Backstage Spotlight™
November 2003 Recording Engineer Obie
O'Brien - Page 3
MBADC: When we last spoke, you were putting the finishing touches on the Crush
album and you all were getting ready to go out on the road for Crush. And
you had said that you’d never been out on the road before. So what was that like,
Obie?
Obie: Oh! No, I had been out before, what I hadn’t done before was--on the first
part of that Crush tour, I worked the Front of House [sound]…I had never been the PA engineer and let me tell you what, it’s a difficult
job.
MBADC: Really? Difficult how, in comparison to the studio?
Obie: Well first of all, you have to stand up for 3 1/2 hours and really concentrate.
First, I don’t want to stand up. Second, as your brain shrinks, it’s harder to
concentrate for an extended period of time.
MBADC: With 20,000 screaming distractions…
Obie: Yeah! Another thing is, you’re working the PA. I’m so used to being in
a great environment acoustically--especially when we’re in Jon’s studio, because
both of his studios are places I’ve built, so I was very comfortable there. So now
I’m out there, wrestling an alligator with this PA, in these places that are toilets
acoustically. I mean, they’re the worst. Everything you can do wrong acoustically,
that’s how they built these places. The sound of a PA is never a contributing factor
when you build these places; they’re sports arenas.
MBADC: Even the new venues are still bad?
Obie: Yes. Unless it’s a dedicated music place, yes. I mean, look at the
Buddokan, you know? Shaped just like a toilet bowl…There are hard surfaces, and there
are standing waves everywhere. When you first get
there, you can still hear the band that was in there two weeks ago, the noise is still in
there. For me, it’s stuff that I don’t know. And there’s all this
stuff--hanging the PA, hanging the speakers, the height, the angle, power requirements,
and I don’t know any of this stuff. You know? It’s just not what I do. So, Jon
asked me to do it, because I had done a couple of things for him on his solo tour and we
really liked it. And that was a much smaller stage, the venues were smaller, and I guess
it sounded OK. He enjoyed it. So, I went out on Crush, and they actually had
to have like a babysitter from the PA company, because it’s like the kid you’re
afraid to leave alone because he’s got matches. And you know you’re going to
come back from going to the supermarket and the house is going to be burned down. So they
had a guy who was there to help me.
And the other thing is, these guys that work for the PA company, they work hard. They go
in there early in the morning, they run cables, they hoist cabinets. Me? I’m flying
in with the band. Sorry. I’m a prima donna, and I know it. You know? So you’re
always the guy that everybody hates. They go, "Hey, how are you?" when you walk
by and they’re "Mother f***ker"-ing you behind your back because you
don’t do anything to help out. They do all the work, and you go in there like
royalty…But I enjoyed it. After the first couple of ones I really enjoyed it. And you
know, you think you’re doing a good job, but when we played Philly, two seconds into
the show, somebody from up above me threw a whole large beer, it hit me in the head and
went all down my back. So now I’m doing the show pissed off, standing up, having to
pay attention, soaking wet, covered with sticky beer.
MBADC: And Philly’s your hometown, isn’t it?
Obie: Yeah. So I sort of expected it. I mean, that sort of makes up for me being from
the town where they throw snowballs at Santa Claus. The other thing is, I would have guys
that are engineers and producers that would come in and go, "Man, this really sounds
good." And then the crew guys that have been around for a long time would come up and
go, "This sucks!" I mean, they would just tell you right out. So who knows? I
didn’t have a good reference point, and then when we did Wembley Stadium on the Crush
tour, I’m doing a dare and I’m thinking I’m making it kick ass. The next
day in the paper, the guy who came to the show said the sound was "consistently
wretched." But I figure if it was consistent, that was like a compliment.
MBADC [laughing]: You’re right! It’s the same in
journalism—consistency. If you’re going to spell it wrong, at least be
consistent.
Obie: Right! I was going to have T-shirts made up that said "Consistently
Wretched." Because you’ve gotta look at the positive side. But, you know, it was
an experience, and I wanted to go out and do a great job for the guys, ‘cause I enjoy
the band.
And my other problem was, you know, I still think [Bon Jovi is] one of the greatest live
rock bands. I mean, I think their performances are phenomenal. And you start to get into
it, and you’re dancing around, you’re singing along, and all of a sudden
you’re not doing your job. You’re a fan in the audience, getting sucked into it.
So you’ve gotta stay away from it, to a point.
The cool thing is, watching that crowd for the whole show. I mean, even at the upper
levels of these venues, people are standing for the whole show going nuts! You know? And
you go, WOW! So you’re more a part of the psyche of the crowd, which is cool because
you can’t help but get into it.
MBADC: On the Crush tour, I was at some shows, and one of them was at
the Forum in L.A. that year. It sounded like a stampede in that place!
Obie: Yeah! And you know when they would do "Twist and Shout" at the end?
You know, I’m out in there in the audience, and I’m Twisting…People are
coming over and I’m doing the Twist, but nobody’s watching the console, and
I’m dancing…All of a sudden you look, and a couple of times Jon would see me.
And after the show he’d go, "So, are you paying attention or what?" And
I’d go "Yeah yeah yeah! Just, once in a while I lose my mind."
But yeah, it was an experience, I tried to do a good job, I’m not convinced I did a
very good job, and then they brought the guy in who did the [sound for the] end of Crush
and then this last tour [Bounce], David Eisenhauer, who I thought did a
great job. I really did--I thought he did a great job.
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