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Sum 41 bids adieu on farewell arena tour across Europe with support from Cohesion

Alongside the release of their eighth and final album in March 2024, pop-punk band Sum 41 announced the “Tour of the Setting Sum”, a multi-continent arena tour that served as a farewell to a thirty-year career. Throughout Asia, North America, and Europe, the Canadian rockers played more than a hundred shows.

For the 24-venue run in Europe, culminating in a sold-out performance in Nanterre, France, a suburb of Paris, Production Manager Ivan Copelan selected a Cohesion audio system. Sixteen Cohesion CO12 per side comprised the main hangs, and an additional twelve CO12 were hung on either side. “The CO12 go so low - the subs are there for lifting”, says FOH Engineer Bryan Campbell, who has also mixed for Papa Roach, Breaking Benjamin, and Of Mice and Men. “I’m mixing punk rock, so I want that kick drum at 60-70 Hz, and I want that bass to have that dog-snarling midrange tone. I’m not looking for oomph, I’m looking for coverage.”

“On the whole, the low end of the PA is powerful”, adds Valdrian Sulejmani, System Engineer for the European tour. “We can be a bit more equal by not having to push the subs much.” Six Cohesion CP218 II+ were hung per side. “Flying the subs kept the low end up and provided even coverage”, says Campbell. Twelve additional CP218 II+ were deployed on the ground, and a Cohesion CP118+ was used as a drum subwoofer. The team opted for eight Cohesion CO10 as front fill to provide “a much fuller signal for guitar and bass - it helps it sound truer to the mix”, explains Campbell.

The tour carried a dozen Cohesion CM14 for supporting artists Dynamite Shakers and Neck Deep to use as stage monitors. AudioRent Clair, a Clair Global brand, deployed the audio system each night. The performance in France required additional PA to allow 40,000+ fans to best experience Sum 41’s final European show. The side hangs were increased to sixteen CO12, and additional rear hangs of eight CO12 were flown. Six more CP218 II+ were added on the ground, and all subwoofers, flown and on the ground, were deployed front-facing. Four delay towers of twelve CO12 each were deployed - a necessity for full coverage in Nanterre’s Paris La Défense Arena, Europe’s largest arena.

According to Sulejmani, Sum 41 lead singer Deryck Whibley “came to FOH every day to listen to the mix with Bryan and get what he wanted on stage. That was important to him.” Campbell shares: “Val and I walked around and sat in different seats to make sure it sounded great. He’d say, ‘I want to time-align these subs differently’, and we’d all hear the difference. Even coverage is what we strived for in every spot.”

“Coverage is always number-one”, agrees Sulejmani. “Bryan was mixing like a studio track. He wanted the PA to translate the mix to real life. Normally a rock band’s priority is the midrange, but the whole spectrum was important. We needed an even and equal low end through every venue as well.”

“We had two concepts for this tour, but we pushed toward a Paul David Hager design that flew six subs in omni”, adds Campbell. “I fell in love with this setup.” Sulejmani details: “The subs moved behind in an angle between the mains and sides, with the sides two feet shorter than the subs to the main. It’s just a bit easier to translate the low end.”

“The size of Cohesion worked for us - we had the PA in one truck through Europe”, notes Copelan, who previously managed tours for Wiz Khalifa, Megadeth, Incubus, and Dogstar. Sum 41’s tour - and career - wrapped in January 2025 at a hometown show at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena. They will be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame on March 30.

(Photos: Cohesion)

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