MF #20
Anjunabeach 2018
Date
June 23rd, 2018
Location
Huntington Beach, California
Reason
Pro Systems
Finally! I was on the schedule for a big show. Not just set up, I would be working the actual event. It was Above & Beyond, a massive trance group, who would be hosting a one day music festival in Huntington Beach. My employer Pro Systems landed the audio contract.
There would be 30,000 people in attendance. We had a slight issue. Our biggest sound system couldn’t handle the crowd. Our best gear could only handle 15,000 people. We needed more equipment.
Our company maintained a positive working relationship with Rat Sound, one of the largest names in the audio business. Rat would rent our L’Acoustics K2 boxes for Coachella when they couldn’t find enough, and we could rent their L’Acoustics K1 boxes for large events such as this one. They were always happy to supply us with anything we needed if we were willing to pay the price.
The math worked out for Anjuanabeach, which meant I climbed into a 24-foot long box truck Thursday morning. I had a long drive ahead of me. Rat Sound is located outside of Oxnard, California. This is on the other side of the Los Angeles mountains and is fully northwest of the city. The only way to get there is to go through the heart of LA.
Driving through LA is horrible. Driving through LA in a box truck is excruciating. Stopping in San Clemente is mandatory as there is practically nowhere with both parking for a large truck and an accessible public bathroom for the next 100 miles. While that doesn’t sound like the longest distance, in normal everyday traffic it took five hours to reach my destination.
The guys at Rat Sound are accustomed to companies renting their gear. They quickly loaded me up with over $1,000,000 in audio equipment and sent me on my way. This was great. I had to go straight back through Los Angeles and was grateful for the quick turnaround. Still, the traffic was shit the entire way back to the shop. A full 10 hours to complete a 300 mile round trip. Did I mention I hate Los Angeles?
Friday was set up day. In the event business it is considered a luxury to have a full day to set up. For this event, we had that luxury. I arrived at the shop Friday morning, climbed back into the truck and started driving north one more time. This time my destination was only an hour and a half away. The drive flew by, and I soon arrived on site, meeting up with our team leader Noah and my good friend and freelance audio engineer, Harrison.
This team was some of my favorite people involved with the company. Harrison only did a few events with us a year and it was always a pleasure to see him at a show. Noah was only 23 years old but he had recently been promoted to the head of the audio department, a title he earned by performing his job at an extremely high level. He had been in the business for 10 years at this point, getting his start interning at the company as a young teenager.
Our job for today was relatively simple. Set up the audio equipment. We normally did audio, video, and lightning. It was nice to be able to focus. The only issue, our large trucks couldn’t reach the stage which was situated in the middle of the beach surrounded by sand on all sides. While they had a temporary road, we would still need to offload our equipment onto a smaller stakebed truck, and drive that truck over to the stage.
Harrison, Noah, and I setup these speakers.
This was a rather fun wrinkle as this stakebed truck was a stick shift. Thankfully, I daily drive a stick shift vehicle. I quickly took over the role as driver as I was the only one who could move the thing. We got the equipment from the big truck to the small truck, from the small truck to the stage, and finally set up and plugged in. We finished up right before sunset and set off for the hotel. Yep, we all had hotel rooms for this event.
Saturday was show day. While normally the audio team has a ton of work on show days, today was special. While there would be several acts performing on stage, all of them would be DJs. All we had to do was make sure there were two working microphones and functional CDJs. Our soundcheck was over in 30 minutes.
I was on the clock the entire time, but there was very little for me to do. I tried to be as useful as possible and told the team to let me know if anyone was hungry. I knew some people couldn’t leave their positions, while I sat there twiddling my fingers as the A3 (audio-3) position at a DJ show.
Above & Beyond started off the morning with a yoga set. While they were on stage DJing, a yoga teacher guided the early morning crowd through a guided group stretch. I was amazed at how many people showed up early for this set, and almost everyone from the front of the crowd to the back was participating. This crowd was special.
With the stretching out of the way, it was time to dance. One of my all time favorite electronic artists Lane 8 was starting off the day. I had recently discovered his album Little by Little and was looking forward to watching him live. I couldn’t believe my luck. Not only was the show amazing, but I was on stage for the performance. The energy was intense, but it’s actually pretty difficult to hear the music properly when you’re on stage. All the audio equipment is set up to shoot into the crowd, and the stage gets a bunch of overlapping low frequencies.
Lane 8 performing at Anjuanabeach 2018
I enjoyed snapping a few photos while sneaking around the back of the stage. However, I wanted to actually listen to some of the show. I left the stage and headed out into the crowd, heading for the comfort of front of house. I reached the barricaded structure, said hello to Noah as he ran audio for the entire event, and started capturing photographs from the audience’s perspective.
This show was incredible. The stage was incredible. The music was incredible. It had only been two hours since the gates had opened and already I was feeling the music festival energy. This event was set up to be spectacular, and I was grateful to play my part.
Mat Zo followed Lane 8. While this was still trance music, I lacked a personal connection to the artist. I guess that emboldened me. I was watching the professional photographers step out on stage, snap a few photos, and step back. I was on stage and I had a camera. Could I do that? Whats the worst that could happen?
I almost got fired for taking this photo..
I built up my courage, took a few short steps out onto stage, stuck my camera high up in the air, and snapped a few amazing photos. 10 seconds later, I withdrew and retreated to the audio area. While I knew I captured something awesome, the stage manager had noticed my escapade. He made a beeline over to me and very professionally told me, “If I see you do that one more time you’re off this stage.” Oops, I guess I wasn’t supposed to do that. Oh well, the photo survives.
I received the call to actually do some work as Mat Zo ended his set. Noah was hungry, but he couldn’t step away from the console. It was my job to get the staff food from backstage to front of house. I loaded up several plates with various items, made a neat stack, and took off into the crowd. Despite my attempts to avoid the thick of the crowd, there was just no getting to front of house without passing through massive groups of people. Everyone seemed incredibly understanding of my situation and many helped me get through the crowd.
I arrived with the food delivery as Luttrell was settling into his set. I didn’t have my camera, so I just sat there and enjoyed the show. Above & Beyond would be closing out the night. At the conclusion of Luttrell, I fought my way back to the stage. I knew I wanted my camera for this performance, and I was pretty certain I would want to watch at least some of it from the stage.
In the crowd for Above & Beyond
Above and Beyond walked out on stage just as the sun set over the horizon. While the day was overcast, as the sky darkened the lights and visual effects grew in intensity. The entire crowd was in sync. They moved in unison to the music. Some rail riders had been raging since 2:00 pm. They showed no signs of slowing down.
Noah pushed our rented gear to the limit as Above & Beyond took the crowd on an absolute journey. Despite my amazing location, I couldn’t stay put. I had to see the show from the crowd’s point of view. I took my camera and set off into the crowd, determined to get a shot from the very center of the madness.
A hug to end the show – Anjuanabeach 2018
While I succeeded at finding the pit, I did not belong there. I was happy to exit the madness, retreating to the civilized comfort of the stage. I watched the conclusion of the performance with Harrison from the audio station, standing just a few short feet away from the performers.
The entire day ended before 8:00 pm. Huntington Beach is full of a bunch of wealthy old people who hate good music. I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face as I helped box up the four CDJ’s and one mixer used in today’s performance. I had been on the clock almost 12 hours, done almost no work, and gotten paid to watch a full day of trance music. Finally, all the days in a warehouse were starting to pay off. We left the majority of the audio equipment in place and were back in the hotel before 10:00 pm. There would be an entirely different event the next day. No more EDM, country music was on the menu.
