Times change, but the need for a good time never does—which is why Slightly Stoopid’s fans come out every year to let loose to some deep grooves. The band got its first record deal in the early Nineties while still in high school (and was signed by Sublime frontman Bradley Nowell, no less), so the group has grown up with its audience—and that audience has grown. These days, Slightly Stoopid fills amphitheaters across the country, like it did this year on the Summertime 2023 tour, bringing its unique mix of punk, reggae, dub, hip-hop and blues to sold-out crowds in venues like Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater and New Jersey’s PNC Arts Center.
Helping bring those good vibes to the fans at each stop was FOH engineer James “Jwiz” Wisner. While his audio background includes time in the studio with Nas, Shakira, Justin Timberlake, Toots and the Maytals and others, for the last 16 years, Wisner’s worked with Slightly Stoopid on records and the road, seeing the group’s dedication and work ethic take it to new heights. “It’s definitely been a growing process; this was the biggest tour we’ve done thus far, but they’ve been doing 5,000-7,000-seat amphitheaters across the country for easily the last 10 years,” said Wisner.
For this year’s journey, the tour brought along a passel of gear provided by Gainsville, Fla.-based Vivid Sky Productions, including a sizable PK Sound Trinity Black robotic PA system. Hearing about Vivid Sky’s newly acquired system from a friend, Wisner first tried a Trinity PA at a demo in Las Vegas earlier this year. “I did a virtual playback with some of our live show and mixed it on a system they had set up in a racetrack. From that, I was convinced that it was the next step up in audio quality from what we were using. With the PK rig, it’s incredible how defined the clarity is; for instance, you really hear that I’m adding distortion on the vocal because it’s so clear in the mix. The PK rig can be revealing and for me, I enjoy that you hear stuff that normally would get lost.”
As a result, this year’s tour went out with a system flexible enough to handle a variety of different-sized venues. “We have 32 Trinity Blacks, 24 T10s and 24 T218 subs,” said Drew White, PA Systems Tech, “so sometimes it’ll be 16 Trinity Blacks per side on the main hang, but if we have to fly them further downstage, we’ll do 12 Trinity Blacks over four T10s to angle down. They are powered boxes; they all have amplifiers in them, and they also are controlled and powered by PK cells on the ground.” The “robotics” aspect of the speakers allows users to hang an array straight, and then configure and remotely adjust the array’s directivity mechanically from 60 to 120 degrees, both symmetrically and asymmetrically, using industrial linear actuators.
Out at the FOH position, Wisner oversaw an Avid S6L 32-D console, marshaling around 60 inputs from the stage. Most effects put to use were either the desk’s onboard offerings or a selection of McDSP plug-ins like FutzBox, used for distortion on fan faves like “Devil’s Door.” Given his work with the group in the studio—he recorded, mixed, produced and mastered the group’s Top of the World album in collaboration with the band—Wisner has an ear for honing the Slightly Stoopid sound. “It definitely helps give me the path of what the sound is, and how to recreate the album experience live,” he said.
Of course, given his history mixing the group in concert, perhaps it’s inevitable that the live approach would come into play when recording, particularly given the band’s reputation as a touring act: “My approach—and something that works great with them—is recording everything as live as possible and not compartmentalizing anything too much in the production process. I think that live feel and sound in the studio is very much portrayed on the albums, which in turn is in the show—so I don’t know which one leads the other, but it definitely provides the overall vibe and feel.”
Keeping that vibe very much in the present during a show, the group typically used a click but there were no pre-recorded tracks. Hand in hand with that, the group had a general set list, but expanded it when necessary, Wisner explained: “Some of the core elements are the same throughout the summer—there are a few audibles, but for the most part, it’s the same set with a few changes here and there. However, we did two nights at Red Rocks where I mixed 50-something songs in all. The first night was more like the summer tour set, but the second night, they played the Closer to the Sun album from start to finish and then added some songs at the end.”
The result was a mix that kept Wisner listening and thinking on his feet throughout the entire show: “I’m mixing on the fly but using a lot of function keys and events so everything has a trigger and a place and I don’t have to page around to get to anything. That gives me a lot on one page to play with, whether it’s turning on and sending something to a delay or something else.”
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Capturing the Slightly Stoopid musical mélange on-stage was a varied group of microphones, with vocals heard via Shure Axient Digital handhelds and Beta 57s used for guitars. The drum kit was outfitted with an AKG D112 floating inside the kick with a Shure Beta 91A outside it; a Shure SM57 on the snare and Sennheiser e604s on the tom-toms. “We use Heil PR 30Bs on the horns; we like those a lot and they sound really good,” Wisner added.
Over in monitorworld, engineer Jess Chapman tackled the mixes nightly on a DiGiCo Quantum5 console. Most of the band wore JH Audio and Ultimate Ears in-ear monitors, but not everyone had them in all the time. As a result, the tour also carried a sidefill rig—two or three L-Acoustics ARCs on top of two SB28 subs—strong enough to be a full-on PA. “We ended up where we have lots of ears and wireless going on, but we also have a stage that’s 115 dB sometimes,” said Wisner with a chuckle. “That can get interesting for the mix when I’ve got a vocal mic that’s got just as much guitar and snare drum as it does vocals!”
The Slightly Stoopid summer tour ended in September, but the band plays the Reggae Rise Up festival in Las Vegas this month and wraps up the year in December with its ninth-annual destination event, Closer to the Sun 2023, taking place in Mexico over four days. Still, for Wisner, the highlight of the year may have been back in July when the tour hit San Diego. “We played Petco Park, where the Padres play,” he grinned. “It was 20,000-plus people in the band’s hometown baseball stadium—pretty incredible!”
This article appeared in the October, 2023 issue of Mix as “The Summertime Vibes of Slightly Stoopid.”
