The adventure of bringing Joaquín Sabina and Joan Manuel Serrat back together again after that 2007 tour deserved an ambitious and brilliant stage. The Dos Pájaros Contraatacan tour, which had 13 dates in Mexico on its extensive tour of Spain, Latin America and the United States, deployed a robust production that framed this great show between these legends of the song.The experienced Iberian couple shared pearls from their repertoire of more than four decades, including some songs from their recent album La Orquesta del Titanic, in an updated version of Dos Pájaros de un Tiro, their 2007 joint tour, which this time included an amazing seven nights at the Auditorio Nacional and other concerts in Guadalajara, Monterrey, Aguascalientes, Puebla and Chihuahua. For the vigor shown in each recital, they made you wonder if it is true that they are already over 60 years old, for its duration of three hours and their walk through approximately 30 songs each night.
Big night in Chihuahua
Joaquín and Joan Manuel’s stop in Chihuahua City was no exception. The Foro El Palomar, an open-air space attended by nearly 17,000 people last October, was the venue for the meeting of the counterattacking birds with “the chihuahuitos and the chihuahuitas,” as “El Flaco de Úbeda” greeted them.
With the complicity of a solid band formed by Ricardo Miralles (piano), Antonio García de Diego (guitars), Josep Mas Kitflus (keyboards and programming), Pedro Barceló (drums), David Palau (guitars), Víctor Merlo (bass), Pancho Varona (guitars), Josemi Sagaste (sax, clarinet, flute), Mara Barros and Lorena Calero (backing vocals), Serrat and Sabina gave a night of luxury that, for his technical team was “a joy”, as described by the room engineer, Juan González Antón: “In this forum we could not place the PA very high, as I would have liked to me, because the beams were not given, but the truth is that working outdoors I always like; we come from playing indoors and the best is outdoors. The tour has been quite good, above all it was a challenge because of Serrat’s way of singing, which is very particular. To take the pressure off this band and two artists like that, the truth was a challenge, one thing to improve from the previous tour, and we’re doing it,” says Juan, called “Juancito” by his team.
The Spanish engineer, who has only worked with this pair of stars, has mainly worked in recording and mixing studios on albums by Estopa, Plácido Domingo, Alejandro Sanz and Miguel Bosé. He has participated in practically all of Sabina’s albums, Serrat’s most recent albums and even mixed the CD/DVD of this tour, recorded at the Luna Park theatre in Argentina.
Full of energy
At the end of the Chihuahua show, the room engineer sums up the experience of using Adamson’s new E15 line array system: “I usually work more with other brands; this was the first time I worked with Adamson and I’m quite happy with it. It’s a very linear rig and I really liked it.
After congratulating the company regiomontana Audio Systems del Norte for their work as a supplier of equipment, Juan González refers some of the ingredients with which he cooks from the room: “As for the console, I always use the Avid Venue D Show with IOX 8in/8out AES Digital card, especially because I work with the plug-ins that I use in the studio. The truth is that the mix does not have much detail, I usually use the multiband compressor in the mix output and then multiband to take a little bit of listening depending on the place, but very little. Among the plug-ins I use are: Farsile, API, Solid State Logic and TC Electronic 6000,” he notes.
About the treatment of the unique voices of Sabina and Serrat he says: “Basically I usually leave them quite linear, I usually use several compressors in different settings, like three compressors in a chain, with different attacks and different releases”.
There are no major tricks when it comes to microphones: “the one I use is AKG 414 TL2, for the bass drum I use the Shure B52 and Beyerdynamic Opus for the timpani. It’s a pretty standard microphone, nothing fancy, but it also depends on the style you’re going to do. I don’t have a favourite microphone, to tell you the truth,” Juan González concludes.
For his part, Jorge Sanchez Montes “Mortis”, in charge of the audio equipment and PA assistant, speaks in detail of the configuration of the system: “The PA was very separate; there were 26 meters between axes and little height, so we turned it inward about five degrees to cover the center. Fortunately, we had 16 boxes per side of Energia E15 as main speakers that performed flawlessly. On the sides we were only able to fly 12 Y10 systems (although we had 16, which was what we wanted to fly, but due to the strength of the structure we left it at 12). That side was not foreseen, as we were planning to mount four delays of eight Y10 cabinets, but finally they were used for the outfill.
Mortis continues: “The subwoofers were cardioid. They performed very well and the stage was very clean. On this show the subwoofers didn’t have as much presence and it was better to use cardioid. Finally, we mounted a delay of six SpekTrix stacked on a stage two meters away,” he says.
Mortis has collaborated with Joaquín Sabina since the 90s, with Joan Manuel Serrat since his personal tour in 2009, and has been the backline and video technician for the Spanish version of the Mayumana show since 2004. He agrees with Juan Gonzalez on the virtues of Adamson’s new Energia system: “It launches very well; it has a lot of pressure and is more level, flatter, more grippy. After using the E15 we’ll definitely stick with it.
The team manager believes that the main virtues they look for in a PA are power, presence and a response that is as flat as possible. This is how they adjust the system: “First go the subwoofers with pink noise, then levels and timing of the rest of the equipment with music. If the equipment is set up and working properly, it’s a breeze. Mortis reveals that, on average, they use 100 dbs of sound pressure level in each show and that, according to the feedback with the audience, they adjust the system and the SPL level: “We are especially careful when the venue is closed, because of the return to the stage, discomfort of the musicians and the feedback from the microphones”. In addition to Juancito and Mortis, Dos pájaros contraatacan had Sergio Veliz in charge of monitors and Rafael Meroño as stage manager.
Among classics
Dos Pájaros Contraatacan allows the spectator to enjoy classics from almost every artistic era of “El Flaco” and “El Nano”. His moving hymns of love and heartbreak mingle with his high-level chronicles, with heartfelt tributes to departed friends (such as Chavela Vargas) and a rough but funny game of mutual debunking. They gave voice to their own songs, but they also exchanged songs and the evening went from Ocupen su localidad, Señora, Mediterráneo and En el boulevard de los sueños rotos to Una canción para la Magdalena, La del pirata cojo, Cantares and Fiesta. All this celebration of the “big two” is supported by a technical team that also includes people like Óscar Gallardo in the lighting design.
Oscar is one of the best known lighting designers in Spain, and besides having worked with Sabina and Serrat for years, he has also lit concerts for David Bisbal, Luz Casal, Presuntos Implicados, Rosana and many more. Together with other lighting professionals, Oscar has founded the Spanish Association of Lighting Authors, created with the purpose of increasing recognition of his profession in the entertainment industry.
For this recent tour, Oscar selected two of the most popular fixtures in the business: the Vari-lite VL 3000 Spot on the one hand and the recently launched Martin Professional MAC Aura LED Wash on the other for the concerts in Spain, while on this side of the Atlantic he used the MAC 2000 Wash in addition to the VL 3000 Spot. As far as the Aura is concerned, they were selected for their power and brightness, as well as energy savings: “The decision was difficult because the stage is so big, but after the first test there was no doubt”, Oscar remarks; “we really liked the colour projection and the effective control of the luminaire, its power and speed with high precision”.
For the concerts in Spain, the Aura fixtures made the staff very happy: “They are very light and we were very happy because one person can carry up to four lights,” says the lighting designer. “Normally, one light is carried by two people, but in addition to this, the production budget has benefited because they saved more than a thousand euros a day, just in power generator and transportation costs.”
“It is also important to consider the ecological factors that Aura offers us”, concludes Oscar, “Less power consumption translates into less CO2 emissions into the atmosphere”.
“Definitely, the best thing about this tour has been Serrat and Sabina”, says Oscar; “they have come together because they had such a good time on the first one that they wanted to repeat. The main difference is that I designed the set design in the previous tour, but this time Miguel Brayda did it. The images are from various work teams; on the one hand Cris, Fontanarrosa’s illustrator, and it was Serrat himself who made the requests for images”.
“I on this occasion I had to adapt the light to the set design, the first thing that is approved is the set and then the rest. There was a lot of video realization on screens, so from there, I tried to make my lighting show adapting to colors and images, “he continues; “the equipment I used in Spain was very new; the Aura are for me the beginning of what we will have in the future of lighting. For Europe and America we only brought the lighting console, the complete set and the video controls”. Oscar also mentions in terms of video: “Currently the quality screens are very expensive and then we find material that works, but not quality. The future is uncertain in this sector, there is no longer creativity, and as I predicted three years ago, the LED is the future.
In an endearing way, these two birds landed again on Mexican soil, followed by other flocks that waited a few years to see them together again. Joan Manuel Serrat and Joaquín Sabina continue to captivate us and their songs on this tour were dressed with a stage to remember.
