FooFighters2015 LSA Oct SD5

CONCERTS
Copyright Lighting&Sound
84 • October 2015 • Lighting&Sound America
America October 2015
http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html
Riding the
Designing for The Foo
Fighters means being
ready for every eventuality
Sonic
Highway
By: Sharon Stancavage
Photos: Todd Kaplan
S
ometimes, looking forward means looking back.
That’s what Dan Hadley, production/lighting
designer for the Foo Fighters, did when he began the
design phase of the band’s current Sonic Highways Tour.
“On the last tour,” he explains, “we had video elements
but no large screens, and we found that people were
paying attention to the IMAG screens, because the
connection between Dave [Grohl, the band’s singer and
lead guitarist] and the crowd is quite strong. I realized that
connection needed to be made towards the stage and not
toward the IMAG screens.”
Hadley started with the visuals, specifically the presentation of them within the staging structure. “The video is
there purely to showcase the band, and to visually amplify
what is happening on the stage, not create another world
or layer of entertainment and eye candy to distract from
anything,” he says. “We want to amplify everything.” His
next step was to ascertain the best way to present those
images to the audience. “I wanted to make it as interesting
as possible—to take it away from the ubiquitous big
rectangle in the back. It drives me mad that people spend
their days and nights staring at those rectangles, be it in
their hands or on the wall of a restaurant with a TV going;
we finally get them to come out for a communal
experience, to enjoy live music with a live band, and then
we put them in front of a giant TV again. I feel that is really
cheating them.”
There was also scale—as well as scalability—to
consider, since the tour would be playing festivals, arenas,
stadiums, and sheds. “What they needed was something
flexible, that was big and could fill stadiums, but would
also keep the focus on the stage,” Hadley adds.
The band and its management left the design details to
Hadley; however, they did have one very solid and nonnegotiable requirement: a B stage. “It was the thing that
Dave wanted, to go out and do a set, including cover
songs, from the middle of the crowd,” he notes.
Creating the B stage was a bit more involved than
simply drawing a circle somewhere between the main
stage front-of-house position and putting in a thrust. “The
band isn’t on in-ears, but Dave is very adept at going out
in the house and dealing with the delay from the PA,”
Hadley explains. “But a whole band doing that gets really
messy really quickly. So we tested it and came up with a
magic distance that they are able to do without any
problems. We put it out as far into the crowd as we could,
which was about 75' from the stage.”
When the venue is B stage-friendly, it’s part of the
production. “The B stage itself is a 20' turntable that rises
to 6.5', which is the height of the ramp at that point. It’s an
octagon with a circular center,” Hadley notes. During the
show, “The band comes up, gets lifted up while rotating,
to join in mid-song, and does a set of songs.”
For his design—initially done, old-school, by hand,
rather than on a computer—Hadley created a set that
relies heavily on IMAG upstage, but changes in format
throughout the evening. He explains, “The show starts out
as one big screen upstage. After the first or second song,
it splits into three portraits, and goes into multiple configurations after that. The center screen stays in a portrait
configuration [12' x 20'], but the rest, on either side, is
comprised of six vertical strips that are 2' wide by 20'
high.” The center screen is equal to six individual strips;
they’re Saco V-9 LED screens from PRG-Nocturne, who
provided video gear to the production.
The automation moving the screens was provided by
the Las Vegas office of SGPS. Hadley explains, “The six
strips not only have to travel on a truss to break apart,
they also lift to different heights, and they rotate to reveal
the lighting that’s hung on their backsides. The center
travels up and down, but it always maintains its position in
the center; it is usually the anchor of the visual and carries
the IMAG. Putting all that machinery into something less
than 2' wide took quite a bit of figuring.” Eric Pearce,
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Hadley’s design consists of 12 vertical LED columns that turn to reveal Ayrton MagicBlade-Rs, Clay Paky Sharpys, and Robe Pointes.
president and principal designer at SGPS, designed and
built-in 12 of his smallest Whirlygig units to handle the
travel and rotation.
To complete the technical end of the screens, Hadley
brought in screens overlord Leif Dixon, who has worked
with him and the band in the past. For the hardware
portion, they engaged Control Freak Systems (CFS), based
in Lititz, Pennsylvania. Dixon explains, “Control Freak was
part of the last Foo Fighters tour, and therefore Dan and
management were open to using them again. I’ve worked
with CFS in the past, so using them for this tour was a
natural fit. I consulted extensively with Ryan Middlemiss—
our CFS project coordinator—and Andy Babin [CFS
system integrator] to come up with the broad strokes of a
system build and what I wanted it to do. Then those guys
dug in deep to build the system the way they do best. We
rely heavily on CFS’s expertise for overall system design
and integration, and Andy was a big part of this, including
figuring out some cool tricks for us once show
programming was underway. He’s pretty much a living
encyclopedia of ones and zeroes. We now have Troy
Giddens as our touring CFS tech and often refer to him
simply as ‘the smart guy’.”
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The system the team put together is comprised of
multiple PRG Mbox media servers [two active, plus a
spare for the stage] and a Barco Encore switcher with
custom Control Freak Encore Bridge software. “The
upstage video wall splits up into 13 pieces during the
show, so there are a lot of different possibilities for looks
and routing,” Babin notes.
The Mboxes play back the pre-produced content and
also have an impact on the IMAG. “The Mbox is pushing
out all the content: straight QuickTime movie files and
clips. Since this is an IMAG-heavy show, it’s also doing a
lot of the effects on the IMAG, like grunging it up and
changing the colors,” Babin explains.
Speaking of the Barco Encore, Babin comments, “One
big issue we’re attacking is overall latency. If Dave is up
there clapping his hands, you want to see hands clapping
in real time. With the Encore, the whole system has
incredibly low latency. We did as much as we could to
bypass unnecessary conversion.”
Control Freak also interfaces with the SGPS motion
control system, via Art-Net. “It’s turned out to be about a
full universe of Art-Net control going back and forth to
them,” Babin notes. “Not only are they giving us the X/Y
position of the screen, they are giving us the rotation of the
screens and a whole bunch of other data.”
That positional data goes to Dixon at the front of house.
He explains, “I receive motion feedback from the SGPS
system; actual operation is done on the side stage by
Colin Nevins, who is the head of our amazing SGPS
squad.”
There are also two 16'-wide x 24'-high portrait-format
side screens for IMAG; they’re ROE creative display MC 7
H LED walls and are fed by one active Mbox with a spare,
just in case. Hadley explains, “The portrait screens match
up better with what we’re doing with our screens on stage;
the general rule is that it either plays exactly what is taking
place on stage or is used to create a larger format that
extends from beyond the stage.” The second case results
in what might be viewed as a broken landscape or widescreen format. “The IMAG screens are there for utility
purposes. People can see them if they need to, and in
stadiums, you do need the IMAG,” Hadley adds.
At the front of house, there are “three full-size [MA
Lighting] grandMA2 desks: one for me, one for Dan, and a
spare,” Dixon explains. “We operate on a single MA
network and show file; I operate most of the video in the
show, but being on a single MA session allows Dan to fire
some cues that trigger both lights and video—Dan runs
video for a couple of songs [the particular songs are a tour
show as he normally would. What actually gets to the
screens—Josh’s line cut, individual cameras,
graphics/movie playback, etc.—is under my control. In the
most simple songs, I’m essentially just routing Josh to the
screens. At the other end of the spectrum, I’m creating
multi-camera looks across the stage and side screens,
layered with effects and animations,” Dixon notes.
Adams’ video package includes a Grass Valley Karrera
K-Frame S-Series SPORT 2 SD/HD/3G switcher, seven
Grass Valley LDK 8000 HD broadcast video cameras with
a variety of Fujinon lenses, and three Bradley cameras with
wide angle adaptors. Babin adds, “Josh is still cutting the
show traditionally, which is the case until we get to the ISO
songs. For those, we’re taking direct ISOs from the
camera system as well, but all of the media server and
screen looks are triggered by the grandMA.”
Overall, what goes on the screens is a collaborative
process. “Dan oversees the process as designer, of
course, but Josh and I also provide a lot of creative input,
and Josh has been invaluable in creating/editing some
additional content pieces,” Dixon says.
The show is IMAG-heavy, with the occasional use of
content. “They’re just not a content band,” Hadley admits.
A couple pieces of the content are provided by Montrealbased Moment Factory, while the rest came from Robb
Wagner at Stimulated Inc., located in Burbank, California.
The center screen, in portrait format with IMAG, is used extensively in the show.
Thirteen Saco V-9 video screens, supplied by PRG, also feature
content from Stimulated Inc. and Moment Factory.
secret], along with the lighting cues, for a few numbers
where it made sense to program it that way. However,
most of the time, I look at pretty girls, eat snacks,
and occasionally throw things at Dan.”
Dixon controls all the screen routing and media
servers. “Josh Adams—our video director—shoots his
Lighting
The backs of the 12 video strips are filled with lighting
instruments. Hadley notes, “Six of them are populated with
[Clay Paky] Sharpy Washes and Robe Pointes: three
Sharpy Washes and four Pointes on each of the six strips.
The other six strips each have ten Ayrton MagicBlade-R
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units to create a spine down them.” He adds, “I like the
Sharpys quite a bit, and the Robes. It was really the matter
of their flat prism that really pushed the Pointe over the
standard Sharpy.” Each strip also has one Clay Paky
Mythos mounted in a custom bracket at the top.
The MagicBlade-Rs have a specific purpose in the rig.
“When the video strips turn around to reveal the lights, we
needed something for eye candy, which the Blades
provide, since people aren’t sick of looking at them,” notes
the production designer. “They’re quite new and quite flash
and quite punchy. I also wanted the sheet-like beam effect
of the MagicBlades to be available, and they did quite a
nice job of that.”
As for the rest of the rig, Hadley explains, “The
workhorses overhead downstage for the main illumination
are all [Martin Professional] MAC Vipers—a mix of Profiles
and the AirFX Washes.” Hadley has put the latter through
its paces on the road. “ test out the hybrid nature of the
AirFX Wash, which I’ve come to really enjoy. And they’re
doing quite a good job.”
Another favorite of the designer is the Solaris Flare; he
has 36 on the main rig, “I have 11 on the downstage truss
to use as crowd light, and a bunch on the floor and on the
drum riser. Those things are beautiful.” There are also 30
88 • October 2015 • Lighting&Sound America
Clay Paky Mythos units, of which Hadley says, “I love
them. They do what they do very well.” The lighting
equipment is being provided by VER’s Los Angeles office.
Programming began without a set list, which is
expected with the band. Hadley says, “I knew that there
was a progression of reveals with the screen splits and
motion tricks that had to be respected regardless of the
set list, so we were really left with only one option—to
program every song to work in every configuration of the
screen and lighting rig and see where the set list cards fell
once we got into a groove of touring. Once we did, the set
list fell into as much of a rhythm as it ever does, and I was
able to start tweaking the lighting and video for their
positions and configurations.”
Hadley programmed 45 songs on his MA Lighting
grandMA2; the band has over 80 songs that they can, at
any point, include in the set list. “I don’t think that the rig
has 80 looks of equal strength, so many song pages have
multiple options of operation for different songs,” the
designer says. “That’s why I keep my programming very
fluid and very manual. We also still get curveballs at every
show, whether it’s Dave challenging the band to join in a
song without telling them which one before he starts the
intro, breaking a song down until eventually asking for a
Opposite: Control for the video walls was specified by Control Freak Systems and is handled at the front of house by screens director
Leif Dixon. Above: Hadley’s workhorses in the rig include the Martin Professional MAC Viper AirFX and Clay Paky Mythos.
total blackout, or us getting a set list 15 minutes before
the show with ‘Everlong’ as the first song—it has been the
traditional show closer for as long as I can remember.”
At the console with Hadley is a foot pedal that he calls
the “MA shoe,” created by lighting designer Breck
Haggerty. “I have this assigned to trigger an executor
which changes depending on the song—video cues,
strobe hits, chase tempos, etc.,” he says. “It’s also very
useful during programming when used to trigger the ‘next’
macro, so I don’t have to move my hands from the
encoder wheels.”
The lack of a solid set list affects Dixon as well. When
asked what happens when Grohl decides to play
something completely unexpected, Dixon says, “We
panic!” He smiles and adds, “Dan and I will sometimes
borrow programming from another song not being played
that night. Otherwise, when Dave calls an audible during
the show—which happens quite frequently—Dan will just
punt lights. In that scenario, I always have a get-out-of-jailfree-card by routing Josh’s line cut to the screens if I don’t
have something better up my sleeve. Sometimes it will
depend on screen orientation; if our columns are spun with
the lights facing forward, I’m likely to just lean on clean
IMAG.”
Sound
Handling the sound duties at the front of house is Bryan
Worthen, who has been with the band for 13 years. For
this tour, Worthen is using an L-Acoustics K1/K2 PA
provided by Los Angeles-based Delicate Productions in
partnership with Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based
Special Event Services (SES). Per side, there are fourteen
K1s over four K2s on the main hang, twelve K2s for the
side hang with 12 KARAs and 12 ARCS for front fill.
Worthen explains, “For me, the K1/K2 PA does everything I
want and need it to do—high volume, low volume, it
doesn’t matter—[it works] with not a lot of effort. For the
band, there is little to no audio spill out the back or the
boxes’ sides to affect the stage in a negative way. It’s
great.” Rounding out the rig are L-Acoustics SB28 subs;
as expected, the system is considerably enlarged for the
band’s stadium dates.
Worthen runs the show on a DiGiCo SD5 console. He
notes, “It’s the only digital console that, to me, is visually
analog. That’s really important to me. The SD5 is very
user-friendly, it sounds great, and everything on it works
like it should. It uses the same software as the SD7 with
fewer bells and whistles on the surface. I don’t use a lot of
what the console offers, anyway, so why have buttons and
knobs there if I’m not going to use them?”
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Worthen is mixing without Waves. “I have five
Avalon VT-737sp [channel strippers] and four channels
of Midas XL42 [microphone preamps] without the B
stage—there are eight Avalon 737s when we have the
B stage. The 737s are for Dave’s vocals, Taylor’s
[Hawkins, drums] vocal, and guest RF mics. XL42s are
for guitars.”
The Ayrton MagicBlade-Rs provide a new kind of eye candy for
the audience.
Sennheiser manufactures Worthen’s primary microphones of choice. The kick drum has a Sennheiser 901
and 902; the snare top has a Sennheiser e905, the
bottom a 614. All the toms are Sennheiser 904s, while
the high hat and overhead have Sennheiser 614s. For
guitars, Dave [Grohl] is on a Sennheiser MD 421, Chris
Shiflett [lead guitar] is on an e906, while Pat Smear
[rhythm guitar] is on a Shure SM57. Worthen says,
“Chris’ vocal mic is an e935, Taylor’s vocal mic is a
Sennheiser e904, and Dave’s are Sennheiser MD 431s.
There are no special reasons why we use these vocal
mics, except Taylor’s mic. The e904 is typically a drum
mic but, in this case, it pretty much works,
because it’s small. It’s easier for Taylor to move
around, grab etc. For me, it gets less bleed from the
drums and cymbals than anything else we have tried
in the past.”
Night after night, Worthen has a few challenges to
deal with. “The biggest challenge is getting Taylor’s
vocal out loud and clear,” he says. “Drum vocals can
be a real challenge with a hard hitting drummer and
crazy-loud stage volume. The Avalon 737 is a lot of
help to me for this situation.”
The Sonic Highways Tour’s last date in the US is in
California; it moves into Europe next month.
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The Broken
Dave Show
On tour, the unexpected is always expected. Then again,
some things are truly unexpected. One such event
happened on June 12 in Gothenburg, Sweden, when Dave
Grohl stumbled off the stage, breaking his leg.
There is a YouTube video of Grohl, in the pit with a microphone, talking to the audience while on his back, immobile
on a stretcher. To the audience’s delight—and the shock of
his crew—Grohl was patched up and returned to the stage.
He skipped one song from the set list, but added two.
However, accommodations had to be made for his injury.
Hadley explains, “It was really unfortunate that we had to
cancel the shows we did in Europe. That’s his kick-drum
foot, and he’s a very good drummer. No one wants that
ability changed.”
So there needed to be a plan. “There was no way that he
was going to cancel the rest of the tour. As soon as the
doctor said, ‘You can play if you’re sitting down the entire
time,’ that was it,” Hadley adds.
However, there was a slight problem. “We had no time
and no experience doing a Foo Fighter show with an
immobile Mr. Grohl, so we had to design a few options. We
had a ground-based way of getting him out over the crowd,
and also a sky-based way of getting him out over the crowd.
Neither of which worked for us for our show, so we ended
up with him on the runway a couple of times on his mobile
throne,” the production designer explains.
The mobile throne concept came from Grohl himself; in
fact, the hand-sketched design is now available on the
band’s website on a T-shirt. “It’s like a magic carpet with a
big rock throne on it,” Hadley notes.
Hadley adds “The throne has 12 of Ayrton’s new
MagicDot-Rs, three Solaris Flares, and one Martin Jem
ZR33 fogger. It’s on a SGPS creeper deck, so it can travel
from the stage, down the runway, and back. We probably
had about a week and a half to construct it and take it to
DC.” The throne was fabricated almost instantaneously by
SGPS, and is tied into the lighting console via cables. At
times, it even throws an Ayrton MagicDot-R spotlight on one
of the other band members. “You want it to kick ass and be
rock and roll,” the designer says. “There’s a fine line to ride
with them in making it enough rock without it being too
carnival, and it’s a hidden line that’s easy to cross. We were
just trying to figure out how to get as close to that line as
possible.”
The Grohl throne was a success; Grohl has been
lauded—and rightly so—for his show-must-go-on
dedication. Grohl told the Associated Press, “I think these
have been the best shows the Foo Fighters have ever done.
I think, because of this situation and because of the
challenge of just getting onstage to do the shows, the
shows are more passionate, [and] they’re more energetic.”
—Sharon Stancavage
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