Movin’ On 2007 at PSU
Apr 29th, 2007 by Alex
I rode up to Penn State (PSU) this weekend to support Movin’ On. Held on the HUB lawn, the PSU concert series is in its 33rd year and has attacted plenty of solid national acts in the past. I thought it was strange that I’d never heard of any of this year’s bands beforehand, nor had I heard any of their music aside from the headliner and the tracks on Kidz In the Hall’s web site. Headlining on the main stage was Phantom Planet, who apparently perform the “California” theme song to The OC (and although I’m familiar with the song and one or two others I still hadn’t heard of the band). Good music, crowd friendly and pleasant backstage. Authority Zero was a Rancid/Bad Religeon-like band with faster tempo and less intelligible vocals. I enjoyed Piebald, a very laid-back Phish-like jam band whose lead vocalist’s mannerisms reminded me of Mitch Hedburg. Also playing on the mainstage was Days Away and You, Me, and Everyone We Know, with nothing horrible or exceptional to note; if you’re reading, sorry guys… what I heard sounded good, but I was somewhat busy during the two sets.
I took a few pictures of the event, mostly from load-in. Then my batteries died. I’m hoping to get others’ pictures to post that will fill in the gaps. I’m cutting back on cross-linking my image galleries from the blog, so drop me a line if you’d like to see them.
A few brief notes, some more tech-related than others.
- The grandMA light is an amazing console.
- The Motel 6 at Stage College hosts some sort of church service in their conference room. Most attendees walked in carrying bibles, which sorta makes sense since the Gideons probably don’t supply the conference rooms.
- Maddy is pretty scary on Red Bull.
- Odds are good that the mix will be painfully loud if the sound engineer is partially deaf. If a band’s engineer does the monitor check, who should the band blame if the monitor mix is too loud?
- Complete load-out in 2.5 hours; I got to sleep around 4:30 this morning.
Probably the best part was seeing two students (that I work with regularly) man the primary consoles — both lighting and audio — with experience beyond their years. Their production experience was previously limited to high school shows and a handful of local acts, but now they can list at least one national act under their respective belts. I think that’s pretty cool; props to Jim and Gif for letting them, not everyone would have let them be as hands-on as they did.
It was good to get my hands dirty during the loads, being outside the entire weekend, and visiting State College. Although I wasn’t primary in any role except an emergency mid-air rescue operation, it was nice to get work with an experienced and professional crew. Despite the overcast/rainy weather, I think that those in attendance had a good time. I know that we did.
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[...] I also got the chance to put a pair of Etymotic Research’s ER-20 earplugs to the test. Earplugs are a must when working or attending a concert venue. An average concert-grade audio rig will operate at levels well above safe levels (100-115 dB) and many near the pain threshold (such as Phatom Planet at Movin’ On 2007, which at peak level was running 130 dB). The biggest complaint is that the mix sounds crappy with plugs in. Not so anymore. Bear in mind, these aren’t foam throwaways. The marketing materials for the ER-20’s claimed that the plugs “reduce all sound 20 dB evenly across the frequency range” and that “speech and music [should] stay clear, just quieter, like turning down the volume.” After wearing them comfortably for a few hours, I can vouch that they do in fact sound amazing. High and mid-range was still completely audible; lows were a little bit muffled, but that’s going to happen when you stick anything solid (no matter how flexible) in your ear canal. At about $12 a pair, they’re a bargain at double the price. [...]