Perth’s alternative dance group Crooked Colours has completed a run of three shows at Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall with a few shows planned for later this month in Sydney.
FOH engineer Nikita Miltiadou, who has been with the act for six years, says their show is all about energy, dynamics and creating moments of movement. He used the venue’s inhouse L’Acoustic K2 PA with 16 x K2, 12 x SB28 subs and ARCs for various in and outfills. X8s were used for matrix delays under the balcony.
For control, Nikita carries a Waves LV1 along with UAD Live Rack for external plugins saying he is a massive fan of tactile hands-on mixing.
“Touch surfaces let me do this in a way that feels intuitive and expressive,” he said. “I also think LV1 is easily the best sounding summing console on the market. I also love the modular approach, does the festival have a server on the main console you’re not using? Plug in a Cat6 and you’ve got a redundant server. They’re not using the screen either? Cool, there’s an extra Dell 2418HT touch screen you can use. It’s the perfect touring setup.”
Nikita pretty much exclusively uses effect sends on post-fader split channels and this allows him to ride effects throughout the show as well as catch delay moments across percussion, vocals and particularly allow synth lines and percussion elements to create movement and grow or shrink throughout the track.
“This helps the live show feel ‘played’ and different every show/night, which is what punters want to see and hear… I’m feeding delays on themselves, phaser across the mix in certain moments… LV1 lets it all happen at a touch and control virtual stomp boxes on the screen,” he added. “It keeps things fun night after night.”
Nikita commented that vocal level is often a challenge as Phil’s vocal is unique and its beauty is in the intricacies.
“It’s not one for SPL however, so I’m always ensuring the vocal sits not too far forward but dominates a space that keeps people engaged and connected to the lyrics.”
The mic setup is relatively minimal as it’s just vocals and drums with everything else achieved through DI and playback channels. There’s a Sennheiser e945 handheld on Phil’s vocals and its polar pattern allows Nikita to get the most gain before feedback. Phil uses a Rode NT1A in the studio and Nikita thinks the e945 has a similar quality remarking that it boosts the top end in a way that suits his vocal style.
The act only uses IEMS, in this case, Sennheiser G4 series and the whole band is on JH Audio JH13V2s. Monitors for this run are mixed by Jack Hoffmann, although Nikita and Jack often switch hats saying you have to be flexible in this post-Covid life given how hard availability and events are to lockdown. Monitors are mixed on the DiGiCo SD series by Jack Hoffman who is also production manager.
“The shows were great, it’s amazing to see some shows back to full force,” Nikita said. “The first night shook out a couple of cobwebs for us all after over ten months between headlines shows … the second show was amazing! A perfect run.”
Lighting
When it comes to lighting Crooked Colours, lighting designers Dave Fairless and Matt Smith of Colourblind were given carte blanche which naturally they find fantastic.
“We had a much larger design involving video and some more set elements planned for the original tour in April 2020 however, we obviously had to strip some of those elements back for the current Covid-19 climate, budgets and venue capacities,” explained Matt. “Fortunately, we were able to make some changes to the design while keeping to the initial idea.”
The aesthetic for the show was simplicity, power and strength in unity. The rig was supplied by Creative Productions with Matt and Dave deciding against any video elements for this particular run opting for a well-executed light show.
The rig included 23 x Robe Spiider, 20 in four V-formations of five fixtures on the floor between the risers, plus three as an overhead backlight with Matt commenting how much he loved utilising the flower effect.
The rest of the lighting was from GLP with ten GLP X4 Wash (six for side wash and four for front key light), 20 x GLP X4 Wash on the upstage truss, 20 x GLP JDC1 also on the upstage truss above the X4 wash and another ten GLP JDC1 in a V-formation behind the band risers.
Atmosphere was provided by an MDG ATme and Matt used an MA Lighting MA3 full size for control.
“Dave and I programmed the show to Timecode with five days of previs in Colourblind’s previs suite on our MA3 Compact XT,” added Matt. “This was the first time the band had had a show programmed to timecode and they have been extremely happy with the result.”
Matt’s favourite lighting moment is Never Dance Alone the single was originally written with and performed by Ladyhawke, for the Brisbane show they had Eves Karydas guest on the song for two of the three performances.
“It’s a beautiful song with a fantastic lyrical call and response between Phil Slabber and Eve, really emotive with a massive finish for the last chorus,” said Matt. “It was one of my favourite songs to program and see live at the shows.”
Matt says that Covid-19 made the tour difficult to navigate and initially it looked like he, and Nikita, would not be able to head up to the production rehearsals and shows in Brisbane as the QLD border was closed to great Melbourne. Fortunately, four days out from rehearsals, the flight restrictions changed and they were able to head up.
Photos: Curdin Photos
www.nikitamiltiadou.com
www.colourblind.com.au
