EAW's Martyn "Ferrit" Rowe is providing us with live reports as an EAW UMX.96 digital console makes its inaugural tour with Foreigner and FOH Engineer Don Dodge. Check back in daily for the latest from Ferrit on how it's going.

Charles Ives Center For The Arts, Danbury, CT
August 2, 2007

When we said we were going to do field trials of the UMX.96 console with Foreigner, I had no idea how literal that was. A picturesque meadow with a covered stage (gazebo?) perched in the edge of a lake was going to be our first outing on the current Foreigner World Tour 2007.

The EAW field team of Dana Bourke and myself were on hand to assist veteran FOH Engineer Don Dodge (pictured below) with a transition from analog to digital. After a team of stalwart chappies had hand carried/dragged the console up to the FOH position at about noon, the console was put up on it’s easy-tilt and the cover removed where it attracted a crowd.

A demonstration of the feature set and user interface (the first of many that day) ensued. With the able assistance of the local sound provider, RKE Productions Inc, we were ready to start system tuning by about 2 pm. Don had pre-programmed the board on an earlier visit to Woodinville, so we were ready to commence line-check.

The band instruments were put through their paces and a couple of “standards” were bashed out by the roadie band of John Pelligrinelli, Ted Strain and Roy Kelly with Barry Foy on monitors. Later, a capacity crowd of over 3,500 were up on their feet and stayed that way.

This year Jason Bonham is the driving force behind the drum kit, powering the endless succession of hits by Foreigner, and before I realized it , the encores were upon us and then the walk out music was playing.

A beaming Don Dodge accepted a stream of compliments “how great it sounded” from audience members as they passed the mix position. A one-hour load-out and then we piled on to the bus for the next show...