The band Failure using Axe-Fx II

Saw Failure's first reunion gig last night in LA. Ive always loved the band, whose singer/guitarist and bassist both had refrigerator-size Bradshaw rigs when they were originally active in the 90s. After hearing singer Ken Andrews' praise of the AxeFX a little while back, I knew there was a chance that they would be Fractalized these days. Sure enough, I could see 2 AxeFX II units in a rack off to the side, and each guy used a Sunn Model 15 FRFR speaker. Couldn't make out what power amps were used. Cliff/Matt, did you guys work with them at all? Anyways, it sounded great in the house.
 

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Very interesting re. the Sunn speakers. Two-way with a midrange horn/driver - BUT - with a frontloaded midrange/bass horn infront of a 12 or 15" woofer.
I have experienced an old Altec Voice of the Theater with my Axe and Matrix 1000 and it was incredible with respect to nuances and especially dynamics. But huge unfortunately.
 
Looks like I'm in the minority then... having actually understood the OP's title on first glance!

Failure are/were a very underrated yet influential band. Glad to hear they're back at it and sounding good! Those Sunn cabs look monstrous!

I saw the Pensado's Place episode, but Matt's posting of Ken's opinion of the SVT bass amp sim was high praise indeed:

OK, producer Ken Andrews ( including #1 credits on Billboard iTunes) recently sent me this:

"The SVT Bass sound I'm getting from the Fractal is the best bass sound I've ever played. I have one BASS preset with 5 different scenes all with an increasing degree of overdrive until 5 is flat out distorted. Its the best thing to happen to me and my Fender P-Bass in years. I just used it all over the new Charlotte Martin album. Listening to the mastering right now, and that bass sound is killing me... -Ken"

You can read more about Ken here:

Ken Andrews - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
I was also amongst those schlepping a refrigerator sized Bradshaw system all across the country in the 90's. Can't even begin to describe how it feels to get even better and more versatile sounds out of the 2 rack space AxeFX!
 
I saw the show on Thursday, as well. The live mix was one of the best I've ever heard, and the guitar/bass tones were badass. Phenomenal band. (And extremely important/influential.) I knew there was a good chance they were using the Axe live, but I just couldn't tell from my vantage point. Thanks for the info.
 
They've always been great, but Ive been seeing them for years and the reunion show was their first that had some real "production". Check out the videos on YouTube, there are plenty. Killer show.
 
Yep, we are fractalized. My buddy Billy Howerdel of a perfect circle hipped me to fractal a few months ago. The first time I sat down to play with one lasted 3 hours. For us there was not another viable solution out there. The sunn model 15s are augmented with 2 QSC KW181 subs. We both play bass as well as guitar, so axe-fx with FRFRF is kind of a must. Feedback is a big part of our show, plus we are believers in having some form of backline speakers to fill in the audience up close and also to just directional-ize the sound for the audience. It's just weird when the band is only coming through the FOH PA. -ken
 
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