BROOKLYN, New York -- Independent concert promotion company Bowery Presents has long been associated with excellent live sound. The owner/promoters behind some of New York City’s most beloved rock venues, Bowery Presents has maintained consistently top-notch sound reinforcement across all of its clubs and concert halls, including Mercury Lounge, The Bowery Ballroom, Webster Hall, and the new 3,000-capacity Terminal Five. Last year, Bowery Presents expanded to Brooklyn, opening the 550-capacity Music Hall of Williamsburg, which boasts a powerhouse sound system by L-ACOUSTICS.
Music Hall’s design emulates the critically acclaimed Bowery Ballroom, with a sound system based on a Bowery Presents venue that’s nearly three-times its size. “We’d done an L-ACOUSTICS dV-DOSC system at Webster Hall in 2004, and I’ve been really impressed with that system,” says Bowery Presents principal Michael Swier. “I knew we wanted the same high quality at Music Hall of Williamsburg, which we built specifically for excellent sound and acoustics.”
In selecting the loudspeaker system, Swier was looking for power, clarity and articulation. “They knew the kinds of acts there would range from light acoustic alternative to fairly heavy rock, techno and industrial,” notes Paul Freudenberg, L-ACOUSTICS vice president of sales and marketing. “They needed to be able to handle a wide variety of music and would definitely require plenty of headroom in the system so they could deliver the SPL on demand for the heavier acts.”
Using SOUNDVISION, L-ACOUSTICS spec’d out a front-of-house system consisting of stereo arrays with eight dV-DOSC and two dV-SUB elements per side, plus four SB28 subwoofers beefing up the low-end from under the stage. The on-stage monitor system consists of a dozen L-ACOUSTICS 115XT HiQ monitor wedges, with an additional dV-SUB for the three-way drum monitor. A single ARCS® enclosure per side provide side-fill on the stage. L-ACOUSTICS 8XT coaxial speakers provide music to the lobby and downstairs bar area, including a live feed of the show.
FOH engineer Evan Player spent 15 years as a touring sound engineer – with bands such as Modest Mouse and The Shins – before taking a full time gig as production manager and head engineer at Music Hall of Williamsburg. He considers Music Hall “one of the best venues I’ve ever mixed in,” noting that the two dV-SUBs flown with each array give really good low-end representation at the mix position with no adverse effects at the front balcony. “Even if you’re standing right up by the dV-SUB in the balcony, you still get a very clear sound in the high-end as well,” Player assures.
“We did a Beirut show here in May and I was lucky enough to mix it, and it was one of my favorite mixes I’ve done,” he adds, “And, just recently, the engineer for [electronic duo] The Presets said it was the best room he’s ever mixed in.” When Modest Mouse played a surprise show at Music Hall last month, Player adds, “it was one of their best sounding shows I’ve heard.”