Expert Testimony - Given by Concert Production Manager Mike Marchetti to Mark Small
Mike Marchetti '84
As a guitarist raised in Long Island, Marchetti came to Berklee in the early 1980s with dreams of becoming a rock star. After becoming a Music Production and Engineering major and crew member at the Berklee Performance Center, he discovered that he gravitated toward working outside the spotlight. So, from 1986 to 1999, Marchetti ran countless shows as an operations manager and audio engineer in the Berklee Performance Center. Until 2002, he moonlighted on productions for Berklee and other companies until the duties of the position he’s held at Don Law since 1994 commanded all his attention.
Marchetti currently serves as the production manager and technical director for concerts at Bank of America Pavilion (aka Harbor Lights Pavilion), Fenway Park, the Boston Opera House and the Colonial Theatre and other Don Law or Live Nation venues.
As production manager, he oversees budgets, scheduling, backstage personnel, lighting and sound requirements, vendors, caterers, and more. Just about anything related to the day of the show is under Marchetti’s purview. He paused for a few minutes before a July show at Bank of America Pavilion to draw back the curtain on what’s behind the scenes at major concert events.
Has the touring industry been healthy this year?
Yes, it seems very healthy. Today, bands need to tour to make money; they can’t make it on record sales alone. That’s good for promoters and venues. At Harbor Lights, we will do about 45 public shows. Last year we did 35; and the year before, there were 25. So we are on the upswing. We’ve stretched our market to attract younger audiences, but we also get an older crowd for shows by the Allman Brothers or Bonnie Raitt. This year the bookers put a great schedule together for us.
Do you have any war stories from shows you’ve worked on through the years?
Not really. Everyone understands that this is a business and that they have to be prepared for every show. The reason why our venues have a good reputation is because of the people we employ. We’re here to make sure there are no problems on the day of the show. I walk through every show day well in advance.
What do you do on show days?
We put in a lot of hours. Today I got here at 7:00 A.M. to prepare our flash reports, the final expenditures for the night. The load-in started around 9:00 A.M., next there’s sound check, the actual show, and then the load-out. I’ll probably get home at 1:00 A.M. Tomorrow morning we will start over again to prepare for Sarah McLachlin’s show. This schedule can go on for three to five days in a row.
For the Roger Waters The Wall Live show at Fenway in July, we put in many hours. We started on Wednesday at around 5:00 P.M. and went round the clock until the production load-in on Saturday. All of us production guys work about 17 hours per day for a big show like that. We went straight through on the show day and into the load-out at about 3:00 the next afternoon. I did about 26 or 27 hours straight. But, hey, that’s what we do—I actually live for it. There is an adrenaline rush when the house lights go down and the audience screams. That thrill is the reason why I didn’t want to be a recording engineer. You can record and mix an album—you may even win a Grammy—but you never really feel the excitement of the audience reaction.
Do smaller acts now travel with less equipment to minimize expenses?
We are finding that some artists are relying on the local buildings or promoters to provide some of their equipment. That’s based on the economics of trucking, fuel, and additional personnel on the road. It tends to be less expensive if some equipment is supplied locally rather than if artists bring it across the country with them. Most people use PA systems that are available in most cities, so it’s pointless to carry one. At Harborlights, about 40 percent of the shows we do use locally provided equipment.
Roger Waters brought all his own gear. They had about 75 semis filled with equipment, steel for the stage, and other things. It takes several days to set up and a day and a half to take it down. That’s the hard thing about that tour. When the Rolling Stones came to Fenway a few years ago, they had three base systems that leapfrogged from city to city. So while the Stones played in one place, two base systems were setting up in other cities to expedite the load-ins.
Despite the sputtering economy, it seems that people are still buying expensive tickets.
That’s what is remarkable. The floor seats for Roger Waters went for $250 each, and they sold out. I think Roger’s audience has money. With a different demographic, you might not be able to charge $250 per ticket. But the Wall production warranted it. Roger had the largest stage I’ve ever seen in Fenway Park.
Who sets the ticket prices?
The promoter takes the number the artist needs to make, determines the expenses for the venue and overall costs, and then comes up with ticket prices. The stadium shows are very costly and it’s difficult to cover expenses doing a single show at a venue. Typically they try to amortize those costs over two days if the market will bear it and they can sell enough tickets. But you don’t want to schedule two shows if the band can only sell out one and a quarter.
What would you tell someone aspiring to be a production manager?
I would tell them to learn to listen. When I was younger, I don’t think I listened as well as I do now. When you’re young, you think you know what questions to ask, and that’s where you can get into trouble. I really listen to the person on the other end of the phone. For instance, we will have Santana here in two weeks. I read through the rider and other information they sent and I have some concerns about things in the rider because their show is large for this space. I don’t want to start out talking about what we can’t do for them. The tone or the pace of a phone conversation can throw somebody off. So I’m going to listen to what Santana’s people have to say and then bring up things that might be problematic. Riders are written in broad strokes with high expectations. What the artist’s people can accept when they come into the building is often different from what’s in the rider.
There is a lot of happiness in doing this work, but I would tell young people not to limit themselves to one specific thing. I’m a production manager, but there are several other things that I’m capable of doing. I could be a site manager, a stage manager, even a tour manager. There are opportunities around the production management field that can bring you to this position. The discouraging thing is that there aren’t a lot of jobs out there. But if someone is good at what they do and isn’t locked into a specific part of the field, there are opportunities.
What kind of background can help one to succeed in show production?
Being a musician in this business is one thing that helps you to really understand what’s going on with the equipment and onstage. Berklee had the first college-level music business program, but now many colleges offer a music business major. For students at schools where they can study music business without a music background, things aren’t going to be as clear.
Idealistically speaking, what is your overall objective for these shows?
Our goal is to have every artist and production team leave our venues saying, “Thanks, this was a great experience.” And that happens most of the time. We want people to remember us and that we made it easy for them. I take every show to heart and want everybody to walk away with a smile. We work really hard at that as a team—it’s not just me.