Snoop Dogg/Dave Aron Live at Supafest Issue 81

FEATURE
& DAVE ARON – LIVE AT SUPAFEST
At this year’s Supafest at the Melbourne Show Grounds, AT
caught up with an engineer with a fascinating career, both live
and in the studio.
Text: Andy Stewart
AT 28
I think I was the last person to walk through the gate
at Supafest. By the time I rocked up the security
guards at the front entrance were wandering aimlessly, head
down, kicking small rocks along the gravel road, wishing
they were anywhere else. There was garbage everywhere and
nearly all the acts had come and gone.
I was still several hundred yards away from the main arena
at this point but already I had a strong sense that this gig was
going to be loud. Somewhere just over the rise all hell was
cutting loose – someone was playing a 60-foot kick drum
(or so it seemed) and the crowd was responding as one giant
acoustic white noise generator measuring up around 100dB.
Somehow I had to hook up with Dave Aron – Snoop Dogg’s
front of house (and studio) engineer – in amongst all this
madness. I pushed through the countless heaving, sweaty,
tattooed, weight-trained and cleavaged bodies and screamed
down the ear canal of one of the security blokes at front of
house: “I’M LOOKING FOR DAVE ARON!” to which he
first looked bemused, then thoughtful, then politely stood to
one side without responding.
At front of house I quickly spotted a guy looking into
the crowd in similar bemusement. ‘That must be Dave’ I
thought. I took a chance… “Dave?”
“ANDY, HEY… THANKS FOR COMING MAN, NICE TO
MEET YOU!” Dave yelled mercilessly down my right ear
canal. “MAN THAT’S A CRAZY CROWD OUT THERE,”
I yelled back, as I put all my crap down and heaved a sigh of
relief.
From that point on my ears endured more punishment than
a Welsh rugby scrum. Glancing around the mix position
while Nelly played a bad AC/DC cover, I immediately
spotted a glowing decibel speedo that was proudly
measuring the gig at 119dB (C-weighted). “BLOODY HELL!
IT’S LOUD!” I joked to Dave. “IS THE EPA GUY BOUND
AND GAGGED IN THE TOILET OR SOMETHING?”
MIXED EMOTIONS
Dave Aron has been mixing live and in the studio since the
early ’80s, engineering and mixing countless multi-platinum
selling albums for artists such as U2, Price, Dr Dré, Bobby
Brown, 2-Pac and the man of this particular hour, Snoop
Dogg. Dave first hooked up with Snoop back in ’92 when
he was only a pup. Dave had been working at the famous
Larrabee Studios in LA with several other acts when the two
did some recording sessions together and quickly hit it off.
Since then Dave has worked on several of Snoop’s albums,
and mixed hundreds of his live shows.
It’s still unusual to come across an engineer that’s been so
successful in two disciplines. I knew Dave was a studio
engineer at heart but he looked super relaxed at front of
house, blasé even. After the show I asked him how he’d
managed to become so comfortable with both roles:
Dave Aron: Actually, when I first hooked up with Snoop
Dogg I thought the live side of my engineering life was
over. I’d done a lot of live mixing when I was in college
mainly because it was easier to do that than get a job in a big
studio. I figured it had been fun and I’d loved the immediate
gratification of live sound but I really liked the long lasting
rewards of the recording industry too. I always like to hear
stuff I’ve recorded or mixed on the radio, see my name in
the credits, hold the album in my hand – like we all do –
because when the concert’s over, it’s over.
But in 1995 when Snoop asked me to tour with him so that
his gigs ‘could sound as good as his records’, I said ‘sure,
we can work that out, go on the road’. Hey, it was Snoop
Dogg – you don’t want to turn that gig down! It sounded
fun, got me out of the studio and travelling around the
world, seeing places I’d never been before. At that young age,
circumnavigating the globe with Snoop was amazing.
And it’s still a lot of fun. Snoop and I have a very close
working relationship these days. I ride with him to the gigs
– I don’t ride the crew bus – I get well paid and I don’t have
to share rooms with other people. That’s about as good as it
gets on the road.
PARALLELS & DIFFERENCES
Andy Stewart: What are the parallels between your studio
and FOH mixing work would you say?
DA: I have a studio mindset when I’m mixing live, meaning
that I like to have the gig sound as it would in a studio
through some decent monitors. I’m always trying to
eliminate the ambience of the room or venue to make it
seem as though I’m in a studio. Having said that, this doesn’t
mean my technique is the same as if I was in the studio. It’s
quite different even though the results are much the same.
Live you’re dealing with open mics and a lot of other things
you don’t have to contend with in the studio. For example, I
do a lot of additive EQ when I’m in the studio, and use less
compression, whereas live I tend to use more compression
and subtractive EQ, and then turn the whole thing up.
AS: Why so?
DA: When you’re in the studio you’re trying to bring out the
best of a lot of sounds whereas live, turning things up tends
to reveal stuff I want to remove. Consequently, I’m usually
‘taking the garbage out’ with subtractive EQ, and then
turning the sound up to compensate. Instead of increasing
the high-mids and highs to make a sound cut through as I
might do in the studio, live I’ll take out low-mids and lows.
Quite often there’s a lot of ugly low-mids coming off stage. To
me a lot of that information almost hurts your ears live and
clouds things in a gaudy way.
AS: By low-mids are you generally talking about frequencies
below around 900Hz, or more like 600?
DA: I’m talking about say around 630 – 800Hz. Lower than
that too sometimes; it depends on the room of course. I
find a lot of problems at 400 and 500Hz too. So I suppose
I’m talking about anywhere from 800Hz all the way down
to about 160. I’m always ducking and sweeping the EQ so
I can find exactly where the problem lies and what makes
it sweeter when I dip it. For instance, with the kick drum I
tend to take out anywhere between 400 and 600Hz – I’m just
gonna pull that right on out. When I take those frequencies
out I get a much more polished result.
HIP-HOP SUBS
AS: Has hip-hop got an overall EQ, stylistically speaking,
would you say?
DA: No, I don’t think so. Although I sometimes find these
hip-hop gigs a little heavy in the subs department. At a rap
gig like this, everyone seems to think it’s very important
to have a ton of sub and consequently a lot of times the
PA doesn’t have enough highs and mids to cater to the
clarity I’m after. Often they think hip-hop has gotta have an
overload of bass – and it’s true, it does – but it still has to be
AT 29
I like bling!: Snoop Dogg’s new Telefunken wireless mic stole
the show at Supafest, taking mic bling to a whole new level.
even all the way up to the top-end.
I hate hearing mixes where it’s just too subby. A
lot of times I actually have to turn the subs down
so that I can get more volume out of the PA. That
generally gives the system back a lot of its clarity
and headroom. You still get the bottom-end, just
without the boominess.
I high-pass filter the low end of the PA up to
maybe 40, 50 or even 60Hz sometimes. This
allows me to turn the whole system up more
and ironically get more bottom-end out of it.
You might think you’d get more power leaving
those super-low frequencies in but really it’s
just adding more boom and garbage. It’s not as
tight sounding either, and I like a tight low end.
Basically, if you amplify 30Hz it’s not gonna do
much of anything except eat up your amp power
and all your speaker space.
AS: What instruments penetrate right down
into the sub-harmonics of your mix after you’ve
filtered the system like that? Just kick and bass?
DA: It depends. We do a lot of DJ gigs with
Snoop, and others with the full band. If I’m doing
a DJ gig I’m going to try and get as much out of
that DJ system as I can. I will maybe filter up to
40 or 50Hz sometimes – depending on the song
even. Some songs have so much bottom end
in them that I have to filter them quite heavily.
Because every record they’re spinning was mixed
at a different studio, sometimes I find those gigs
are more like a live mastering session. I know
certain songs are going to need some high-end
pulled out otherwise it’s going to sound really
brittle but then the next song needs all that put
back in.
SHEER VOLUME
Sitting backstage with Dave after the show – with
post-concert festival mayhem all around us – I
remarked on how loud the concert had seemed
AT 30
earlier in the night. I had to break out my in-ear
monitors – sans cables – which do a good job of
knocking the sound down to more modest levels,
but at that point of the show it was pretty much
all over in terms of fidelity…
DA: Ha! I thought that was about normal volume
for us – a comfortable mixing level. I don’t like to
go too much louder than that but I certainly don’t
like it to get any quieter. If it’s less than that I’m
usually dissatisfied.
AS: So 116dB (C-weighted) is normal for you?
DA: Pretty much. Don’t forget though that with
the mix position elevated on a riser like it was
tonight – and everybody else on the ground –
you’re going to get much more clarity and subs.
So in some ways that dB figure was slightly
misleading. That’s why I kept stepping down into
the crowd – to hear what it really sounded like at
ground level.
I have to adjust what I’m hearing sometimes to
cater to what the audience needs. There might be
more bass at my mix position than I’d prefer but I
have to tolerate that to give the audience the right
mix. I find myself in that situation a lot!
NO DOGG’S BREAKFAST
AS: I was amazed how refined it sounded
tonight I have to say – before I put the plugs in.
Apologies! One of the best lives mixes I’ve ever
heard. I guess, because it was a festival gig, I was
expecting it to sound pretty chaotic up there. Was
any of the music pre-recorded tonight?
DA: No, but I can sympathise with your
expectations. As you infer, most rap shows I
hear sound very chaotic and I don’t like that at
all. They’re mostly all bass – really boomy with a
bunch of guys yelling on stage. You never really
hear the lead guy because there are so many
others trying to fill the space. And sometimes
the sound engineer doesn’t know the music
and therefore who to turn up when they’re
rapping. Snoop’s gigs on the other hand are very
controlled, although a lot of credit for that must
go to the band and Snoop Dogg himself.
AS: Yeah, they seem incredibly tight.
DA: Snoop is dominant and all the other guys
know how to work their mics and be right under
him – that’s why I think it sounds less chaotic.
Add to that the fact that I remove some of the
boominess from the PA and it amounts to a
significant difference. Unlike some, I’m lucky in
that I’ve actually got signals I can work with and
mix properly!
REAL DRUMS
AS: And you had real drum sounds up there
tonight I noticed. Were you triggering stuff as
well to augment the real kit?
DA: We are triggering other sounds – the
drummer has a pad up there that he plays a lot of
claps and wind chimes sounds with. But the kick
is all acoustic and the snare is all real snare. There
aren’t any triggers adding to their tones. There
are two mics on the bass drum that I often blend
together: one gives me the attack and the other
provides the thump and sustain. I also doublemic the snares – of which there’s often three.
AS: What mics are you using?
DA: We usually use an AKG D112 on the outside
of the bass drum and a Shure Beta 91 – the flat
boundary mic – in the bottom of the drum. I
use the 112 a lot live because it’s got a nice attack
to it and I’ve been using it since the ’80s, so you
kinda get used to shit don’t you. I don’t rely on it
100 percent though, and I don’t always blend the
two mics either. Sometimes I just end up using
the one that sounds best on the night. Snares, I
generally mic top and bottom, and in terms of
the mix I might distinguish one snare from the
others by adding a little more reverb.
SNOOP’S VOCAL
AS: What mic does Snoop sing into these days?
DA: Funny you should ask that because I only
got a new mic for him three weeks ago. We
used to use a blinged-out Sennheiser, which
was cool, but that was starting to need replacing
so we swapped if for this new Telefunken. It’s
basically a Shure wireless mic with a Telefunken
M80 capsule replacing the 58. I love it: it’s got a
higher output and much greater fidelity. It’s still a
dynamic mic but it has a lot of feedback rejection
on the back end… it’s very directional.
AS: What’s Snoop’s voice like to work with?
DA: He’s got an awesome voice. He raps low but
he knows how to push from the diaphragm and
project his sound. He’s got a hell of an ‘s’ on him
though. I usually haave to run a de-esser across
it, which ideally is a dbx 902; that’s the king.
You can’t beat it. Digitally, a lot of times Snoop’s
signal chain will have an 1176 plug-in and an
SSL channel strip to give it that pristine sound
and then I’ll follow that up with a Waves C4
multiband compressor so I can smooth out any
frequencies that threaten to get too strident.
With Snoop’s voice I generally go for a direct,
in-your-face sound, so I don’t put a lot of reverb
on him… or anything else for that matter. I like
a very in-your-face sound. I always use echoes
and reverbs sparingly – as you may have heard
tonight – manually riding them in and out
instead of leaving them static in the mix. It gives
me the dry punch I need and the spacey contrast
at specific points. That’s one of the differences
with live mixing. You don’t need ambient reverbs
of any kind in most venues.
DRIVING THE MIX-BUS
AS: What about overall mix-bus compression or
EQ. Do you use any of that, and if so, what?
DA: I EQ and compress everything on the
individual channels, so no, there’s nothing on the
main bus. I don’t like compressors on the mix bus
unless we’re in a club situation, but again it really
just depends on the venue. I’m also constantly
checking whether the system tech has things
too compressed. If I can’t get any bottom end or
volume out of the PA, or if I can hear the system
breathing and pumping, I always say something
– back it off or give it a faster release time. I’m big
on releasing compression.
If I use any kind of bus compressor I find I’m
usually mixing it back in with the uncompressed
signals – that works for me sometimes. For
instance I might slam a compressor with a
bunch of drums, then mix that back in with the
uncompressed signal, but I’m not gonna rely on
that for my entire drum sound. It’s not what I’m
looking for sonically. I can usually get the sound I
want by treating individual channels.
I don’t put too much individual compression on
Snoop’s vocal either, or much on the bass. But
then again, sometimes I do. That’s the whole
thing about this live gig. You can never say ‘I
always do this’ or ‘I never do that’ because the
day I say it, the next day I’m doing it, you know?
There’s always something different happening at
the next venue – that I do know! That’s half the
fun of it.
I like the dynamics in our show. That’s one of
its strengths and I don’t wanna choke it. As a
general rule I find I’m usually loosening things
up. Things sound too constrained to my ear when
you have things too compressed. I don’t like that
sound.
I like multiband compression a lot, maybe
even more than regular compression because
they’re reactive to tone not just overall gain,
like the Waves C4. For instance, I like to boost
a lot of presence into Snoop’s vocal but I don’t
want it to sound shrill and harsh when he hits
the mic hard, so I set up the C4 to catch those
frequencies when they need controlling. And
I have a disclosure to make here: I’m a Waves
representative, so I do a lot of beta testing for
them and use a lot of their plug-ins.
DAVE ARON’S NEW HOLLYWOOD STUDIO
By the time this magazine goes to
press Dave Aron should be moving
into his new studio facility in
Hollywood. He claims to be ‘the only
guy in America’ building a new studio
at the moment, and he may not be
far wrong. Dave is a passionate man
driven by the dream to have his own
commercial space, and with a strong
client list that includes the likes of
Snoop Dogg he can justify the outlay.
Dave Aron: I know it’s crazy to
be opening up a studio right now
when everybody else seems to be
closing down, but this is what I do,
and I’m not gonna short change
myself. I had my studio at home
for a while, which was awesome in
some respects, but it wasn’t making
enough money because I just didn’t
feel comfortable bringing clients
like Bootsy Collins into my house
to record.
I also had neighbour problems and
zoning problems with the city – they
were always messing with me for
having a studio in the house. So last
year I decided it was time to get
a real commercial facility up and
running once and for all. I was tired
of doing everything renegade-style
and I really needed a place where
other engineers could work, so
that even when I’m out on the road
touring, the gear can be working and
paying its way.
One thing I know is that by the time
the new studio is finished, I’ll have a
really comfortable place to work and
I’ll have fulfilled one of my dreams:
to make a bomb studio that’s
geared to me, looks like me, and
aesthetically, is me.
Of course I’m also stressing out
bigtime right now trying to get this
shit done while I’m on the road! I’ve
got other guys doing it for me right
now, but man it’s tough.
The main studio is gonna have a
secondhand SSL 6056 in it that’s
in beautiful condition. I love those
boards – that’s what I’ve mixed all
my classics albums on. It’s going to
have a customised centre section
with a Smart AV Tango console in it
so you’re not working on one side
of the console all the time like most
people are when they combine a big
analogue board with computers.
When I moved to L.A. 20 years ago I
never dreamed I’d be able to afford a
console like this. It’s incredible really.
AS: When do you think the studios
will be ready?
DA: My back two rooms should be
ready by the time I get home.
AS: Which is when?
DA: Tomorrow, I hope!
AT 31
I dare not touch it!: Dave Aron at the helm.
AS: So you’re really using the multi-bands
to control the tone of the mix more than the
dynamics in some respects, which is very much a
studio mentality.
DA: Exactly. They catch the ugliness.
That’s exactly what I like about multi-band
compression.
THE STUDIO MENTALITY
AS: Can you tell me a bit more about what taking
a ‘studio mentality’ out on the road with you
means in a practical sense?
DA: It means I’m used to being in the studio,
making mixes sound exactly how I want them
to and I like my live gigs to sound that way too.
I like to hear every nuance in a live mix: every
little thing that Snoop’s doing with his voice; the
grace notes Carlos is playing on the snare; the
little keyboard parts and the percussion stuff,
which I’ll pan here and there. I want to hear a
whole spectrum of sound coming at me, not just
a bunch of instruments piled up in the centre
sounding like a glorified line check. I find a lot
of sound guys do that. They bring sounds up to
where you can hear them, but that’s not really a
mix is it?
I try and create a big picture with the sound.
That to me is what I mean by a ‘studio mentality’.
I’ve been in the studio so much that I can’t really
hear music any other way. I don’t like to hear
it and go, ‘oh that sounds live’. I don’t like that
kind of comment at all. I want people to go away
from these gigs going, ‘Oh fuck, it sounded like
we were in my living room or the studio’. I want
drummers from the audience to come up to
AT 32
me and say, ‘Wow, I loved the way you had the
drums sounding tonight man, they were killer!’. I
want guitarists to come up to me at the same gig
and say, ‘Man those guitars sounded awesome
tonight’. That’s what I’m going for. I hate the
attitude that says, ‘Well it’s a live gig, it’s alright if
it has this or that shortcoming’. I want to appeal
to every person in the audience, not give them
one type of generic sound.
I’m always tweaking the mix until it comes alive –
that’s the point where it suddenly becomes studio
quality.
AS: Is most of this tweaking essentially about EQ
once the gig’s in full swing?
DA: A lot of it is EQ; a lot of it is balancing the
gain structure. I try to keep my faders at nominal
levels as much as I can and deal with the ‘head
amps’ – as they’re called nowadays – to balance
things out. But likewise I’m more than happy
to have the keyboards down at –20 if necessary.
I’m not scared to move a fader! The thing is I
need a lot of headroom because I hate running
everything hot. I like everything to be cruising.
I’m always telling system engineers to ‘open it up
please’, and then let me bring it back down to a
manageable level where I can control it.
I like a system that’s got a ton of headroom where
elements are discrete and distinct. To me it’s
the equivalent of a racing driver in a Formula
One car. You’ve got to be skilled to drive it when
it’s that powerful and wide open, but if you’re
good you’re gonna win the race. It’s the same
with a great engineer on a great system. The
opposite is also true: put a great driver who’s
used to a Ferrari in a little Honda and you’ll
have the thing redlining all night. You’re never
really gonna win that way. If you’ve got plenty of
power and headroom, and the smarts to control
the PA without applying mountains of crude
compression, you’re the winner.
AS: What about panning?
DA: I do pan a lot but it really depends on the
venue. When I’m at The House of Blues in L.A.
for instance I have stuff panned all over the place
like an album. But with DJ-based Snoop gigs I
find I only get enough punch out of the system
if it’s panned at around nine and three o’clock, or
sometimes even ten and two. It also just depends
on how I’m feeling on the night. Sometimes I’ll
do an audiophile mix, sometimes I’ll do a more
in-your-face, kick-ass, raw, hard mix. It really
depends on the venue and whether there’s a dB
restriction – things like that.
If you have a ridiculously low decibel restriction
– and they’re very strict about it – that’s when I’ll
typically pull out a real audiophile mix, where I
have things panned all over the place, and more
bottom-end to make it feel like you’re sitting in
your living room listening to a record.
SPEAKER POSITION
AS: You’re big on speaker placement I
understand.
DA: … and I always say this about it: a good live
mix is all about the speaker position. If you’ve got
that right you’ve got 90% of the game won. If the
speakers aren’t positioned properly – if I walk in
and see a stacked PA, right away I’m like, ‘oh boy,
this might be a problem’. Shit, give me a Peavey
board, I don’t care. It’s not going to make my
mix – it’s just not. The other thing that’s critically
important is you want to have good amps, and
enough power.
That’s the whole game to me. Forget about the
compression, forget about the board, if I have a
set of correctly flown speakers and some kick-ass
amps I could do a whole gig with no reverbs, no
effects, no compression and a cheap-arsed board.
The rest of this shit is really kind of incidental, a
luxury at that point.
WHEN TO TURN UP
AS: So do you go to all your gigs early then and
get involved in setups or are you mostly reliant on
system techs?
DA: I rely a lot on system techs… and a lot on
just chance!
AS: So you’re not rocking up 12 noon going, ‘Hey
that’s not right, you gotta change that?’
DA: No, because, as I said earlier, I’ve got a real
comfortable position here where I ride in Snoop’s
bus and it’s fun. We play video games the whole
way – it’s a laugh a minute. Snoop leaves a lot
later than the crew you see, so sometimes I don’t
even make it to soundcheck.
AS: Seriously?
DA: Yep. If I get there beforehand then cool, that’s
a bonus. But I always know I’ve got the first song
to get it together and I mostly trust the system
techs to get it right. I really don’t have time to go
in at noon and sit there all day and play with the
system. I don’t like long sound checks anyway,
and besides, it never comes out sounding the
same as when you left it at soundcheck anyway.
Once the venue fills up with bodies it’s always
different. There’s all this noise in the room for
starters. You always think you’ve got it loud
enough... but it never is! People are making so
much noise that the clarity is almost halved from
AT 34
what you had at soundcheck. There’s no 90dB
noise floor to overcome so what’s the point? I
like to be prepared for the gig but I don’t rely
on soundcheck to be everything it’s going to be
that night. A lot of this game is about making it
happen on the night, staying relaxed and sticking
with it.
If I were doing monitors I certainly couldn’t
operate like that – no way. There’s far too much
preparation. But at front of house I’ve only
got one mix to deal with and I know what my
priorities are. As soon as the show starts I know
it’s gonna start with some sort of DJ intro and I’m
gonna have that up. And then the DJ’s gonna talk
so I know I gotta have his mic up. I know Snoop’s
gonna come out next and I make sure his voice is
heard as soon as he says his first words.
AS: How do you determine that for sure?
DA: Well I hear him saying little things before
the actual verse comes in. If he doesn’t say
anything then my heart always skips a couple of
beats hoping it’s gonna be there. But once I hear
him saying some hype stuff like, ‘Hey what’s up
everybody?’, I know it’s gonna be right. Once
that’s established, I’m all good. Then I start
working on other stuff.
I’ll go right away to the kick, make sure I can
hear that nice and solid. Make sure I can hear the
snare hitting right where I want it. Next I make
sure the bass is filling in everything. Then the
keys – they’re gonna be there – they always are!
And that’s pretty much the essence of the whole
mix. By the second song I’m just tweaking.
AS: Do you have song presets on the digital
consoles at all?
DA: No, never. Usually we don’t get the same
board two nights in a row. Hell, usually I never
even know what board I’m gonna be looking at
until I get there. It could be a Yamaha PDM5,
it could be Digidesign Profile… whatever.
The other night I walked in and discovered a
Midas Pro 6. I was stoked! It was the first time
I’d worked on one of those – it was awesome.
It sounded so good – heavy duty. That’s a great
board!
One board I’ve really been liking lately is the
Soundcraft Vi6. Those are nice. I really like their
sound. The new Digicos are nice too. But as I say,
I never know what I’m gonna get that night. So
as you can imagine it’s hard to have presets when
you don’t even know what board you’re gonna be
using! I just dial up the mix and it is what it is.
AS: That’s a pretty refreshing – almost anarchic –
perspective, I’ve gotta say.
DA: Well it is. For me it works. A lot of guys are
really anal and obsess over preparations, but
that’s just not me, you know? I don’t say they’re
wrong for working the way they do. There’s a
guy who mixes for Tool, who I met at a gig, who
showed up at eight in the morning and worked
with the system techs all day. He had the whole
thing sounding really nice and he was there
till the end of the night! That’s dedication. By
showtime it sounded awesome! I can appreciate
that whole approach; it’s just not for me that’s all.
I’m an on-the-fly kinda guy.
AS: I guess it’s good to know your strengths.
There’s no point trying to be ‘anal guy’ when
you’re just not.
DA: Exactly. In truth, I’m trying to get in and
out of soundcheck as fast as possible, I’m not
gonna lie to you! I never leave before I feel it’s
ready but once it is I’m outta there! I know
I’m gonna be able to fix whatever I need to
fix that night so there’s just no point hangin’
around. That approach comes back and bites
you occasionally, I’ll admit, but most of the
time it’s cool. And it makes the gig exciting
for me. I need that little extra juice, that bolt
of adrenalin.