It was an extremely hot day at Toronto’s Historic Fort York, where the unusual sight of a large Union Jack flag still flies high, reminding us all of the not-so-far-gone-era of imperialism. There’s a bit of irony in holding this Salad Days Production aptly titled “Dog Day Afternoon” at this venue: The organizers and headliners “Metric” and their message of “anti-establishment” is ever-so-finely executed in the style of 80’s pop, with some punk under tones mixed with a little bit of simply Metric. Their hand-picked guests included the talented Dallas Trio “The Secret Machines”.
Metric performed at the first two Toronto Island festivals in 2004 and 2005, at this year’s SXSW in Austin, as well as their recent tour’s kick-off dates at the Koolhaus in Toronto and dates across Ontario and Quebec on an Q-factor rig. Engineer John Steve is at the reigns at FOH and is a big fan of the Q-factor 215 line. Steve, who continues to request the system, commented in the past: “Mixing Metric on a Q-factor 210 system, I am getting the clarity, range and focus I need for their inherent subtleties, along with just enough bite to justify a rock band that needs to be heard as a rock band in their increasingly energetic shows.”
Toronto’s “Towers Productions” provided full production for the event. The stage was erected directly in front of the Toronto downtown skyline on a wonderfully hidden green space just along side the Gardiner Expressway, with the CN Tower majestically standing behind the stage. The Sound equipment for the show featured 24 Q-factor 210’s hung high with a SpekTrix wave at the bottom of each hang. 16 SX Subs were ground stacked L and R of stage. 4 LX10’s were used as a lip-fill, and 2 SpekTrix Subs with 3 SpekTrix stacked on top of them on both sides of the stage provided side fills. The Set-up was more than adequate for the size of the venue. The sound was perfect up to about 100 feet past the FOH tent, which stood at about 150 feet from the stage.
The Old Fort York has 4 fairly low barracks with quite reflective roofs, stacked in a z-formation, starting at about 250 feet going back until about 600 feet, so the area past the barracks had a lot of energy bouncing back from them. There was no way of shooting the array differently to avoid the interfering structures because of the placement of the stage in relation to them, and still being able to cover the back rows of the audience area. But with the expected attendance of about 5000 people, the far area was not a worry, and was filled with concession stands and other amenities. The concert ended up being jam-packed, and the finesse of Richards’ mix to a Metric fan, was the perfect equilibrium of vocals at front with every instrument heard crisply in sync with them. Metric had the crowd on their feet and Richards observed: “What more can I say? Wherever I can arrange for a Y10 system, whether on tour or just a one off, I always insist on it!”
To give proper credit to the success of the” Dog Day Afternoon”: The Secret Machines FOH Engineer Philip J. Harvey’s mix was just right, partially due to years of mixing jam band Medeski, Martin and Wood. He finds this gig a nice change: “The 75 minutes of energetic indie rock is a welcome change to 3 hour jams where you never know what’s coming next, which I did love as well!” This particular series of shows are continuing to Ottawa and Montreal. To summarize the performance at “Dog Day Afternoon” Harvey added: “The Q-factor 210’s have been at the top of my preference list for years. I was impressed when touring the rig with MMW, no matter where we were, large theater, small club or outside, the coverage and fidelity was always consistent and inspiring.”
Q-factor Systems’ Shandi Emmie was the sound designer for “The Dog Day Afternoon”, and together with Q-factor’s technical aid William Smith, were present at the Friday set-up to tune the system. Watching over FOH was Perry Disera of Towers Productions.
