Pearl Jam is an absolutely unstoppable rock and roll juggernaut. More than three decades after releasing its grunge-defining debut album, Ten, the band continues to dazzle fan-packed stadiums with two-and-a-half-hour shows boasting completely different setlists night after night. North American tour sound provider RAT Sound Systems has steadily supplied Pearl Jam with L-Acoustics loudspeaker systems for the past two decades—most notably a K1 rig since 2010. The group’s latest tour, supporting this year’s Dark Matter album release, found the band benefiting from a new deployment of K3 enclosures used onstage as monitors for singer Eddie Vedder.
Karrie Keyes, Pearl Jam’s monitor engineer since 1992, didn’t take the choice to use a line array loudspeaker as a foldback system lightly. “I spent several weeks collaborating with respected engineers and system design professionals to explore options for reducing onstage volume levels,” she recalls. “In the past, the band has consistently experienced stage SPLs of 115 to 120 dB. So when Ed decided to design a stage with monitor wedges underneath, it opened up new possibilities and we revisited the drawing board.”
In a conversation with RAT Sound owner Dave Rat, Keyes discussed various options and eventually asked, “Why don’t I just put a PA under him?” Dave agreed, and the design process began. The original concept was a single line array running directly down the center of the stage, from downstage to upstage. However, after a few more Zoom meetings with the band, Keyes realized that Vedder wouldn’t want to stand on steel grating for the entire show. “We then repositioned the speakers to the sides of him, similar to his previous wedge setup,” she explains. “This was a better solution both for audio quality and for onstage comfort.”
The final monitoring design included four K3 enclosures on each side of the lead singer, running from downstage to upstage. This setup was complemented by two X15 HiQ wedges on the downstage edge for his guitar and instrument mix, with four K2 flown on each side as side-fills.
Initially, there was skepticism at this approach. “We won’t know how well it works until we test it,” was Keyes’ response. And the test results were outstanding. “The sound was clearer, and better still, the phase issues we experience by having three wedge vocal mixes firing at each other were resolved.”
Dave Rat agrees that the approach was a success. “Using a line array offers a coherent sound source with controllable dispersion, whereas using independent wedges introduces a multitude of interference patterns from the various sources,” he describes. “Putting the line array under the stage allows a high quality, coherent sound source and reduces feedback instabilities as the artist moves around. Housing the monitoring under the deck made using a line source feasible, and rather than compromising the sound, the coherent sound sources under the stage gave us improved coverage consistency.”
Like Keyes, Greg Nelson has been with the band for many years, serving as Pearl Jam’s FOH engineer since 2004. For him, L-Acoustics K Series PA has been a dependable constant, with only minor tweaks made from tour to tour. “On our second North American sweep this year we again used 14 K1 over six K2 per side for the mains, plus 12 K1 over four K2 for the out-fills,” he shares, adding that both the left and right sides also featured eight flown KS28 subs, in cardioid hangs, bolstered by four more KS28 on the ground. “For the upstage side hang, or 270-degree hang, I’ve switched from 14 K2 to 16 K3. We are using front projection on this tour and the K2 hang was a bit long for optimum sightlines. The K3 have a much smaller footprint and pack nearly the same punch as K2, which is fantastic.”
“There is something to this PA that really complements how I mix,” he concludes. “I can get Ed’s vocal upfront with this amazing mid presence that I can’t seem to get with other rigs. And I just love the way the K1 can throw to the back of these huge stadiums. We can’t use normal delay towers in Fenway and Wrigley, and K1 sounds excellent all the way to the top every time.”
With a Britannia Row Productions-supported summer European tour sandwiched by two RAT Sound-reinforced North American tour legs now behind them, Pearl Jam soon heads down to New Zealand and Australia for the remaining dates of its Dark Matter World Tour. For more details on the band and its upcoming shows, visit www.pearljam.com. RAT Sound Systems can be found online at www.ratsound.com.
