Post Malone is a singer-songwriter and record producer whose style includes a mixture of musical genres, and on stage he draws you in even more with his stage presence. We first heard Malone back in 2015, and in the years since he has only gotten bigger, with over 80 million records sold. Malone has won 10 Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards, and set several streaming records. With eight Diamond Certified songs (the first artist ever to do so), some of those include “Rockstar,” “Psycho,” and “Sunflower.” PLSN caught up with his If Y’all Weren’t Here, I’d Be Crying Tour where we talked to Dan Norman of Evolve Lights Inc. about the tour design. Norman has worked on Malone’s last three tours including all his festival shows for the past three years, and a number of other projects ranging from a 2020 Billboard Music Awards, a Bud Light New Years Eve 2021 livestream, and Saturday Night Live in 2022.
Norman went through several designs for this tour, but ultimately chose this design, developing the 3D model of the staging, video, and lighting systems. “I then had Earlybird [Visual] create the color renderings, as I was on a show at that time. After approval, I created the Vectorworks plans for the shops to use for bidding and construction. The whole process from start to rehearsal load-in took just over a month—a very tight turnaround for sure.” Norman then spent 10 days at Rock Lititz Studio 2 programing automation, lighting, and video, before moving to the first show’s venue, where they had an additional three days before opening night.
“I pitched the design and sent it in for review, where management and Posty were very receptive of the design and only had a few minor updates due to the inclusion of a live band for the first time. The direction for the tour was a very collaborative effort from myself, Production Manager Dennis Danneels, Animation Director Ian Valentine of Human Person, PLAYLAB, and WFB, the music directors.”
This was Norman’s third tour on MA Lighting’s grandMA3 software. Due to the short lead time before rehearsals started, it was hard to find a programmer who was available. “Thankfully Joe Bay was miraculously between gigs and said yes to working with me. I’m also very thankful that he was willing to learn MA3 on the fly as we were programming the show together. Towards the end of rehearsals, I was spending more time with automation and video and let Joe take lead on the programming. It was the first time we had worked together, and I’m excited to see what shows we can work on together in the future.”
Norman says he absolutely loves automation. PRG provided the Kinesys system and automation team. “Thankfully it was all two point automation and I included it with my first pitch. More and more now I try to integrate it as much as possible. With how long the show is, and the fact that in amphitheaters it is nearly impossible to get a thrust or B-stage, you need to have a system in place that can keep the stage visually interesting for an hour and a half.” Norman used Depence R3 on a monitor next to them in rehearsals to program automation from the MA3 as they were programming lighting. “Then our Lighting Director, Anthony “Crash” Wayne took our automation programming and made it into a spreadsheet of cues and timings for the Kinesys Programmer Robert Houillion to implement. Funny enough, since the system doesn’t take in timecode and relies on an operator to hit GO, we used a laptop running MA3 onPC to cue automation. Robert had his own timecode line view, cue sheet, and even some clever image/name swapping macros worked up by Joe and Crash, to give him Standby and GOs. Overall, it has been a great experience with PRG and Kinesys Automation.”
Production Manager Dennis Danneels worked with Ron Bleggi of Pyrotecnico extensively to develop the pyro for this production, Norman notes. “They put together an incredible setup and pushed the boundaries of what an amphitheater tour can accommodate. We have a long history with Pyrotecnico, and they always do a fantastic job. We had the pleasure of bringing in Human Person to create the video content and Notch I-Mag looks for the tour. They have a style that fits Posty so well and I was very excited to welcome them to the team. It was an amazing collaboration between Human Person and creative input from PLAYLAB that helped introduce the most amount of video content for a Post Malone tour ever. They were very respectful of lighting and automation and worked with us for every song to make sure it all integrated perfectly.”
Norman has worked with PRG in the past and knows what their inventory is. He notes they used a collection of older units and brand-new gear. “PRG recently purchased a large stock of VL3600’s, which is a fantastic IP65 rated LED spot. They are a great workhorse fixture, with a fast zoom, color, and intensity. They were the only spot fixture on the show. PRG purchased 100 ACME Gemini fixtures which I love for their speed, brightness, dual sided features, and shape of the lensing.” Norman really wanted a strip light that could pan and tilt on the automated trusses and says the ACME Gemini was perfect for that.
“We used Ayrton MagicPanel FX, a returning fixture from previous Posty Tours—great zoom, lots of pixels, the strobe is fast; overall a great wash light. I love the [TMB] Solaris Flare line of products. They are fantastic for LED wall blow-through looks—just enough pixel count—and I love the strobe/wash override to layer on top of pixel chases.” The GLP X4 washes under the grated stage decks gave Norman enough punch while being able to pan and tilt instead of just being a static up light. “PRG recently converted some of their VL3600 units to work with PRG’s GroundControl™ system, which was an amazing followspot system to have on this tour. Overall, I’m very happy with the fixture choices that were available for this tour.”
“The entire team pulled off an incredible show under a tight timeline,” says Norman. “I’m so happy I had the opportunity to work with Post, and for the first time, a live band out on tour with him. Thank you to the entire team and an honorable mention to Burton Tenenbein and the PRG team for a job well done.”
PRODUCTION TEAM
- Tour Manager: Angie Warner
- Production Manager: Dennis Danneels
- Production & Lighting Designer: Dan Norman/Evolve Lights, Inc.
- Lighting Programming: Dan Norman & Joe Bay
- Lighting Director: Anthony “Crash” Wayne
- Lighting Crew Chief: Terry Mueller
- Lighting Tech, Dimmers: James Thom
- Lighting Tech, FOH: Anthony Kivitt
- Lighting Techs: Kelsi Bodin, Johnathan Keese, Jennifer Kerbs, Mariela Olivera, Kody Tipton
- Animation Director: Ian Valentine, Human Person
- Animation: Ian Valentine, Lou Alencar, Matt Cummer, Frank Xavier, Miron Malejki, Euphoric Co., Drew Tyndell, Lilfuchs Fuchs, Black Lake, [War]-[Moth] & Quin
- Notch Design: Andrew Marchbank
- disguise Programmers: Dwain Bennett, Brady V, Victor Murillo
- disguise Operator: Victor Murillo
- Camera Director: John Moore
- Video Engineers: Gene McAuliffe, Lewis McMillian
- Video Crew Chief: Ben Welch
- Video Techs: Ben Welch, Kevin Killian, Randal Garriott, Peter Morgado, Luke Waldron, Neil Welch
- Automation Crew Chief: Angel Wallace
- Automation: Catherine Bielski, Vinnie Carattini, Robert Houillion
- Pyro Designer: Ron Bleggi
- Pyro Crew Chief: Bernard Walker II
- Pyro Techs: John Carra, Mark Jones, Robert Kakuno, Nickolas Toverada, David Yarbrough, Seth Stiles
- Carpenters: Allen Haley, Chris Payton
- Riggers: Hector Mimoso, Donnie Keyes, Brian Collins, Bill Rengstl
- Production Coordinator: Maria Bermudez
- Stage Manager: Patrick Harbin
VENDORS
- Lighting, Video & Automation: PRG/Burton Tenenbein
- Video Content: Human Person, PLAYLAB, INC.
- disguise Servers: Dark Matter Technologies/Ryan Shepard
- Staging: All Access Staging and Productions/Robert Achlimbari
- Pyro/SFX: Pyrotecnico/Ron Bleggi & Rocco Vitale
- Trucking: Upstaging
GEAR
Lighting
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA3 full-size
- 6 MA Lighting grandMA3 PU M
- 50 Vari-Lite VL3600
- 4 Vari-Lite VL3600 w/ PRG GroundControl
- 50 Ayrton MagicPanel FX
- 24 Ayrton MagicPanel R
- 100 ACME Gemini
- 111 GLP impression X4
- 36 GLP impression X4 Bar 20
- 10 Martin MAC Quantum Wash
- 96 TMB Solaris Flare
- 6 TMB Solaris Flare Q+ Rayzr
- 5 Arri L10-C LED Fresnel
- 5 Arri L7-C LED Fresnel
- 4 MDG theONE Atmospheric Generator
- 8 JEM ZR45 Fog Machine
- 38 Kinesys Chain Hoists
Video
- 1 INFiLED Titan-X Series Curved LED Wall 19’8” x 51’-0”
- 2 disguise GX3 Servers with Notch
- 1 Furio Camera System
- 1 PRG Camera Package