You can’t tame a Crazy Horse!

Behind the scenes at Budweiser Gardens with @LeGiff

Ian Gifford – Oct. 9, 2012

Unlike your average concert goer these days, I believe I have a somewhat unique perspective to share for various reasons. I am a performer, an audio engineer, a stage manager, a music writer and former radio host. I've been closely tied to music for a good part of my life.

I haven’t been to a whole heck of a lot of large scale concerts as a spectator to be honest. I can name about 10 shows I’ve been to that were larger than 6000 in the audience. Most of my shows have been in clubs and halls or outdoor festivals and tiny little taverns and the like. I’ve always said that I prefer to go to shows where I can tip a “bevvie” back with the bands afterwards or maybe buy them a round. I’m a musician after all. Musicians often do that for one another. 

I didn’t get, or expect a chance to buy Neil Young and Crazy Horse a round this Saturday but that’s different. First, I read somewhere that Neil is off booze and other stuff altogether. Second, with the energy that the band churns out song after song, despite the large hall and throngs of howling  & whistling fans, they gave off an energy akin to the hardest rocking bands any given night at Call The Office, just down the road from Budweiser Gardens, where Saturday night’s festivities took place. Their aural honey was a rock fan’s nectar of the gods! 

Not being quite as familiar with shows like this (every show is very different in every venue and I have worked behind the scenes as a stage manager or sound tech for literally thousands of shows!), I find it interesting to see how facility management has to deal with it. Let me veer off for a second here: 

I was glad to have met up with my friend James Reaney of the London Free Press before the show. He wrote a review of the evening that I could never hope to top! If I put in anything about what songs were played and such, I’m pretty sure I’d just be ripping James off, so let me instead try to lend a musician/audio geek perspective to the event. 

Saturday evening I met up with my brother in law Brad, who has seen Neil Young before, but as part of his own thing without Crazy Horse. We bused downtown and were both pretty excited.  We had planned to grab a beer and meet up with some people then go in and see the opening band.

When we arrived we immediately got our drinks only to find that when we got to our gate, we weren’t allowed to enter with our full to the brim beer; house policy for the night. Well, I wasn’t about to chug it, as I just don’t like to do that and I’d rather enjoy it, so we stood outside in the corridor and took our time. We heard a band take the stage and knew it had to be “Infantree” and were a little bummed to miss them.

While we stood there, we met a lot of interesting people, some that were already pretty intoxicated it seemed, as evidenced by the amount of times I was spit on while being regaled with past Neil young show experiences. 

Some of the folks were quite fun to talk to and had wondered aloud what the policy was about. Some people grumbled of course and other people simply went “Oh well!” and either knocked back their drinks or threw them out. The “drunken spitter” was a recipient of a couple of giveaways. Lucky him! 

Now don’t think I am about to trash the facility or anything, but more, I hope to give some perspective  to the non-technical folk, on why shows like the Crazy Horse gig happen to go like this. The Budweiser Gardens marketing and PR people already explained to me that it’s really about managing the alcohol consumption and general risk factor. When you have people of all ages on the floor, with the house lights off, you can’t see who’s got something they should not have etc. 

You also cannot see who may have been served past their limit and may become a liability for the facility. I truly get it, having worked more than 10 years in the bar scene every staff member has to be able to monitor the situations appropriately. But really it’s the same for any music facility with a liquor license and especially those with kids under 19 in attendance. Insurance costs are also a factor I am certain. 

When we did get into the hall, the direct support act “Los Lobos” was on. I immediately noticed the sound was muffled or muddy, as James mentioned in his article. I did walk around the entire floor to give my ears time to adjust to the volume but even after a while it still was fairly muddy. 

Most of these big touring bands have their own “Front of House” (FOH) technician that writes what are called a “production rider” and “stage plots” and runs the checks and the sound for the headliner. 

In a house like Budweiser Gardens they will either ask the venue to rent from a reputable local sound company or possibly the acts are touring with many rigs in an entourage of crew in many buses and trucks. I’ve been the third guy mixing the opener in a situation like that and gotten to do a sound check with my band of just 5 minutes! Sometimes it just turns out like that and you make the most of it. 

The FOH tech for the headliner calls the shots. They get all the time to work out all sound issues that they need, then the support takes their time and then the third band gets whatever’s left until the doors open. Like I said one day I got a 5 minute sound check with my band and it was pretty hairy! Overall though I thought it sounded ok in the end. Things can be much different these days in the digital realm though. 

 I do want to dispel the myth that opening acts aren’t “allowed” to sound better, or that the top guys sabotage the opener’s sound, things just do not work that way. It all comes down to the time each of the technicians gets to work out “bugs” individually and after all; the headliner is such for a reason and deserves more of the attention. 

Things sometimes can get better for the openers further in on a tour, especially when and if the company is touring with the newer digital boards where they can save their mix information to a thumb drive or SD card. 

Some techs maybe just don’t “get” some venues because they’re a new experience for them and that could have been the case with Los Lobos, because frankly I’ve heard a few bands now at that venue that sounded impeccable. It was a shame really. I loved their energy and I liked all their songs, even the ones I hadn’t heard before. I mean those dudes ROCKED and I would love to see them in London again as James suggested in his article. Hint hint there BG. ;-) 

However, it sounded like the Crazy Horse tech got his time in, because the Crazy Horse set was phenomenal! The lows of the bass guitar were rich and full, the electric guitars were in your face without cutting your head off and the drums were super big without making your head pound along with each hit.

I got a neat perspective late in the show when I was invited up to a suite with Chris of Budweiser Gardens. We were at the side of the stage and not only could see the full band from an eagle’s eye view, we got a direct blast from the line array speakers which sounded crystal clear. The other bonus of that was watching the hustle and bustle of crew and technicians between songs, which is something I always get great joy from. Stage work fascinates me; I could sit and watch it all day. ;-) 

I mean, sitting there and seeing the prep that had to go into setting up and tearing down those giant mock amps; which I am sure were hiding much smaller combo or short stack amps behind them; was as much of a thrill for me as being in the same room with Neil Young and Crazy Horse themselves. 

The big microphone in the middle was funny, if not kitschy and a tad distracting. 

Overall the show made me realize just how much thought and prep has to go into every little detail of presenting a show like that, from how much food and drink you can expect to be consumed to how much space you can fill with bodies in the stands and on the floor, to how to make sure the experience is a safe and enjoyable one for all. 

I think the only thing missing from a show like this was a communication from the facility’s standpoint. As I mentioned to the marketing people at BG, if it was communicated that alcohol was not allowed on the floor in advance, it could be something that people prepare for. I would have liked the opportunity to get there before and make sure I saw the openers. As a reviewer that’s important to me. It’s not that having a beer is a make or break to the show but it is part of the overall experience for some, especially on a holiday weekend when you are out celebrating with friends and family.

Of course it can lead to problems as well when people go out for drinks first to a nearby pub or pre-drink at home. This is something that has been brought up as a bone of contention for other bar/venue owners as of late in the local media. 

So from the Neil Young fan and Crazy Horse fan perspective, I had a great time. They did not disappoint at all and the show was everything I would have expected from them and more. The standout track for me was the new single from “Psychedelic Pill” (to be released on October 29^th, 2012) “I was born in Ontario”. I had heard it on a local station a couple weeks before and immediately thought “I’ve found my new anthem!” 

“Born in Ontario” has got a great chunky groove to it and makes you just want to raise your arms and shout right along. Older hits like “Cinnamon Girl”, “Powderfinger” and “Roll Another Number” brought back memories of many times sitting around a kitchen table with friends and an acoustic guitar and a harmonica in a rack. If I had an actual “bucket list” of concerts to see, this one would have been on it and satisfyingly scratched off on Saturday. 

It’s an honour to be a part of such a great event and I am ever grateful to the folks at Budweiser Gardens for this opportunity and hope that they all appreciate my unique slant on the events at their facility. 

I am not a professional writer; I just try to write as if I was telling you of my experiences over a beverage or two. It’s a unique experience to be at a venue of this calibre any time, with about 9000 or more of my neighbours. I love that London has a venue that can attract such a high calibre of musicians to grace its stages and attracting the audiences that keep them wanting to come back. 

Good work Budweiser Gardens, nee John Labatt Center. It’s been a great 10 years and I wish you 100+ more!