chuckled guitarist Tad Kubler. The FOH engineer charged with that task for the last year has been Scott Adamson. “Scott’s really good because he’s also a performer himself and a really competent musician, so he’s very meticulous [and] everything from microphone choice to distressors to compression and things like that are a pretty important part of what we do.”
Adding to the usual night-to-night variables like room size is the fact that the band doesn’t carry its own audio system. Adamson explained, “The most equipment that we’ll carry are a light package and a couple front-fill speakers that we use, but that’s about it.”
As the band plays classic rock-influenced songs with dense lyrics, the house mix isn’t affected much by the constant change of gear, according to Adamson: “At the end of the day, they’re a rock ’n’ roll band and they sound pretty good coming off the stage. With the correct microphone selection, it’s good to go. There are a lot of changes that I have to do for guitar solos and bringing out certain parts of certain songs, but it’s pretty much the same mix every night.”
Nonetheless, that mix comes out a different PA each time, so Adamson has come to appreciate a well-kept system like two of his favorites—the 1,200-seat 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. and the Roxy in Boston, which are coincidentally both d&b audiotechnik J series-based systems. “Walking into the Roxy, it was spectacular to be able to mix these guys how I felt they should be mixed,” said Adamson. “But that’s more of a rarity; it’s standard to go in and have to fight with the PA to get it to where I’m happy with it. At the club level where these guys are playing, a lot of times I find that it’s rarely great.”
Despite such drawbacks, the band and engineer aim for consistency, regardless of the venue. Kubler noted, “We can go from the smaller clubs, the 4-5-600 capacity rooms, to the bigger seaters that hold 3-4,000 people or even festivals where you’re playing to 40,000 people, and it’s always going to sound pretty much the same for us because of how we set up and the gear that we use.”
Helping ensure that uniformity, the act carries a collection of mics that include beyerdynamic M 201s and Sennheiser 421s on the guitars, as well as, currently, a beyerdynamic M 88 for singer Craig Finn. Bandmate Kubler explained, “Craig had an operation on his jaw when he was in college; he doesn’t have a lot of feeling in his lower lip and gum, so he tends to spit a lot which destroys microphones pretty quickly. He uses one of those clown-nose-looking things on his microphone, but by halfway through the set, it’s kind of waterlogged, so Scott has to adjust for that.”
That said, the vocals are crucial, given their emphasis in the band’s songs. “The Hold Steady is certainly a lyric-based band,” said Adamson. “Pretty much everyone in the room is focusing on the words, so they are the most important part of the mix. There are plenty of guitar solos that really take some sculpting, especially since Tad has many different guitars and sounds. It keeps me on my toes to try and keep his guitar tone just at the right spot for every song.”
Currently the band is pressing on through a U.K. run, before heading to Australia for more shows in March, all the while with Adamson manning the house mix. “We’ve been really fortunate to work with people who know what they’re doing, really competent guys,” said Kubler, referring to his engineer. “The amount of stress that it alleviates when you’re getting up every night and playing in front of people is tremendous. It goes unsaid a lot, and I’m sure there are nights it can feel like a thankless job, but we have a lot of gratitude.”
The Hold Steady
theholdsteady.com
beyerdynamic
beyerdynamic.com
