Gand Concert Sound was back for the 17th annual Pitchfork Festival in Chicago July 21-23, 2023. This year’s headliners included Bon Iver, Big Thief and The Smile.
Adamson was the speaker of choice again for both Red and Green stages with Avid and Digico consoles in abundance.
Other acts on the bill included Alvvays, Perfume Genius, Weyes Blood, King Krule, Snail Mail, Ric Wilson, Rachika Nayar, Koffee, Kelela, Julia Jacklin, Yaya Bey, Soul Glo, Killer Mike, Jockstrap, Florist, 700 Bliss, Sen Morimoto, and plenty more. Photos by Bob Murr
Rivers Edge Park in Aurora was once again reinforced by Gand Concert Sound. This is our 10th year at the park. Blues on the Fox starts off the summer season. This year’s acts included Jimmie Vaughn, Kingfish, Kenny Neal, Mud Morganfield, Joey Saye and Ruthie Foster. Appearances this summer will include Poi Dog Pondering, Rick Springfield, REO Speedwagon, and Flo Rida.
Have you ever dreamed of having a birthday party, anniversary, celebration…with a major national act playing just for you and your friends? Gand Concert Sound provides sound systems, lighting, stage, video, generators, stage manager, and crew…everything you need, as shown in this June 2023 Beach Boys private event.
Gand Concert Sound was back again at Chicago’s world renowned Pitchfork Music Festival Friday, July 15 through Sunday, July 17, 2022, in its usual summer time slot at Chicago’s Union Park. The 16th anniversary event headlined The National, Mitski, The Roots and featured performances by Spiritualized, Japanese Breakfast, Toro y Moi, Parquet Courts, Lucy Dacus, Earl Sweatshirt, Tierra Whack, Low, Noname, Amber Mark, Magdalena Bay, Dawn Richard, Dry Cleaning, Cate Le Bon, and many more.
Adamson was again the speaker system chosen for the multistage event. An E12 system was provided for the Red stage and an E15 system for the Green stage.
President Gary Gand said, “We were able to outfit our newly delivered AVID S6L console with all the required hardware and software to meet the extensive specs of headline act, The Roots, on the main stage. The console’s maiden voyage was a big success and adds to our extensive inventory of top quality desks from AVID, Yamaha, Digico and Midas.”
Photos by Marty Bierman and Joe Perona
Gand Concert sound was back again at Chicago’s world renown Pitchfork Music Festival Friday, September 10 through Sunday, September 12, 2021 at Chicago’s Union Park. The 15th anniversary event headlined Erykah Badu, St. Vincent, and Phoebe Bridgers, and featured performances by Big Thief, Angel Olsen, Flying Lotus, Animal Collective, Kim Gordon, Thundercat, Yaeji, Danny Brown, the Fiery Furnaces (their first show in over a decade), Waxahatchee, Cat Power, Jay Electronica, black midi, Ty Segall & Freedom Band, DJ Nate, Jamila Woods, Caroline Polachek, Yves Tumor, and many more. Adamson was the speaker system chosen for the multistage event. An E12 system was provided for the Red stage and an E15 system for the Green stage. AVID Profile consoles were supplied by Gand Concert Sound for both FOH positions. President Gary Gand said “Having the fest moved from the usual July 4th weekend back to September provided some challenges but also the opportunity to team up with our friends at Audio Visions, Omaha NE to cover this massive event.”
Photos by Alex Kociper
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
Photo by Marty Bierman
August 19, 2021 Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons started their 2021 touring season with a recent performance at the Resch Arena in Green Bay, WI. Longtime sound supplier Gand Concert Sound, Elk Grove Village IL provided a large scale Adamson sound system to rave reviews.
President Gary Gand said, “We’ve been chomping at the bit to come out of Covid hibernation. Our long time client Frankie Valli gave us the opportunity to put our newest Adamson rig to work. It felt great to make the band happy and the audience glad they came out to the show, with this legendary act.” FOH engineer Jim “Redford” Sanders said, “This system is a MONSTER.”
The system included Adamson products:
24 E12 mains
4 S10 mains-downfill
20 S10 outfills
12 E119 subs
18 Lab-Gruppen 20k amps
Nexo products:
6 Nexo PS8 frontfills
8 Nexo PS15 monitors
3 Nexo NX4x4 amps
2 Alpha sidefills
Yamaha PM5D and CL5/ RIO consoles.
Gand Concert Sound is celebrating 44 years in the audio business. The company was started in 1977 by Gary Gand, a long time pro musician and studio engineer who saw the advent of large scale arena Rock N’ Roll’s needs to reach big crowds. The company has been on the cutting edge of concert sound supply, utilizing the latest audio technology.
Act: Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
Venue: Resch Arena Green Bay WI, Venue Managment: Scott Boesch
Tour Manager: Dean Egnater
FOH: Jim “Redford” Sanders
MON: Mike “MO” O’Malley
Gand tour-tech: Joe Perona
Gand Adamson tech / photographer: Marty Bierman
Adamson M12 monitor system at Auditorium Theater in Chicago
November 28, 2019 Gand Concert Sound of Elk Grove Village IL recently provided a complete audio system for “Thee Phantom & the Illharmonic Orchestra” at Chicago’s legendary Auditorium Theater, world renowned for having perfect acoustics for live music. The Adler and Sullivan design was completed in 1889. It is the second largest concert hall in the US seating 3901.
GCS president Gary Gand said “I saw many influential acts in my high school days at the Auditorium including Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Doobie Brothers, Robin Trower, and King Crimson who I later mixed monitors for in the 1980’s.”
GCS has been in the Auditorium countless times over the decades, but this was the first time with their recently acquired Adamson M12 monitor system. Gary went on to say, “Our motto when we first got into the concert sound biz was “We Give Great Monitor”; a take off on the famous Shep Gordon quote.
For this very special & unique event, GCS arranged the services of industry veteran Marty Bierman who has a long history of working with Adamson systems, and specializes in mixing symphonies. His long list of credits includes West Side Story film with Live Orchestra. His skills were especially evident with this show; a masterful blend of symphonic with a modern hip-hop twist combining singing, rap, and a DJ with a live orchestra. Marty provided his private collection of DPA mics for the strings & horns.
GCS senior tech Joe Perona, monitor engineer for this show, had his first outing with the Adamson M12 system: “We had 9 mixes going. While the downstage and DJ mixes were loud, the brass and string mixes were surprisingly easy to get dialed in, due to the incredible high fidelity of these boxes. It was a fantastic plus for a show like this.”
Consoles included Yamaha CL5 at FOH, and QL5 at the MON mix position. Main PA hangs were 24 Nexo GEO-T cardioid arrays with 6 RS18 subs.
From Pro Sound Web, Dec. 10 2018
Frankie Valli came to fame in 1962 and has been touring almost constantly since his early beginnings. The lead singer of the Four Seasons and the group is also the subject of the Tony Award-winning musical, Jersey Boys.
Over the past several months touring the US with its long-time client, Gand Concert Sound aka ‘the NEXO boys’ (Chicago) rolled back into ChiTown for a Valli show at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. The historic 3,900-seat theatre is the second largest concert hall in the US, second to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
Known for deploying NEXO and Yamaha gear for Gand gigs, the crew set up this particular theatre with NEXO GEO T line arrays and RS18 Ray Subs powered through Yamaha T5n amplifiers.
Gand placed a Yamaha PM5D-RH digital audio console at front of house for mix engineer Jim (Redford) Sanders. Joe Perona, Gand crew tour system tech who has probably logged the most hours on a GEO T in the U.S., says that Valli the long time front of house mixer loves the GEO T and remarks often that “it’s still his favorite, killer PA.”
“When it’s a Gand PA for our gigs, we always use the GEO T,” states Tim Swan, general manager, Gand Concert Sound. “This auditorium in particular is very difficult to design and fly arrays capable of enough upward-tilt to hit the “way, way up there” gallery balcony seats. GEO T’s unique kelping system enables us to get that extreme rake required.”
Gand president, Gary Gand, regarding the GEO T adds, “it’s the “Swiss Army Knife” of boxes; small enough for tight venues, yet large enough for an arena. GEO T is very ground-stack friendly as it’s light enough to stack up fairly high.”
For over 15 years, Gand has used GEO T for a large number of shows/venues and still receives many compliments from band engineers and clients about how great that system sounds.
“Even with a relatively large inventory of 106 boxes and 10 bumpers, there are multiple times every year where 100% of the GEO T inventory is out,” Gand says. “GEO T is very efficient when it comes to truck-pack; we can load 42 boxes with bumpers in just 7.5 feet; it’s the most successful system to date at Gand Concert Sound.”
A Yamaha CL5 and 48 channels of Rio stage boxes were used for monitors with Mike (MO) O’Malley mixing along with NEXO PS15 stage monitors and an LS18 (used as a drum sub), NEXO Alpha eF boxes for side fills, all powered by NEXO NX4x4 amps. NEXO PS8s with a NXAMP 4×1 were used for front fills.
Dean Egnater is PM/LD for the tour; along with Perona, Gand’s Alex Kociper is the GEO T tech. Impact Video (California, Nevada, Ontario) handled all video with Jessica Kush as video tech and Hard Hit Productions (Elmira, NY) handled lights, backline, and trucking.
August 11, 2017
Gand Concert Sound, Elk Grove Village, IL, recently inaugurated their newly acquired Adamson E12 sound system at the first large scale outdoor festival of the season held at the ATI Field at Joliet Memorial Stadium, Joliet IL. Acts included Classic Rockers Kansas, 38 Special and Survivor. Contemporary Country bands included Billy Currington, Thousand Horses, and Kane Brown.
Gand Concert Sound started in 1976 to address the fledgling concert sound industry. 40 plus years in the trenches has brought many improvements and innovations to the company and their clients. Always on the forefront of audio technology, GCS continues to cut a path into the future.
The Adamson rig included 24 E12 cabinets, 16 E119 subs, 4 S10 for front fill, all powered by 4 Adamson E-racks loaded with Lab-Gruppen PLM 20K44 amps. Lake LM44 processors drove the system from FOH. The entire system was connected digitally using a Dante network. FOH and monitor consoles were Avid Profiles.
GCS president Gary Gand said, “I walked out to the 100 yard line to enjoy the power of the Adamson rig, kickin’ it hard and solid.” GCS vice president Tim Swan said, “Everyone involved was impressed.” Various comments from band FOH engineers from the event included “”very impressed”, “a big fan”, “best Adamson rig ever”, “extended-open HF”, “did nothing to the house EQ “, “really tight & punchy”, “threw forever”.
System tech Nick Dahl, FOH tech Joe Perona and monitor tech Alex Kociper spent the prior week testing and configuring the system in GCS’ large warehouse located near Chicago’s O’Hare airport. Adamson Factory Certification was completed on site in the spring.
Joliet stagehands congratulated the GCS crew on the easy assembly of the first launch. Gary Gand said, “The stage crew was really impressed with the rig and how well it went together. These guy’s are seasoned pro’s and have set up all of our other rigs over the last 40 years. This was a new rig to us all and it couldn’t have been better.”
May 17, 2017
Gand Concert Sound has taken delivery of a large inventory of Adamson E12 and S10 line arrays, along with E19 subwoofers and E Rack 12 channel power amps.
President Gary Gand said, “After several years of research, we zeroed in on Adamson’s new concert sound packages. We like dealing directly with a manufacturer for the best user interface”.
Vice President Tim Swan said, “We were looking for a new rider friendly system that could work in all of the environments that GCS is known for. From large outdoor summer festivals and sports arenas to high profile corporate events in hotel ballrooms, and mid sized golden lady theaters.”
Training took place in May with Adamson factory experts Brian Fraser and Rick Woida at Gand’s warehouse near O’Hare Airport. “We gave the jumbo jets a run for their money.” Mr. Swan said.
Gary Gand said, “The last decade has seen many refinements in line array technology and we think Adamson is the best new rig, so that’s where we made our investment.”
Nov. 5, 2015 in LIVE SOUND magazine
September 29, 2015
Gand Concert Sound (GCS), Elk Grove Village IL aka “The NEXO guys” recently completed a record summer month as well as their single largest day, by cabinet count, in the 39-year company’s history. “July has become the month to beat after last year’s record month for GCS,” states Gary Gand, President.
“We had 450 NEXO cabinets in use on one day in mid July.” said Tim Swan, Vice President. Chicago’s annual Pitchfork Music Festival was held in Union Park. The Red and Green stages were once again handled by GCS. Headliner’s included Wilco, Sleater-Kinney, and Chance the Rapper.
Chance Tour/ Production manager and monitor engineer, Aaron Patkin, said “Pitchfork was our big hometown show for Chance this year, so it was super important for us to knock it out of the park in front of a home town crowd. We brought in a ton of additional production from eight foot tall risers to background singers, a custom built logo to a huge lighting package. We even maxed out the I/O on the monitor desk. Gand’s crew went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that not only did we have everything we needed, but that the groundwork was laid for us to succeed at having our best show of the year. The whole team killed it, and I couldn’t be more thankful for everyone at GCS making sure that Chance the Rapper and The Social Experiment was heard loud and clear not only by the crowd, but by each other.”
The same day, Mile of Music, held in downtown Chicago featured two live band stages and one mile of speakers pumping music out to runners along a path near Lake Michigan. Rivers Edge Park in Aurora IL features a large GCS NEXO house system that hangs all summer for a variety of national acts. July shows included Smash Mouth, Toad the Wet Sprocket, REO Speedwagon, Little River Band and Hall & Oates.
What kicked July over the top was the Tri-Annual ELCA(Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) festival held at Detroit’s NFL home Ford Field. GCS and NEXO premiered the first arena-sized GEO T system in 2002 at the Georgia Dome. Gand has been handling this event for the last five sessions including the Alamo Dome in San Antonio TX and two festivals at the Superdome in New Orleans.
“We thought this would be a great opportunity to test out the newer NEXO STM rig which I heard outdoors at the NEXO factory in France,” Gand says. Yamaha team members assisted GCS in setting up the rig. The STM configuration consisted of 36 x STM M46 Mains, 36 x STM B112 Bass, 28 x STM M28 Side and downfills, 36 x STM S118 Subs, and 38 x NX4x4 amps. Thunder Audio of Livonia MI provided 24 x Geo-T speakers for delays.
The front end featured 4 x Yamaha CL5 consoles, a CL1 with Lake MY16 cards for summing all consoles, 4 xRIO3224-D and a RIO1608-D, creating one of the largest Dante networks to date (short of the recent Olympics).
Gary Gand noted that everyone from the ELCA agreed that this was the best sound ever for the event and that every seat in the house was covered in highly intelligible speech as well as gut wrenching music. From spoken word to whispers to acoustic duos, the 12 piece house band, earth shaking DJ’s, pounding metal bands, to gospel choirs, the STM system sailed right thru the challenges of the 80,000 seat stadium.
ELCA Director Heidi Hagstrom said, “The sound was awesome.”
Aug. 12, 2014
Gand Concert Sound Reports Record-Breaking Month In Serving Top Festivals & Backline Clients
Source: ProSoundWeb
Gand Concert Sound of Elk Grove Village, IL (a.k.a., “the NEXO guys”) just wrapped up a record-breaking month of July 2014, beating the company’s previous record for total gear and events served that was set in May, 2013.
GCS vice president Tim Swan notes “Our new warehouse is making it possible to handle the summer festival season with over 250 NEXO loudspeakers moving in and out on a daily basis.” GCS has also added Yamaha Commercial Audio CL5 and Avid VENUE Profile digital consoles in the past year to meet national band riders.
Most recently, GCS provided sound reinforcement and support for both the Red and Green stages at the annual Pitchfork Music Festival, held for three days each summer in Chicago’s Union Park. The company’s inventory of NEXO GEO T arrays delivered clear audio to more than 55,000 fans on hand for a wide variety of music, including alternative rock, rap and hip-hop, EDM, hardcore punk, experimental/avant-garde rock, and jazz.
Meanwhile, at Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park, one of the longest running music festivals in the U.S., GCS band gear guru Ken Stevens provided a valuable helping hand after coming on board this year to handle the expansion of the company’s backline presence.
GCS president Gary Gand states, “We started in the instrument rental business in the mid 1970s out of our award-winning retail music store, and quickly moved into concert sound and permanent installations in the following years. Now we’ve come full circle with a big expansion in back line.”
Bands on the “Gand List” of recent clients include:
- Jimmy Vaughn
- Beck
- Kendrick Lamar
- St. Vincent
- Maroon 5
- America
- 10,000 Maniacs
- Joan Jett
- Smashmouth
- Dirty Dozen Brass Band
- Sonny Landreth
- Pusah T
- Mint Condition
- Cold War Kids
- The Head and the Heart
- Portugal the Man
- WAR
- Average White Band
- Dawes
- Thao and the Get Down, Stay Down
- Foghat
- Blue Oyster Cult
- George Thorogood