Scene Behind the Scenes

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By Arif Memon

HOUSTON: The act ended and the audience was clapping for the artist, they took a bow and the curtain fell – the concert had just ended.
It had been over 17 hours for the team and all were dead tired but their work had not ended yet, they had to pack it all and load them into trucks and then maybe call it a day.

When a local promoter takes up a concert first thing they do is sign up a venue and set a date which is normally about 2-3 months ahead of the concert, then the National promoter or the technical team of the artist send in the Technical Requirements which is known as the RIDER in the technical terms.

DMMS based in Houston has over 30 years of experience and has handled various concerts and artist’s like A R Rahman, Strings, Atif Aslam, Daler Mehendi, Mika Singh and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan to name a few. Once the team is in place the RIDER and the budgets have been approved then DMMS (Technical Directors and Production Manager) start talking to the venue regarding the requirement like POWER, FORK LIFTS, STAGE, and sort them out.

The day of the show begins for a concert at around 7am, when there are trucks lined up on the back of the stage to load in the equipment, the works starts and goes on in a clockwork precision as the things have to be done in a certain manner, the lifts for the Sound and Lighting Trusses are placed and tied to the ground and then the lights are put on the trusses. Some years ago we used to stack the speakers next to a platform on the stage level itself but now with the new technology they have become smaller in size and so we make a line of them (LINE ARRAY) and hang them from the truss itself.

Around 1 pm they all break for lunch which would be mainly sandwiches or pizza and some soda and water. After that back to work.
Around 3:30 or 4 pm the band starts to come in for the sound check and this takes normally about 2-3 hours to balance them and get them to sound good, here is the real test of the Sound Engineer. The difference in balancing a western band and an Indian band is very wide and DMMS having experience in doing these kinds of jobs are at hand when it is being done.

The show starts – the Star is on stage – the audience is thrilled and that is when DMMS and its team takes some rest but not for long as they have to be on their feet and keep looking out and praying that it all goes well.

This year DMMS has been fortunate to handle all the concerts done by HUMTUM Radio and Rehan Siddiqi and the response that they have got from the concerts has been tremendous. DMMS is looking to tie up with other local associations and promoters all over the US to have quality technical production WITHIN THE BUDGETS of the promoter.

DMMS is headed by Arif Memon who is a stalwart in this field, with over 30 years of experience. DMMS has some US tours planned for the year 2015 and are available for any local concert or event and can be reached at 832-287-8786.