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Sofi Tukker ‘Wet Tennis Tour 2022’

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Sofi Tukker’s Wet Tennis tour. Photo by Steve Jennings

Sofi Tukker, named from a mashup of the duo Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern, are currently on their Wet Tennis Tour, which runs into 2023. PLSN spoke with key members of the design team: Lighting Designer Sarah Landau, Programmer Lauren Sego, Lighting Director Eric Taverna, Video Director Taylor Gonzalez and Stage Manager/Technical Director Blue Johnston.

Elation ZCL 360i are rigged in groups to resemble a stadium light setup. Photo by Steve Jennings

Sarah Landau: Lighting Designer

Lighting Designer Sarah Landau first met the band Sofi Tukker when they opened for M83 in 2016. She then production designed Sofi Tukker’s world tour in 2018. Landau pitched her ideas for this current tour while backstage at a festival show for the last album cycle. “When I showed them some sketches illustrating how they could perform in a playful version of a tennis court, they were excited to work with me again. The band was immediately accepting of my overall production concept, and the team of collaborators I had gathered, and together we worked out the finer details of design elements. I proposed a bright, colorful set, with lighting structures that would reference arena floodlights. The floor would be a neon AstroTurf tennis court. Tukker’s instrument table, the risers, and stairs would all glow.”

Landau suggested they refashion their video screen musical instrument “tree” from the previous tour into a scoreboard, where they can play games with each other and the crowd and keep score during the set. They helped design the layout. “Sophie had discussed wanting a B-stage moment for an acoustic song; I proposed that she play from the top of a tennis referee chair. I worked with 2n and Edward Copestick in advance, to inspire a variety of bespoke video content that could be used throughout the show. The show choreography and complementary lighting moments were developed during rehearsals with the members of Bob’s Dance Shop, who performed with Sofi Tukker on tour during their set as well as being an opening act. Choosing exactly which video content and lighting moments worked with each song was a collaborative effort, with Deborah Johnson in charge of the overall synergy of the creative departments.”

Landau brought Deborah Johnson, aka CandyStations in as creative coordinator because she wasn’t able to attend rehearsals herself. “Johnson had worked on video content for the previous tour and played a crucial role in building that show at rehearsals. I knew I could trust her to help bring the various elements of this new tour together and lead creative discussions during the rehearsal process—when video, lighting, choreography, and the band were all working out the finer details of the show together, in person. After a few meetings to get on the same page about the overall vision, Deborah had my carte blanche to act as a liaison between the band and the lighting and video programmers, as executive creative decisions were being made.”

Sofi Tukker performs in a playful tennis court design. Photo by Steve Jennings

Lauren Sego: Lighting Programmer

Lighting Programmer Lauren Sego had eight days allotted for programming. The first couple of days were spent organizing the existing grandMA file, as it held cueing, timecode, festival rig programming and other important elements that she worked off of instead of starting a new showfile entirely. “This ended up being a great move, as it allotted me more time later to focus on programming the newer songs to their full potential,” Sego says. “I spent two days programming with the full rig without the band, then spent the next five programming the remainder of the set with the band rehearsing in the room for part of the day. I was thankful to have a full working rig for the entirety of the programming process, as that is not always common. The whole experience felt like a marathon with how involved the programming was for all of the visual elements that were integrated into this show (lighting, video, I-Mag, MIDI triggers, and more) but the whole team worked strongly together to make it all happen in a beautiful way.”

Sego had worked with all of the fixtures in the rig before except for the PRG Revolution Blades. “I was happy with their capabilities and how easy they were to set up. I’m also a fan of the Chroma-Q Color Force 48s and the Ayrton MagicBlade FX, as I’m partial to the look of linear light output. Though, my favorite ‘fixtures’ in the rig were the tennis balls that had RGB LED PARs inside. While an LED PAR is ordinary, the way that Sarah had implemented it into the tennis ball set pieces made them somewhat of a custom light fixture for our show.”

Tucker and Sophie were pretty locked into the set from the beginning, notes Sego. “The setlist was originally 24 songs; and while there were talks of cutting songs initially, I made sure to program all of them just in case. The set ended up shortening once the show hit the road, and [Lighting Director] Eric Taverna made adjustments as needed.”

Video combines I-Mag with visual content. Photo by Steve Jennings

Eric Taverna: Lighting Director

This is LD Eric Taverna’s first tour with Sofi Tukker. He was brought onboard earlier in the year when Tour Manager Heather Ryan and Lauren Sego came through the Royale in Boston, one of the venues in which Taverna works. They got to talking and he was invited to join as tour LD.

“For this tour I’ve worked with about half of the fixtures before but the real standout to me was a fixture new to me, the Elation ZCL 360i. The 360˚ movement of the fixture along with its small size really enabled a large portion of the show’s aesthetic. Sarah came up with a great design to mount them in custom rigging with half circles behind the fixtures, so it looked like stadium lights at a sporting arena. Lauren took that great design and fully utilized the 360˚ functionality of the lights to create very distinct moments in the show. The lights shoot directly back into the reflectors and makes the whole rigging pop. Other times they point more conventionally downstage. The combination really made the show feel like Sofi Tukker were performing on a neon tennis court.”

Taverna started out his lighting career on a High End Systems Road Hog 3 console, which he says has a special place in his heart. “I’ve been on the grandMA2 for about five years now; I absolutely love it. I’m slowly starting to learn MA3 as the hardware is becoming more prevalent in my local venues.”

Video screens are comprised of ROE Visual Vanish V8T. Photo by Steve Jennings

Taylor Gonzalez: Video Director

Sofi Tukker’s show at the Berkeley Greek Theatre was the largest video/LED wall ever installed in the venue. As the Greek is such an epic venue the band really wanted to go big visually, notes Video Director Taylor Gonzalez. “We worked with the folks at Fuse to design an upstage wall that was 59’ x 23’ as well as two 13’ x 23’ I-Mag screens on the wings. Finding the right LED product was crucial, as we obviously wanted something that was massive and high impact but also physically feasible. We ended up going with ROE 8mm Vanish panels which resolved great and kept us just below the weight limits at the venue.”

Gonzalez says the show wouldn’t have happened without the “amazing, multidisciplinary team” at 2n Design. “Using Unreal Engine 5, our lead 3D artist Jeremy Thompson created these ultra-slick jungle tennis environments that incorporated motifs the band had used in the past and updated them, both visually and thematically for the tour. At 2n we’re big proponents of using real-time rendering to create content for projects like this as it allows us to iterate and present ideas to artists quickly without sacrificing fidelity. Our lead Programmer Austion Woolfolk also did an incredible job of designing the system architecture and programming the media servers. There are so many great moments in the show that are the result of him sitting at the grandMA for hours.”

Creative Coordinator Deborah Johnson/CandyStations steered the ship creatively on the video side, says Gonzalez. “She took 2D assets shot and curated by Edward Copesick and 3D assets designed by us at 2n and made these insane, vibrant, collage-like compositions that really set the tone and defined the overall look of the show.”

Gonzalez says it was fun working with Sofi Tukker because the duo’s holistic view of what the show could be. “They’ve really established a visual world of their own, as well as a sonic one. It was important to them that the audience feel immersed and included in this world, so we worked closely with them to develop the scoreboard idea and design moments of audience participation in between songs. The scoreboard was a cool canvas for us to work with because, not only did it function as a mini video wall and an opportunity for the audience to influence the narrative of the show, but it was also an instrument that Tucker would play during certain songs, triggering samples as well as audio reactive visuals. There were a lot of moving parts, but I think the final product really achieved that immersive feeling they were going for. I’ve personally never seen any other show like it.”

For this tour, 2n provided custom media servers that were controlled by the grandMA. “We’ve provided these servers to other clients in the past and felt it was a great application to use them here. It gave us a ton of flexibility over how lighting and video played together. If we wanted to black out video for a moment and blast strobes, that could all be programmed to timecode from the desk. It was a very satisfying workflow. It also made sense because so much MIDI information was coming from the stage, from the big acrylic tennis balls to every screen on the scoreboard. Using the grandMA as centralized system control allowed both lighting and video to channel that MIDI information in very efficient and impactful ways.”

2n Design created the 3D content. Photo by Steve Jennings

Blue Johnston: Stage Manager, Production / Technical Director & Head Carpenter

On last year’s festival run, Blue Johnston was brought in to do lighting, as well as stage manage and build the set with a tree. They called her “The Arborist.” “I had met Heather Ryan, our tour manager, at the Women in Touring conference a few years before, and she knew that I was trying to transition out of the physical labor side of tech and more into management and thought that this would be a good transition step for me,” Johnston says.

Johnston has worked in the entertainment industry for more than 25 years, starting in theater having also worked in dance and circus before moving into music touring. “I was able to gain a lot of experience in other disciplines including technical directing, prop building, painting, rigging, and lighting. The band is at a growing stage and a lot of the crew members are new to this camp and touring, and there was no dedicated production manager on the show, so I stepped up to fill in the gaps.”

Johnston needed to take the set from proof of concept into something that could tour and was able to get loaded-in in a maximum time of four hours. “We brought in Gallagher Staging to fabricate the final version of the scoreboard and they did a great job turning it around for us with very tight timelines,” Johnston says. “I helped advance the technical side of the show. Because I have experience in a lot of different touring situations, I’m able to tell how much of the set to include and where the set has to go on, on a daily basis depending on stage size, flown rig limitations, and power. With the exception of audio, I was the contact point for all things technical.”

The tennis balls are lit inside with RGB LED PARs. Photo by Steve Jennings

This article was written by, and all photos were taken by Steve Jennings

Production Team

  • Production & Lighting Designer: Sarah Landau
  • Creative, Content Design & Direction: Deborah Johnson/CandyStations
  • Lighting Programmer: Lauren Sego
  • Lighting Director: Eric Taverna
  • Tour & Production Manager: Heather Marie Ryan
  • Stage Mgr., Prod. /Technical Dir. & Head Carpenter: Blue Johnston
  • Video Director: Taylor Gonzalez
  • Video Design & Programming: Austion Woolfolk
  • 3D Content & Programming: 2n Design
  • Live-Action & 2D Content: Edward Copesick
  • Lighting Tech: Jean-Pierre Deraspe
  • LED Techs: Issy Virasayachack, Stephen Rodondi
  • Playback Design: Jesse Cronan
  • Playback Touring Techs: Oscar Solis, Andy Alexander, Rayna Zemel
  • Production Rehearsals: Jimmy Russo (Mgr.), Pamela Harris, Paige Turner (Coordination)

Vendors

  • Lighting: PRG/Rep. Lawrence Mignon
  • Video: Fuse Technical Group/Rep. Gabe Nahshon
  • Staging/Set: Gallagher Staging/ Rep. Val Grant
  • LED Wall Project Managers: Jon Johnson, Gabe Nahshon
  • Trucking: Egotrips

 

Gallagher Staging fabricated the tennis scoreboard. Photo by Steve Jennings

Gear

Lighting

  • 2       MA Lighting grandMA2 full-size Console
  • 10     Chroma-Q Color Force 48
  • 18     Elation ZCL 360i
  • 6       Robe Robin Spikie
  • 8       Ayrton MagicBlade FX
  • 8       PRG Revolution Blade HD LED Strip
  • 5       TMB Solaris Flare Q+
  • 2       Martin Rush PAR 2
  • 2       Custom Tennis Ball with RGB Light
  • 1       Custom RGB Table (Tucker’s DJ Stand), RGB strip on Sophie’s Mic
  • 2       Reel FX DF-50 Diffusion Hazer

Video

ROE Visual Vanish V8T LED Panel