Hello friends and LP Family,

My name is Ken “Pooch” Van Druten and I work for Linkin Park as their Front of House sound engineer. In short, this means that I “mix” and supervise the sound that the audience hears when they are at a Linkin Park concert.

The term “front of house” is an old theater term that is a description of where I work. Where the audience is located is called “the house”, and where I work is in the “front”.

I get to work with all kinds of computer equipment to get the final result you hear when you are at a show. The set up required and time spent preparing for the show may shock you.

Prior to the SSMF we will start to put the gear together on July 25 and work every day. Then we will spend many hours rehearsing and preparing for the big day on August 3.

When we rehearse there is a lot of interaction between crew and band to get it just right. A great deal of time is spent making sure that the audience hears a show that is record quality, but with impact. The band, and crew, take this very seriously.

On the show day Sunset Boulevard still has traffic on it at 3am. At 4am they shutdown the street and we begin the set up. Trucks bring staging and gear to the site and 100’s of people begin to build. We all work very quickly because even though the show is not until 9pm, it takes every minute. By noon, things start to look like a rock show. The stage is in place, lighting equipment and sound equipment is in place. The guitar, drum, and bass technicians start setting up their gear and tuning guitars. At 3pm we are making sure the stage is completely ready for the band. We listen to the speakers, check the lights, play guitars and drums, and double check that everything is completely safe for the audience and band.

At 9pm the audience is enjoying the show, but behind the scenes our job is going full force. Every aspect of the show is being monitored and controlled by the crew, with the most important being safety for all involved.

By 11pm the show is over. The audience is happily traveling home after a great experience, but the crew is not done. We have to pack it all back up so that they can open the street at 6am. Gear is put away quickly and pushed on to trucks, and we work into the night.

Despite the hard work, we love what we do, and are lucky to have such great fans of the band that we work for. When you go to the SSMF, just take a second to realize just what it took to put on the show, and have an amazing time.

Ken “Pooch” Van Druten

Pooch with fans | Photo: Sean Paden

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