Helping The Offspring Come Out and Play Live

Anaheim, CA (August 21, 2024)—Pop-punk pioneers The Offspring have been playing festivals around the globe this year, hitting the likes of Download, Hell Fest and BottleRock, but likely the group’s coolest gig of 2024 was its homecoming headline show in Anaheim, California’s Honda Center, marking the 30^th anniversary of the group’s breakthrough album, Smash. On hand to help keep the pedal to the metal throughout the night—and the entire global run in different capacities—has been audio provider Britannia Row Productions.

For the Anaheim show, Brit Row fielded an L-Acoustics K1/K2 system. Out at the FOH position, engineer Greg Bess kept tabs on the mix with a Cadac J-Type analog console and a Cadac CDC Four compact digital mixer, while monitor engineer Jesse Cantrell opted for an SSL 550 Plus to handle the band’s monitoring.

While monitors for The Offspring have long been mixed on a vintage Midas Heritage 3000, Cantrell opted for an SSL L550 for certain shows—including the Anaheim event. “Their show is growing,” Cantrell explained. “Dexter [Holland, frontman] and the band have some cool ideas to take this show to a new level and we needed more flexibility at monitor world to allow that to happen.” He chose the SSL, noting that its sound was “as close to analogue as it can get,” adding, “I’ve mixed on almost every console out there and for what this band is used to hearing, it was the right choice.”

While all of the band sports Ultimate Ears in-ear monitors that get signal from Shure PSM 1000 wireless, the stage is also typically covered with d&b audiotechnik M2 wedges, bolstered by sidefill hangs of two L-Acoustics A15 over one KS28 sub on each side of the stage.  Cantrell is supported by monitor tech Emily Adams, credits her expertise with helping to enable a stress-free show: “With Emily on stage, I can trust that everything is patched and mic’d up correctly. She takes care of everything so I can focus on mixing.”

Meanwhile, out in the crowd was the band’s longtime FOH Engineer, Greg Bess. For the Anaheim show, he noted, “We did slight modifications from our standard K1 over K2 configuration. We carefully matched the angles of the hangs to keep phase alignment as close as possible. For side coverage we had K1SB over K2 and kept our two center hangs of Kara to fill the elusive center coverage, which can be missed by stacked front fills. For ground subs, we used KS28, one high across the entire width of the stage in a sub-arc set-up. This prevents annihilating the first few rows of the audience with inordinate amounts of low end. Overall, our coverage and punch were fantastic!”

Along with his standard Cadac consoles at FOH, Bess uses outboard units such as a Lexicon 960L, Gentner Audio Prism, Universal Audio Little Labs IBP, SPL Stereo Vitalizer Mk2-T 9739, and a Valley People PR-10 Rack with Kepex II to name but a few.

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Joining Bess at the Offspring FOH position this year is audio tech Jess Loma, who not only checks coverage and balance in every venue, but also works on the multitracking/streaming feeds. “[That] allows Greg to focus on getting his mix levels for the show while I get the levels for any streams and multitracking,” she said. “For outboard feeds, we work on the same desk and so at the same time during soundcheck, we need to make sure that we tell each other if any adjustments are needed that could affect each other’s feed.”

For the festival control package, Loma has an ATI Paragon II P2P desk modified with a reduced frame size, and custom-built API group/matrix outputs. She explained, “The channel direct outputs are fed to 2-24 channel BBR1-B recorders for tracking as well as a Sennheiser AMBEO VR mic for audience pickup through a Black Lion Auteur Quad Mic pre. For streaming and media feeds, we use multiple matrix mixes to change the balance of the signal to suit the difference between the main mix and a more appropriate balance sent to two track feeds. Additionally, we have another mix sent to a Tascam Portacapture X8 for quick transfer to social media shots.”