Proud mom

Seth is home from the latest European tour, on break for a few weeks before a South American tour. He’s a sound engineer for entertainers, now running “front of house” sound, which is what the audience hears, as opposed to “monitors,” the sound the artist/performer hears. He was a monitor engineer for many years, and this was his first tour doing front of house. 

He took me out to lunch and regaled me with stories. He’s having a good time, making good money, with enough time off to look around in each of the cities he visits, with time to come home and be with his partner and children between tours. He says doing front of house gives him leeway to make his own creative sound choices, and he loves that.

Of all he told me, what most surprised me is his observation that the threshhold for literal earth-shaking events is 65,000. If the audience is more than 65,000, and the crowd is dancing or stamping in rhythm to the music, people living near the venue can feel their houses shake. Their dishes and any pictures hanging on their walls may rattle. They may report an earthquake. He keeps the volume down so that fans’ hearing is not harmed and all legal limits are observed, but the percussion the audience makes, dancing in rhythm with the entertainer, can shake the earth beneath them.

There is a certain amount of secrecy required for the safety of the crew, so he doesn’t wear anything that identifies him with the performer he’s working with, and I keep quiet about that. I can say that I’m very happy he’s enjoying his work, and I’m proud that he quit working for an entertainer who supports fascists. His decision to refuse to provide sound for fascists has not harmed his career.