Visual creators Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall are the team behind creating the look and feel of a Chemical Brothers show. They come up with ideas as well as the flow of the live show. They also brought lighting designer Paul Normandale into the foray five years ago and, once again, he is on board to come up with the light show for his second go round with the band. Paul is the proprietor of Lite Alternative Design (lite-alt-design.com), a company that supplies original design concepts as well as lighting gear for all kinds of acts, ranging from Coldplay to the Kings of Leon and Shakira. But for this act, he takes on a different strategy, as there are no musicians and dancers roaming the stage… other than a couple of gigantic robots.
“The Chemical Brothers have a great visual heritage of innovation and creative use of large scale imagery,” explains Normandale. “This tour saw some of those images brought to life.” The large-scale video wall located upstage of the two artists plays a myriad of different footage and clips they have collected over their extensive touring productions. The media was all custom designed by Adam and Marcus and is played back through a Catalyst media server on a dedicated grandMA2 Light console, one of the three that Lite Alternative provides for the worldwide tour.
The Scenery
“Marcus had the original idea to have two large robots flank the upstage sides of the stage. I got involved with the light fixture choices within them and how it would work in a festival situation,” explains Normandale. “The robots appear during a 40-second appearance in a specific cue that is tied into the dialogue of the music. There’s also a gigantic convex reflector in the center of the stage that appears via a Kinesys automated motor system. We aim a large amount of Sharpy fixtures at this set piece and just duck for cover.”
The robots themselves have some technology mounted inside them. The stage left one contains three Martin MAC Auras and a couple of Ayrton MagicBlades. The other robot contained a video screen, mounted in the torso. Each robot was outfitted with Lumalaser Beamburst laser units to emit laser beams from their eyes. Both robots released smoke via Look Solutions Viper S smoke machines. A Martin Jem ZR33 also lived behind the band and could fill the stage with smoke at any given time. The robots and convex mirror of sorts moved into place via a Kinesys motion control system for chain hoists.
Lights and Lasers
The tour carries their own unique lighting package, all designed to be floor lights. Since the group predominantly plays festival gigs, they opted for a package that could be easily rolled on and off stage with minimum set up and strike times. Their existing light show could add in whatever local lighting each festival had on site, without compromising the tightly programmed looks. The video wall upstage of the act was supplied locally for the Electric Zoo gig in New York, but the act normally uses a Roe Visual hybrid LED screen that is 55 feet wide and 31 feet tall. It was not filled to capacity with imagery during the entire show, as, at times, the designers tastefully displayed smaller sized clips centered behind the band.
The touring rig consists of four large pods of light fixtures that roll in behind the act. Each pod contained nine Clay Paky Sharpys, two Solaris flares and an Ayrton MagicBlade. At the base of the pods is a row of eight Martin MAC Viper AirFX fixtures to lay down a wall of light different from the pencil beam Sharpys. Four lighting crew members are needed to get the gear set up in the tight time allotted for set change at festivals. Lite Alternative supplied the gear and crew in Europe, while Upstaging helped provide whatever Paul needed for the dates in the U.S.
What really catches the spectator’s eye is what appears to be a forest of Sharpys on the floor. Layered in rows, the fixtures travel on to stage perched on top of individual carts (look at the artist rendering for an idea). Forty of these fixtures can shine beams straight up in the air to resemble many sticks of light. They could go from a static look resembling a wheat field to full on radical movements of light beams at any given time.
The use of lasers has been a predominant force at Chemical Brothers shows. In fact the duo still utilize two old 15-watt lasers they have personally owned for years. The production also carries six 35-watt lasers they rent from E R Productions (www.er-productions.com), which they stagger across the stage for a huge wide display of effects.
Ricardo Lorenzini is behind the controls directing the live show once again. He has been involved with the band for more than 10 years, and Normandale has great faith in his skills. Unlike many EDM acts that tend to have a few specific lighting cues in their show then punt the rest, this show is all scripted out. Timecode runs everything that they carry, from lights to lasers to video. But Ricardo has access to punt and add variations to any cue at any time with the way his console is laid out.
The Chemical Brothers Born in the Echoes Tour
Crew
Visual Creators: Adam Smith, Marcus Lyall
Lighting Designer: Paul Normandale
Lighting Director: Ricardo Lorenzini
Lighting Gear/Crew: Lite Alternative (U.K./Europe), Upstaging (U.S.)
Lasers: Band-owned, ER Productions
Gear
4 grandMA2 Light consoles
74 Clay Paky Sharpys
8 Martin MAC Viper AirFX fixtures
3 Martin MAC Auras
6 Ayrton MagicBlade R fixtures
12 SGM X-5 white strobes
8 Solaris LED Flares
2 Solaris T-Light 80K strobes
6 Par 16 birdies
1 Martin Jem ZR33 smoke machine
2 Look Solutions Viper S smoke machines
4 Catalyst media servers
1 ROE Hybrid LED screen (16.8m x 9.6m, WxH)
12 Beamburst lasers
2 Scanning head lasers
2 Chemical Brothers lasers
7 2000 kg CM Lodestar motors
10 1000 kg CM Lodestar motors
7 500 kg Kinesys motors
