Jack White

PRODUCTION PROFILE

JACK WHITE

Following the release of his first solo album in four years, Boarding House Reach, the unrelentingly-eclectic Jack White returned to arenas and theatres in the UK and Europe with an analogue-heavy rig — extending the medium of his back catalogue — as TPi’s Jacob Waite discovers.

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Overlooking the former King’s Dock, TPi arrived at Space by Echo Arena Liverpool, an exhibition-centre-come-music-venue, to witness Jack White plunge a throng of digitally-engaged revellers into the depths of Boarding House Reach. Upon entry, gig goers are instructed to place their mobile phones into specially-sealed bags supplied by Yondr — a convention of all Jack White gigs — put together to avoid distraction during the show. The results? Bliss, actually.

SEVEN NATION ARMY Leading us into the 8,100sqm venue was Production Manager, Kit Blanchard, an industry mercenary who cut his teeth as a modern dancer before finding his feet behind the curtain. “I toured with a band called Phish from 1997 to 2012,” he began. “And when they weren’t on the road, I worked for several other bands, as a stage manager or as a rigger.” However, a change was due. “I wanted to do more production management for bands rather than events.” In 2013, [following stints working as the Stage Manager for Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits Festival, Outside Lands, Life Is Beautiful, and Bonaroo music festivals from 2004 to 2012], I got a job working as a Production Manager for Vampire Weekend. Jack White and Vampire Weekend share the same management team, and I expressed an interest in working with him, should the opportunity arise after Vampire Weekend had finished touring.”

Blanchard praised the familiar and fresh faces who supplied wares to the tour. In particular, Video Design, which provided video screens to the earlier 2018 summer run [the show had been scaled back for the winter version, only carrying lighting for the visual package]. Neg Earth Lights provided lighting in the UK and Europe. Blanchard continued: “Video Design is a new company to me, but I’ve collaborated with their vendor rep before and they have worked closely with Neg Earth on previous projects, so during the A rig in the summer months and festival

appearances, they brought the same high-level production values as Neg Earth does,” enthused Blanchard. “The way that the video and the lighting are intertwined, it was imperative that the video and lighting companies worked well together.”

Wigwam Acoustics was also a supplier to the camp. “Wigwam has a relationship with our audio vendor in the United States, Firehouse Productions, so that was seamless when we crossed the Atlantic, as they carry very similar, if not the exact same gear. There’s also a clear similarity in mind set between the two companies,” Blanchard explained.

Trucking specialist Fly By Nite navigated the kit across a series of European pitstops while global freighting was achieved by EFM Group. Bittersweet Catering fed the troops at their show in Liverpool, while Beat The Street was brought into the fold by Tour Manager, Lalo Medina, as a home-from-home comfort. “We’ve used Beat the Street before and it worked well in the past; if it’s working well and the costs are relative to other providers, then there is no reason to change. Especially because we’ve got a great crew that works so well together. The team we have [on tour] are what makes it so pleasant to be here,” assured Blanchard.

For the creatives tasked with bringing the Boarding House Reach tour vision together, the job was equal parts exhilarating and daunting: “We have an idea of who fits Jack’s aesthetic — because he doesn’t have a setlist every night — the lighting and video directors need to be very comfortable hands-on, running the show. Jack never wants us to do the same show twice, meaning timecode is out of the question.

“It’s a very creative, fluid and dynamic show – so you’ve got to find people comfortable. There is never a setlist and it’s all done on the spur of the moment, off the top of Jack’s head. They’re changing it up constantly to get the right feel and sound at that time.”

The tour’s Lighting Director, Michelle Sarrat, concurred: “He also changes the way he plays songs a lot. Sometimes he’ll play the piano to

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start off Dead Leaves and Dirty Ground and it will be this piano-y ballad-y thing and sometimes he starts it off on guitar and its really rock ‘n’ roll – so there’s a lot of flexibility we had to build into stuff.”

Sarrat joined the tour following the departure of Emmanuelle ‘Gigi’ Pedron [who had set sail with Queens of the Stone Age]. “We have some stuff which is loosely cue-stacked but I run everything manually — so there’s no setlist and there’s no timecode. Everything has to be manual and be changeable if he decides to stop, change tempo or vamp out a whole thing.”

FOH Engineer Brett Orrison agreed: “Jack could come out and blast six rock ‘n’ roll songs, or he could play three acoustic songs; we just have no idea! His music and the records he’s done are kind-of all over the place, so we can go from that acoustic vibe into something like Seven Nation Army, which is a huge arena rock song.

“It’s volatile, it’s in your face, he wants you to feel like you’re going on a ride with him. I think most of the crowd realises halfway through the show that he really is going for it. He’s giving everything he’s got, and the band is just waiting patiently to what they’re going to play next. It makes it really fun!”

FLY FARM BLUES Montreal-based Lüz Studio Creative Director, Matthieu Larivée designed the show and its visual content. The brief on Jack White’s end was exactly that, brief. “We were told ‘all blue and use the number 3’. That’s it,” Larivée quipped.

Utilising a blue-and-white colour palette to bathe the band in a sea of eerie blue [“12 different types of blue but they’re really subtle!” declared Sarrat] that has become the hallmark of the Jack White’s aesthetic and flanked by a multitude of 3s (3 video screens; 3 pianos and 3 microphones, et al.)

When it came to the tour design, Jack White adopted a hands-on approach: “He approved the aesthetics first and he explained how he going to perform. There is no set list and sometimes he starts a song and switch

into something else. So, we worked closely with him and his team to find the rhythm for what we do,” Larivée reviewed.

In keeping with the tour’s aesthetic and Jack White’s penchant for upholstery; the male crew members donned smart suits and hats, while the female contingent wore dresses, skirts or trousers and blouses.

A total of 71 Martin by Harman Viper Air FX fixtures are used in the show. Sarrat talked us through the 9 fixtures rigged in a centre circle, and 9 in the centre pod. “The main theme is blue and 3s with a bunch of [Martin by Harman MAC] Vipers. He’s very fond of the number 3. So, you’ll see that everything is in 3s or multiples of 3. The pods on either side (SR and SL) have 9 lights in each of them — plus there are 3 more pods of 9 lights each above the 5 in total.”

Larivée opted for a total of 54 Claypaky Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures, supplied by Neg Earth Lights, to support the show design, “because it has a Fresnel lens instead of a LED pixel look.” The overall show design featured “3 column-shaped rotators upstage with video on one side and there are 12 Sharpys on each rotator — 3 columns of 4 rows on each [Claypaky] Sharpy Washes on the other, which can be positioned individually allowing for a wide variety of looks,” Sarrat added.

A series of video screens with blooming flowers, swirling patterns and, before Jack White hit the stage, a slowly ticking countdown augmented the lighting design. Sarrat avowed: “This is the first time Jack has actually carried any video at-all or branched out to moving lights. He’s traditionally had very conventional heavy rigs.”

On-stage, Galaxia Electronics Winvision 9mm LEDs formed 3 large video walls (3m wide by 6m high) configured in the shape of the Roman numeral III and powered by a Green Hippo Hippotizer Boreal media server, supplied by Upstaging and put into motion by 3 Atlanta Rigging Services rotators. The show design met critical acclaim having been shortlisted in the inaugural Knight of Illumination Awards USA’s highly-competitive video category.

Larivée noted the trials and tribulations of managing the backdrop to fit Jack White’s creative approach to performance. “It was really a gig that

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Production Manager, Kit Blanchard; Lighting Director, Michelle Sarrat with her trusty Macro Mistress (the MA Lighting grandMA2) & her tour mascot, Grumpy Cat.

you had to follow what was going on stage. If he goes to the piano, the video director would use camera on the screen to show that. We used a VFX software called Notch to treat the image to blue or BW, there were 10 robo cameras and a main FOH camera [supplied by Upstaging]. All run as a live feed through Notch for treatment,” he reflected on scaling the video content to fit an array of locations. “For some smallest venues, we had to remove the screens rotator but we staggered the lighting and video on the back wall so there was not much difference. That way, we could integrate the aesthetics. Of course, when we were doing biggest festivals or arenas, the direction was to use more camera IMAG compare to a smaller theatre venue but even in biggest venue situation, we wanted to do only lighting songs.”

Larivée designed the staging with Jack White surrounded by stage risers in a semi-circle, comprised 64 Upstaging Saber LED 250’s, 60 Upstaging Saber LED 500’s and 12 Upstaging Saber LED 1000’s. “The staging worked well with the different scale of venues, was perfect for the dynamic on stage. There is an LED backlit stepped semi-circular riser, which the band plays on top of, while Jack’s world is downstage center allowing him to travel between the band members freely.”

In addition, 2 rows of 9 Claypaky Sharpy Washes situated on the floor

upstage and downstage provided aerial looks and band illumination. “The show has no set list – it’s all live. We have a pool of about 70 songs, and the show is always different. Having flexibility in how we use lights and video is great for the show,” clarified Larivée.

A total of 19 TMB Solaris Flares joined the lighting rig for the arena show. Operating duties were achieved via an MA Lighting grandMA2 console. Sarrat explained how she juggled with the hands-on nature of busking on an active console. “It’s been my usual desk for years now. It would be hard for me to set up the show with anything else; I use the layout views extensively as a busking system and have it set up with visual icons, so I don’t have to read during the show. This makes it quicker and easily identifiable. That’s one thing I love, and I love the flexibility that comes with creating lots of macros. My console is affectionately called the ‘Macro Mistress’, because it’s got a gazillion macros that do everything from blacking out to resetting. That’s something pretty specific to grandma, they’re the best!” she exclaimed.

Sarrat also praised Lüz Studio’s approach to show design. “I love them! They’re really funny, creative and have a great attitude. They work really, really hard; we were at Upstaging, some days, for almost 20 hours during rehearsals. They are so invested in making the show awesome – they care a

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Analogue vikings: Brett Orrison & Taylor Nyquist; Jack White steps it up a gear in Liverpool; Firehouse Productions’ RedNet-based drive system racks on site.

lot.” Larivée gleamed: “I’m super happy. The staging worked well with the different scale of venues, it was the perfect dynamic. It was also the perfect link between scenic and video elements. Originally, the team were not sure how visuals could be integrated. However, Jack and his team are very happy with look and the feedback from the tour. I’m also happy that it fits with his aesthetic and the music.” He concluded: “On our end, doing that kind of show for an artist with no setlist was a great challenge, but we are very happy. I think that we found our role in that production.”

CONNECTED BY LOVE Also, in tune [literally] to the singer’s needs was FOH Engineer, Brett Orrison, who was no stranger to analogue mixing. “Jack and I share the same console in our home studio, we both have a love for analogue gear. When he’s touring, his only rule is; the FOH and monitor engineers need to use analogue consoles and an analogue signal chain. For me, it was the best of both worlds to hear that.”

After extensive research and consulting with friends, Orrison opted for a Midas XL4. “I picked the XL4, the best sounding console available, that rental companies still stock. When we switch out the consoles, it’s pretty seamless – there’s no drastic changes in the sound – which is cool. You never know with these old consoles, but Wigwam really look after their kit; the desks are very well-maintained.”

Orrison utilised Midas XL4 mic/line button, along with a pair of Genelec 8050A powered studio near-field monitors (sitting on the console) which makes virtual playback achievable. “I called Firehouse Productions because of the reputation they have with analogue gear, and that fact that they like to work with rock ‘n’ roll, plus they were really interested in working with Jack. For the European run, we the teamed up with Wigwam, which provides our stuff in the UK and Europe. They carry nice XL4’s – so it was a no brainer to pick that desk, and the rest of my gear is literally from my studio at my house! [which doubles as a recording space in Austin, Texas].

“When you carry a big console, it means you have to carry quite a bit of outboard gear too because you have no on-board compressors or any dynamics whatsoever – all your effects are from the outboard too. Jack likes the finer things in life, as do I, so we have a bunch of Rupert Neve products. Rupert Neve is one of mine and Jack favourite people – he actually invented the equaliser and his consoles are what we use in our studios.”

The audio control system assembled by Firehouse Productions, in the US, utilised elements from Orrison’s bespoke analogue recording space in Austin, Texas, and the company’s array of RedNet units that allowed the audio crew to record up to 72 channels of audio every night for archiving, as well as allowing those same recordings to be used for virtual soundchecks through the FOH console. A stack of 4 RedNet A16R 16-channel analogue I/O interfaces take signal from the stage to a pair of Mac Minis using 2 RedNet PCIeR Cards as interfaces.

“Jack wanted an all-analogue rig for the tour, and the AoIP system we built for this tour lets the audio stay analogue right up to the console,” stated Chris Russo, Firehouse Productions’ Director of Touring. “At the same time, the band has all the benefits of being able to record every show digitally, ready for archiving, remixing or for virtual soundchecks.

“Touring analogue these days is very rare and it’s a real treat, and to compliment his idea of analogue, we went and took it a step further and added a real tape delay and real tape echo and tape reverb – and just tried to accent what he wanted - his whole vocal chain is going to tape, literally, and going through all analogue signals. It’s a treat!” Orrison exclaimed. On the outboard sat a Universal Audio 1176 compressor, 2 Rupert P2MB Portico II Master Buss processors, 2 Drawmer DL241 compressors, 2 Drawmer DL441 compressors, 2 Rupert Neve 5035 Shelford Channel compressors, an AMS Rupert Neve 33609 stereo compressor, a Demeter RV1 spring reverb, a Yamaha Professional Audio SPX2000 processor, a TC Electronic 2290 signal processor, a George Massenburg Labs 8200 Parametric Equaliser, an Avalon VT-737SP, a Focusrite Octopre MKII, 2 Lake LM44 digital audio processors, 2 UBK Fatso dual channel compressor, 9

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Monitor Engineer, Marcel Cacdac & monitor mascot, R2-D2 alongside Monitor Technician, Adam Bannister; The d&b audiotechnik J Series main hang.

Rupert Neve 5043V duo compressors, an Alan Smart C1 compressor, a Fulltone Musical Products Tape Echo, a Roland RE201 Space Echo, a Bricasti M7 reverberation processor. While iSEMcon EMX 7150 mic, Lectrosonics R400A wireless and Sound Devices USBPre2 preamp were responsible for time aligning the system.

To record the virtual soundcheck, the FOH utilised Focusrite RedNet AD/ DA technology and a Focusrite RedNet MP8R preamp, for ambient mics, redundant Mac Mini’s on Dante A and B. “There are 2 keyboard players on this run, which is something Jack has never done before – so there are a lot more RNDIs than normal, but Brett [Orrison] picked out the active Rupert Neve DIs, which have been great and transformer in them. They’ve been rock solid, as some days we’re hanging understage when we have our taller risers – so they’re suspended by carabiners. They’ve really taken a beating and been great,” Taylor Nyquist, Systems Engineer, remarked.

“For microphone choices, I went for things I felt comfortable with and spoke with Marcel [Cacdac, Monitor Engineer] a lot before we jumped on the gig,” stated Orrison. A popular choice with the pair is SE Electronics microphones.

Chris Dauray, SE Electronics Brand Manager, enthused: “We’ve really enjoyed expanding into the live sound market over the last few years, and knowing that Jack White’s team utilises our V7 X dynamic microphone for one of the most tone-conscious guitarists on the planet makes us extremely happy.”

In addition to SE Electronics, the crew deployed Shure SM58’s on the downstage mics and on all the vocals. “We’re using an Avalon VT-737SP processor, over gaining the 2 pre-amps to create a classic tube distortion. Jack has also got a clean mic which has the tape delay and the reverb on it, which creates a real thick analogue sounding vocal — not heavy FX but there is a kind of warming agent. Then he has another vocal, which is his pedal board FXs – which is anything from harmonisers to distortion, octave

– it’s all over the place, in a good way.”

Wigwam Acoustics also supplied the UK / Europe PA. The rig in Liverpool’s newest event space was a d&b audiotechnik J rig which comprised a main hang of 16 boxes per side — 12 J8’s over 4 J12’s. The side hang saw 16 V’s (8 V8’s over 8 V12’s per side) both arrays utilised d&b audiotechnik’s ArrayProcessing.

The subs were 18 d&b audiotechnik B22’s (6 groups of 3 on end in CSA), and all amplification was via d&b audiotechnik D80’s (only 34 units were needed since the V’s are passive boxes). Fibre via Optocore (AES from Lake to Optocore / Fibre to Stage / AES from Optocore) to the amps with analogue backup was the system drive design.

Nyquist explained: “We’ve had dates where, because Jack plays all kind of venues, we’ve had to scale the system up and down, and so every day is different, there’s never 2 shows the same.”

“Taylor set the PA system up to be modular,” added Orrison. “That’s why we have 4 little racks,” he pointed out. “Because we could, if we had to, put the console on-top on these [flight cases], or we can stack these – we’ve done 7 different combinations because we’re going from arena to theatre to Third Man Records, which fits 120 people.”

Nyquist, also expanded on Jack White’s obsession with the number 3, which the keen-eyed gig-goer may have spotted: “Jack has 3 wedges, 3 mics and multiples of 3 for all the lights. You can see it when the cardioid subs are stacked on end [3 high flat stacked] with a 5ft stage gets to be too tall, so we do them up on end with the middle reversed to create a cardioid dispersion. This helps Marcel out because he’s got quite a loud stage already. It’s just a happy accident that they happen to be in groups of 3 in alignment with Jack’s favourite number.”

Meanwhile in the wings, Monitor Engineer Marcel Cacdac talked of mixing on his Midas H3000. “Having mixed the show since March, it’s definitely the right tool for the job. Working in analogue allows me to be in

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Connected by love: Jack White and the band embrace following a rapturous performance in Liverpool.

several different places at once rather than having to page screen by screen of click through snapshots.”

Monitor Technician, Adam Bannister joined Cacdac in monitor world. “Coming into the world of touring, digital was full throttle, so it’s pretty cool for me to be a part of such an analogue tour. I started out mixing on analogue a long time ago and it’s a really cool workflow. Being able to have everything in front of you instead of having to dig through for what you need, is great.”

A total of 15 d&b audiotechnik M2 wedges and 2 d&b audiotechnik B6 Subs provided sound at the monitor positions. Despite the hands-on approach to mixing on a Midas H3000, Cacdac noted: “It is a long desk, so it’s a stretch to get from one end to the other but I’ve got a pretty good wingspan. I can get quite a few things done just in that alone - it’s a lot quicker. Being able to have that type of workflow is paramount in the show because everything happens off the cuff, it’s happening very quickly, and if you look down for too long, you’ll miss the cue. Jack has 3 different positions on stage, so he can appear at any of those positions just like that.”

The custom-tailored outboard offering comprised a unique and prestigious punch; an Avalon VT-737sp for vocal distortion, a Yamaha SPX 900 multi effects audio processor, a TC Electronic D2 Delay, a Lexicon PCM70 digital effects processor, a Lexicon PCM 96 stereo reverb/effects processor, 2 Meyer Sound CP-10 Parametric EQs, 16-channel BSS FCS 960, 2 BSS DPR-901 II compressors, 2 Drawmer DL251 compressors, 4-channel dbx Professional Audio 160A compressors, 4 Empirical Labs EL-8 Distressors, 2 BSS DPR-404 compressors, 4 Drawmer DS404 noise gate signal processors, a Radial Engineering Phazerbank and XTA GQ600 graphic equaliser.

The backline team of Dan Mancini (guitar technician), Josh Smith (keyboard technician) and Derek Brown (drum and bass technician) supported the band.

Simon Hall, Wigwam Acoustic’s Project Manager for Jack White’s Boarding House Reach tour, commented: “From Wigwam’s perspective, this was a great tour to work on and another example of how we can work with American artists when they cross over the Atlantic. For Jack White,

we worked with Firehouse and designed a scalable d&b J-Series PA for the combination of arena and theatre venues. It was a good example of how we can mix old technology with new: there was a completely analogue control package, yet the J-Series was utilising the latest d&b ArrayProcessing software, ensuring even coverage to every seat.”

The greatest advertisement for the Boarding House Reach tour is in the DNA embedded in its attendance – thousands of children, teenagers and adults — regardless of location (“if there is some legendary venue that holds a thousand people then we’ll play that for three nights because Jack wants to play there,” Orrison delineated) – his ability to transform and overlook modern conventions of live touring (mobile phones, in-ears, digital mixing consoles, et al.) to champion traditional technologies; in favour of making the old feel new again is unparalleled and no deep shade of blue aesthetic can drown Jack White’s irrefutable live prowess. But don’t take it from a writer during his first backstage tech tour – listen to those on the road who made the vision possible – onstage and behind the curtain. Cacdac explained: “All of the idiosyncratic functions that are contained here are perfect and to have anything less – then that would be weird – because it seems completely normal to us that there is no setlist and there are no snapshots.”

If you witnessed the tour this time around, you’ll know how slick the show looked, how tight the band were, and how incredible it sounded. As far as Jack White’s crew goes, 3, it seems, is indeed the magic number, even when it is a ‘happy accident’… TPi Photos: David Swanson, Ray Spears, Lüz Studio & TPi www.jackwhiteiii.com www.sseaudiogroup.com/wigwam www.firehouseproductions.com www.negearth.com www.upstaging.com www.flybynite.co.uk www.beatthestreet.net www.bittersweetcatering.co.uk www.overyondr.com

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