Vans Warped Tour

The Vans Warped Tour is reportedly the largest festival tour currentlyrunning in North America, bringing the top names in modern punk —Rancid, Andrew W.K., Sum 41, Dropkick Murphys, The Used, Pennywise,Less Than Jake and so many others — together on four stages.Showgoers also kept an eye on the daredevil skateboarding tricks on thehalf-pipe that loomed adjacent to the two main stages.

The tour began its cross-country trek in mid-June, makingstops along the West Coast (where Mix caught it at Pier 30/32 inSan Francisco), and then continuing into the heart of the Midwest andwrapping up in New Jersey. Crew chief and lead systems engineer, aswell as monitor engineer for Simple Plan, Daniel Bonneau has beenhandling this festival for the past two years; tour company IndustrialSound has been supplying the equipment for nine years.

Daniel Bonneau reports that the two main stages are running Yamaha4000s at FOH, while the smaller stages rely on a 3k. “We’ve hadso much rain, wind and dust, those consoles hold out througheverything,” he says. “I’ve had two gallons of water dumpedon one of them. In the morning, I just dried it up, pulled out a fewmodules and dried those up, and we’re good to go for anotherday.” Bonneau says that the mixes are straightforward, and heuses only a few pieces of outboard gear: two Yamaha SPX-990s, and a TCElectronic M2K and 2290 delay.

Each band gets a standard mic setup: Vocals are SM58 (thoughDropkick Murphys use OM7s) and Beta 58s, all supplied by IndustrialSound. Bass gets a Beta 52 on the cabinet, JDI direct boxes and apassive DI line. Guitars are all 57s. Drum mics include SM98s on toms,52 on the kick, Beta 91 inside the kick, and hi-hats and overheads are81s.

With so many bands playing during one day, Bonneau reports thatthere are no soundchecks; instead, each band gets a line check. TheP.A. consists of EAW 850s with six subs a side, which are proprietaryenclosures from Industrial Sound.

An Adamson 840 console handles monitor world, again for durability.All of the wedges and sidefills are driven by Crown amps. The speakersthemselves are all proprietary enclosures from Industrial Sound withJBL components. Most bands are not using in-ears, except for AndrewW.K.’s drummer and Sum 41. “They’re coming in with their ownconsoles, and we’re just giving them a third split,” Bonneausays. “They’re getting every input into their own console, andthen from there it breaks out.”

Most of the bands do not have the luxury of bringing their ownmonitor engineers. Instead, Bonneau relies on the Industrial Soundcrew. “All of the guys I have out here have been around for along time, so they’re helping me out,” Bonneau concludes,“and it’s really a learning experience for a lot of engineers outhere, and for myself. This is pretty big for me; I’m enjoying it. Aslong as the weather stays on our side — no more hail, no moretornadoes!”

FOH Engineers

Jon Martin
Jaramah Ball
Jason Michaels

Monitor Engineers

Jeff Eastland
Tim Illian
Alex Fletcher

Patch Masters

Dave Gibney
Josh Bolin