They shut down the weddings, the concerts, the corporate blowouts, and the paychecks. George Fontes (World Ablaze Podcast) ran a 27-year live events and production company with 32 people on payroll when COVID hit. The entire industry went dark. Remote Zoom galas, government-funded church LED walls, tour riders that demand a half-million-dollar console, and the slow realization that once clients buy the gear they stop renting it. Havok and LX sit down with George for an unscripted ride through the wreckage: how installs kept the lights on, why monitor mixing is the real high-wire act, what happens when artists bring 20 channels of backing tracks, the difference between Charlie Daniels and Auto-Tune country, meeting Dio (actually cool), Jerry remembering his name at NAMM, and why the hardest part wasn’t the shutdown it was the years after when budgets collapsed and the economy finally caught up. Then it gets bigger. Crowd psychology, Bernays, the herd, data-center water fights, the AI war, and why thorium keeps getting ignored. No scripts. No sacred cows. Just a guy who’s still mixing.

World Ablaze with George Fontes https://worldablazepodcast.com

Chapters

00:00 Welcome George Fontes / World Ablaze

00:50 27 years in events, COVID shutdown, remote corporate “concerts”

03:25 Payroll of 32, hustle mode, 1099s, church LED wall installs that saved the company

07:00 Tour riders, Martin Vipers vs what you actually own, millions in gear

11:30 Why a keynote now has a rider, coverage patterns, line arrays, SMART, and actual physics

14:34 Motörhead walls, Jerry Only’s custom bass, and turning it up to 11

16:21 The real hangover: 2025–2026 budgets, canceled festivals, businesses getting bought

18:33 Groceries, gas, SD cards, and the stock market vs real life

23:38 California venue cards, picking your battles, keeping the crew working

26:35 What the shutdown actually revealed

28:16 The 20% who said no, Fauci, and lost accountability

31:20 Masks in pockets, grocery-store arrows, and emergency use

36:00 Le Bon, Bernays, Goebbels, predictive programming, and the slow drip

42:26 Data centers, evaporative cooling, droughts, closed-loop systems, and the AI war

53:10 Meeting the heroes: Dio, Jerry Only at NAMM, Ron Jeremy crashing the Peavey booth

1:02:00 Backing tracks, worship-band laptops, and the Auto-Tune country crime

1:04:06 Charlie Daniels, Oak Ridge Boys, and old-school musicians who could actually play

1:05:47 Why monitors are harder than FOH, RF coordination, and being a drummer helps

1:08:51 Favorite gigs, Tech N9ne, Cash Cash, Michael McDonald effortless

1:17:54 Shoutouts: Miss Manti and Dad 1:19:50 World Ablaze politics, geopolitics, no rage-bait

1:22:06 Where to find Space Tomatoes (YouTube, X, Nostr, everywhere)

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