The songs were distinctly Dylan and he has churned out plenty of them over the years. The band was great. They put a nice punch and a newer, more sophisticated sound to those older but still very clever lyrics. Pablo Wheeler who was at front of house declined having his photo taken exclaiming that it was a very strict policy of Bob’s.
Pablo was an interesting guy. He retained a calm controlled persona by sitting amidst his strands of burning incense sticks. He was ably assisted by Johan Schreuder. They pulled off a damn fine sound considering he is not used to working with the Nexo’s. Pablo has previously been more used to the V-dosc system so it was with much interest that after the show I asked him what he thought of the Alpha’s. Trying to sound as worldly as possible and as cool as he could, he said “Yes, the Nexo’s are quite OK”, but then couldn’t help himself and came out with the surprise of the night. With a fair bit of excitement he said “But you should hear the ones on the little stage”. It was plain that he was immensely impressed with the Nexo GEO’s as were most of the team.
The event was big enough to attract a number of distributors and users of other speaker systems who were a little more than keen to hear the Nexo’s. All of the distributors I managed to speak to were forced to admitted that infact the Nexo’s were a great sounding speaker. A representative of the Dylan system crew, who has been around the industry for quite some time and knows his stuff, was also quick to point out the GEO’s. “Have you heard the other system” he said “It’s great”. The enthusiasm was overwhelming especially considering his position. Also very refreshing coming from a guy with a true appreciation of advancing technologies in the audio industry, regardless of politics. Is is a fact that everybody I spoke to at the event were immensely impressed with the Nexo Alpha system on main stage but even more impressive was the fact that they just could not believe the sound emanating from the Geo system. It just blew everybody away.
The real stars of rock shows and festivals are really the guys behind the scenes. Take for instance Mark Crawley (Creepy to his buddies). Mark has been tucked into the corner of more stages at more venues than he cares to remember. Crammed with heaps of equipment in a darkened spot with a bunch’s of multicores, EQ’s, power amps and a dimly lit console. His job is to make the artist on stage happy with the foldback and I have to tell you, after years of dealing with ministars and megastars alike, I myself know that doing monitors is a bloody hard and often thankless task. Every bastard on stage wants “more of this” or “more of that” in their foldback.
One of the most recent and more memorable gigs for Mark was doing Wilson Picket. “My heart was pumping” said Mark. “They were all wanting separate queues”. “It was exciting though and at the finish, very rewarding”. One thing that made it a little easier for Mark was the use of the Nexo PS15 stage monitors. They have fantastic intelligibility and I have yet to hear any artist say they were ever unhappy with the foldback using the Nexo’s. Very clear and everybody gets to hear what they want to hear in their own monitor. The most stress free gig for Mark was probably Ray Charles. The consummate pro performer was easy to please.
That sounds like a very easy gig, but in fact, when things are as keenly tuned as Ray wants them, the monitors you do run need to be very clean and clear. That way you can have them just a little bit lower than what would normally be expected and still retain excellent intelligibility. The Nexo’s certainly do that very well. Bold as brass when you need them, yet sensitive and detailed when required. Without doubt, the PS15’s are probably the best all round monitor on the market.
