Swedish garage rock band Mando Diao’s fifth and most successful album, Give Me Fire, also gives its name to the band’s current – and equally successful – European tour. Mando Diao has taken the decision not to follow the current trend for visual overload; music is what their shows are all about and, as a result, the sound system is one of the most important components for their performance. So Landsberg-based event production company, Rain Age, with Martin Heining as head of sound, supplied an extensive audio system that had a DiGiCo SD7 at its FOH position during the German leg of the tour, and now has the additional benefit of an SD8 at monitors for the remainder.
Dispensing with extensive light installations and special effects, Mando Diao concentrates on the business of simply making music in venues across the country with capacities from 5,000 to 10,000 seats. The passion and perfection to their two-hour show injects a sense of the dramatic and, while the first part of the show is quick, familiar sounding songs with typical crashing guitar riffs, front men Björn Dixgård and Gustaf Norén change the mood and pace in the second half, performing a four-song duet on a small B stage on the other side of the auditoriums.
Dirk Schulz manned the FOH position and was using an SD7 for the first time.
“A lot of top artists are demanding an SD7 in their technical rider,” he says. “That brought the console to my attention. From there, I did extensive research and also took the time to get some training before the start of the tour. Even though this is the first time I’ve worked on an SD7, it didn’t present me with any problems. Far from it! It was also a great pleasure for me to work with Roger Wagener, who is the tour’s system engineer. He is able to use an SD7 blindfolded and gave me lots of tips.
“The SD7 is very easy to use, absolutely reliable and has an amazing sound quality. Whether the band is performing full on rock, or their quieter numbers, the SD7 reproduces their sound quality perfectly.”
Mando Diao’s tour continues into the winter, playing larger venues in Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Munich, Frankfurt, Dortmund, Hanover, Berlin, Hamburg and Duesseldorf.
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