SLANDER THRIVE TOUR
FEATURED IN FRONT OF HOUSE MAGAZINE
Back in mid-July, when EDM masters Slander announced their upcoming debut studio album would be called Thrive, their fans surely considered it a fitting title.
After all, the heralded DJ duo of Derek Andersen and Scott Land had been riding a cosmic trajectory through 2022 on the back of their searing live sets and signature brand of pop-laced bass music, which appeals to its growing base of loyal followers. They sold out their first-ever arena headlining shows — a back-to-back engagement at Long Beach Arena in their native SoCal — in addition to top billings at major festivals and a string of monster singles that contributed to nearly 300 million streams this year on Spotify alone.
Dropping in late September, the Thrive album propelled Slander to a new plateau of success, as evidenced by the size and stature of the venues comprising the Thrive Tour’s 30 North American stops. It also seemed fitting that the duo’s production package for the trek included a PK Sound Trinity Black robotic line source system that, like the album itself, has a sound quality that can range from pristine to powerful. Los Angeles-based BNE Productions is providing the audio system.
“Slander’s music is always so well produced and mastered, so it really shines through on the PK system,” begins Rory Stewart, the duo’s FOH engineer for the tour, and that’s especially the case with the 10 tracks comprising Thrive. “The vocals, the melodic breakdowns, the bass drops — the Trinity Black and T10 array elements sound incredible and deliver the full impact of everything with transparency, power, and headroom to spare.”
The System
Beyond the purity of its “out-of-the-box” performance, though, the Trinity Series’ patented multi-axis coverage capabilities brought additional acoustic and operational benefits to the tour.
Variable robotic actuation lets users manipulate a vertical line source to an unparalleled 0.1° of resolution and adjust the horizontal coverage of each individual module from 60 to 120 degrees in a range of symmetric and asymmetric configurations. This technology enables precisely tapered arrays that can avoid reflective obstacles, minimize noise pollution, and significantly expand stereo imaging for much of the audience.
“The ability to tailor the PK system’s output to each specific venue was a huge advantage,” emphasizes Stewart, who also served as systems engineer. “We can basically focus all of the energy on the audience, where it belongs, and away from any objects or surfaces that are going to compromise the sound. Being able to adjust my vertical and horizontal dispersion in real-time with the system in the air also saves a ton of time, which can come at a premium when you’re on the road.”
BNE Productions, a PK Alliance Member, supplied its T10 medium-format robotic system and T218 intelligent subwoofers for the trek, augmented by large-format Trinity Black robotic elements from the Alliance’s dry-hire rental inventory for an easily scalable system with a consistent global voicing thanks to the Trinity Series’ latest V4 DSP presets.
That scalability, coupled with the PK Alliance’s global standardization for both Member and dry-hire Hub systems, was a key consideration for the Thrive tour, considering the wide range of venues on the routing.