As we discussed in the previous post, the NEXT Charity Concert Series had moved this past Thursday, August 23rd. Now some environments can be particularly harsh to music. A warehouse certainly fits the title of “Hostile Environment” for putting on a concert. When it’s Black Taxi with all their dynamics, well, now we’re really being challenged. We met with the people of Captain Lawrence early in the month to get a view of the place and what we were facing. Concrete floors, metal roof panels, cardboard, beer bottles, beer kegs, huge beer brewing equipment. Really, a very reflective venue. Night of show we came in thinking we were prepared for it, but there were some changes. Bottles. A lot more of them. Right next to the staging area. Ever blow into a bottle to make it whistle? If you’ve done this you have an idea of how they resonate sound. How would it react to 8,400 watts and 102 db of Black Taxi? We were about to find out.
Ok. Enough of the build up. It really wasn’t that tough. It was tough, but we caught it. The place was very peaky, so equalization adjustments in the mid to mid-high range were very touchy. The place, as expected had a lot of natural reverb. One adjustment we will be making at the next NEXT show is to bring in another se of our top end speakers. This will give us a better field of sound to overcome some of the reflections. Anyone in attendance for the next show shouldn’t notice much difference. It’s more for us than the concert goers.
Now, about the show. Holy crap! A sold out show! This crowd was treated to two sets by the Black Taxi crew. The energy level was like building fire. By the middle of the first set it felt like it could explode. The highlight of the evening was to see Ezra climb up a ladder at the side of the stage that lead to a storage area, and then finding a step ladder there, he climbed to the rafter to play his tambourine against the steel frame of the roofing. And no we did not have a mic there. I say this every time when discussing Black Taxi, If you haven’t heard them then you need too. Get on ITunes or Amazon and pick up their albums. Catch a show. Get on their website at blacktaxi.com and find out when they’re playing in your area. Then get over to allthingsnext.com because you really need to learn more about new music, and Chris Bro of NEXT is the professor of new music. Listen to the podcast.
September brings another great show in the long running NEXT Charity Concert Series with another amazing band. My Pet Dragon. Stamford people may be familiar with them from their performance at the Alive At Five opening for Hot Chel Rae. We will discuss this show more in an upcoming post.
Pics of the Black Taxi show will be posted shortly.
For more about the Black Taxi show go to NEXT’s review here.
*Black Taxi is managed by Mezzoforte Productions.