As a continuation of the tour, the band returned to Europe this year, taking in shows from late June to late August and making stops at various cities and summer festivals along the way. In July they performed three shows in three different cities (Paris, London, Copenhagen) in just 24 hours.
As for their previous world tours the sound specification revolved exclusively around L-acoustics equipment. Long time RHCP FOH Engineer Dave Rat, founder and President of Rat Sound Systems, relied on the European V-Dosc Network to provide V-Dosc systems for the majority of their run.
Dave Rat comments, "In my experience back in 2004 and for this tour, the worldwide availability combined with the extremely well-maintained vendor-to-vendor consistency made V-Dosc the only system capable of doing what I was trying to achieve: worldwide sonic consistency, even when I cannot carry a system. I must say that once again I was impressed by the level of positive cooperation I received and from partner to partner."
Freelance system engineer Thomas Genoud Prachet and Lee Vaught (Dave Rat FOH System Technician) were responsible for coordinating between Dave Rat, local production, European V-Dosc Network Partners, and the local CVEs for all the shows.
In order to cover the predominantly stadium audiences the main FOH system consisted of 60 V-Dosc cabinets in a dual AB configuration with close coupled dual 2 x 15 arrays for both the left and right FOH hangs. This system was complemented by V-Dosc outer-fills and additional delay lines. The subwoofer system design called for 80 x SB218 in total. Additional front-fills consisted of 10 ARCS and 12 dV-Dosc.
The Paris show held at the Parc des Princes on 6 July saw one interesting variation of the sound system design: In addition to the 60 V-Dosc FOH system, 87 KUDO cabinets were provided by French V-Dosc partner Potar Hurlant to cover side-fills and delays.
CVE and Potar Hurlant Technical Director Madge Malki comments on the Paris show: "The KUDO system consisted of two side-hang arrays of 21 KUDO each. We also installed three additional delay lines of 15 KUDO each for the LCR arrays behind the mix position. Taking into account the difficulties of covering such a large audience, the long throw capability of KUDO (105m in this case) was really impressive."
(Jim Evans)
