Dark Side of the Moon 40th Ann. show this SATURDAY (Northern NJ)

[burningyen]

Hey all, this Saturday my Pink Floyd tribute band will be playing a special concert celebrating the 40th anniversary of the release of The Dark Side of the Moon. We'll be playing the entire album and more and putting on our most elaborate multimedia show ever. In addition to our giant circular screen and full motion lights we'll also be adding new LED curtains, lasers and a fun prop that would make the creators of Spinal Tap's Stonehenge proud.

[MCChris]

That sounds great. A tribute done right!

[tbonesullivan]

If only I didn't have a dress rehearsal for a concert this weekend friday night. oh well. break a leg!

[burningyen]

Thanks, guys! Amazingly, we've had a couple of guys volunteer to shoot video for us, so hopefully I'll have some cool gig footage to post over the next couple of months.

[gorch]

Great stuff. Keep us posted with your videos.

[velorush]

Wow!

Look forward to seeing any video that becomes available.

[burningyen]

Oops, I just realized I mistakenly wrote Friday...it's Saturday!

[Hamerhack]

Very cool!

What gear are you gonna use?

(Could you use one of your own B-way guitars?)

[burningyen]

I'll be using:

• MIM Roland-Ready Strat w/Mighty Mite neck and CEG Hardtails fretjob, DiMarzio Area 67/67/61 pickups, Callaham MIM block and '64 arm and Chandler guard:

• Kemper Profiler w/this1smyne 2-button footswitch and Yamaha FC-7 expression pedal:

• Roland GR-20 (for French horn sounds during Comfortably Numb verses...our keyboard player's fatal flaw is that he only has 2 arms, lol)
• Rocktron Banshee talkbox (for Pigs)
• TC Electronic Voicelive Play to make me sing better
• Atomic CLR active wedge monitor
• And yes, my B-Way Mercury Head prototype for Run Like Hell:

[Jack C]

I love that Mercury Head!

Sounds like great show. Have fun.

[cynic]

How do you like the Atomic CLR? Had you used or compared to the RCF?

[burningyen]

I've never used an RCF. Here's what i wrote over on TGP about how it compares to my K10, which I've since sold off:

OK, had my 1st rehearsal with the CLR active wedge last night. My impressions, most of which will echo what others have already posted:

1) It's darker sounding than my K10 and my AKG K550 headphones. Or, to put it another way, I can now hear how hyped the treble is on the K10 and the K550s. I have to re-tweak a lot of my rigs now that I have a truly flat reference to go by. If you've looked at any of the rigs I've shared you'll see that I often have the Treble and/or Presence dialed way down. I'm finding that I have to undo a lot of that.

2) I like the sound of my KPA through my K10, but with the CLR I feel like a layer of artificiality has been stripped away. It just sounds and feels more like real life and less like a recording.

3) It works great for monitoring both my guitar and vocals. One nice surprise: my voice doesn't sound quite as thin and reedy through the CLR.

4) It's powerful, more than capable of flattening my bandmates in a 24'x28' rehearsal studio. I had the master volume set at 50%, input 1 (guitar) volume at about 30% and input 2 (vocal) volume at 100%. The KPA master volume was at 7.0.

5) It's built like a frickin' tank. The K10 at 32 lbs. feels like a plastic shell with stuff inside it; the CLR at 45 lbs. feels like a bank safe in comparison. I can't believe I used to routinely gig a 45-lb. tube combo and 22-lb. backup head. But the handle is extremely comfortable and well positioned for balance, so carrying it (short distances) isn't really a bother. I only ran into trouble when I tried to lift my handcart with my KPA, CLR and duffel bag all strapped in together. I can do this with my K10 when the taxi trunk is big enough, but with the CLR I had to break everything down in order to load in. Kinda sucked with the crappy weather last night. I guess I need to work out more.

6) The main feature I miss from the K10, besides the size and weight: the K10 volume knobs have little detentes so that you can reach around and set your levels sight unseen based on the number of clicks. The CLR's volume knobs rotate smoothly with no detentes. They do have a little ridge to indicate the direction of the knob, but I don't think I can reliably set my guitar/vocal mix without eyeballing it, at least not yet. The knobs are also somewhat easy to accidentally turn if you brush up against them. On the other hand, it's nice that the rear panel is perfectly vertical when the CLR is in wedge position. With the K10 in wedge position the rear panel tilts down into the floor, which is awkward for checking settings and connecting/disconnecting cables.

7) The relative uniformity of the frequency response on- and off-axis is remarkable and way different from what I'm used to with floor monitors.

Basically, the experience of playing through a CLR isn't "oh wow, this makes me sound so much better!", it's "oh wow, so this is what I really sound like!" I finally feel confident that I'm hearing the sound I'm sending to FOH. If I were still using my K10, I would be in tone heaven on stage while the sound I'm sending to FOH would be dark and muffled in comparison. What the sound guy does with it once it gets to the board is still mostly out of my hands, but at least one of the wildcards is removed.

[Hamerhack]

So, how was the show?

[burningyen]

Great success! But it's going to take forever to get our hands on the pro shot video. An audience member posted a couple of clips:

[geoff_hartwell]

Great Clips!

Can you tell us about the lighting/led curtains?

[burningyen]

Thanks, Geoff! I don't know the details, they were provided by our friend Jim at JB Lighting Production. He used to run the lights for The Machine, but the LED curtains are his newest toys.