Robb Jibson Designs Band’s Largest-Scale Production to Date.
Rock band Fall Out Boy recently embarked on their arena sized Mania tour, kicking off with the first show in Cleveland on Oct. 20. The North American tour leg runs through Nov. 18 before heading overseas, with shows planned in early 2018 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The new tour, in support of the new album of the same name (due out in January), features hip hop act Blackbear and actor-rapper Jaden Smith.
The size and scope of the Mania tour marks “the next chapter in the band’s history,” notes production designer Robb Jibson of Chicago based So Midwest, Inc. “It’s a much larger endeavor than previous tours with lighting, scenic, pyro and visuals.”
Jibson is using a grandMA2 console (with another for backup) to drive a lighting rig that includes Claypaky Mythos 2 and A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures. VER, based in Glendale, CA, is the lighting and video vendor for the world tour.
The overall visual concept for the tour design is to keep things “very clean, symmetrical and linear,” says Jibson, with “no set on stage. The Mania visuals for the record cycle are very linear, and “the show mimics that,” he adds.
The video content design includes hand-drawn illustrations, found live-action footage, CGI animations and I-Mag content for the LED displays, with an upstage LED screen measuring 60 feet wide and 19.5 feet tall serving as a key visual focal point beyond the main stage, which spans the arena.
With band members starting off on the main stage, then moving down a thrust to two additional automated stages — all in one linear plane from the downstage edge — this is a dynamic, complex show to light.
A Dynamic Production
After opening the show on the main stage, the Fall Out Boy band members run up and down the 100-foot thrust in the middle of the arena that connects to a 16-by-16-foot B stage.
At another point, the band vanishes from the main stage and is shuttled, in the dark, under the thrust. Drummer Andy Hurley and lead guitarist Joe Trohman then emerge atop a stage nested within the B stage, which rises 12-16 feet in the air. An LED fascia trimming the elevated B stage displays more video
content.
An elevated cube downstage of the B stage, which resembles an arena scoreboard displaying I-Mag, then descends to floor level as the B stage begins to rise. The cube, which displays pixel-mapped content, then becomes a C stage, as lead singer Patrick Stump and bass guitarist Pete Wentz jump on top, and the C stage lifts them 20 feet in the air.
“The band performs three songs in the air, then the B and C stages are lowered, the guys are back on the thrust, and everything returns to its original state,” Jibson explains.
With so much activity up and down the arena, Jibson was challenged to design a lighting rig of appropriate scale and functionality. “There’s a lot of square footage to this show,” he says. “We have positions to cover it everywhere.”
Large triangular-shaped trusses form a roof of lighting over the main stage. Seventy-foot trusses line the sides of the arena, a truss hangs over seats at the back of house, and trusses book-end the short sides of the arena.
Lighting Fixtures and Console
Jibson is no stranger to Claypaky, having chosen the company’s fixtures for previous Fall Out Boy tours. For the Mania tour, he selected 64 Mythos 2 fixtures.
“Mythos are my go-to fixtures,” Jibson says. “When I did another production earlier this year, I wished I had Mythos — a different fixture I used just didn’t cut it. I can hang Mythos 60 feet in the air and get punch; I know they will cut through the video wall.”
For this show, he’s using the Mythos as hard-edged fixtures with a lot of versatility. On a truss behind the main stage, for example, Mythos serve as accent and fill lights “without making the stage strobe all the time,” he explains. “The accents and hits blast through as sort of a drop shadow or outer glow for the main lighting system. This lets me blast strobes into the air without seeing the face of the fixture and makes for more interesting looks at times without having to get nuts.”
Jibson is mixing 74 Claypaky A.leda B-EYE K20s with Mythos in the same positions. “The B-EYEs are such versatile fixtures,” he says. “They’re really bright, and the pixel mapping inside is really interesting. It’s like having a 64-pack box of crayons — there are so many things you can do with them.”
Jibson recently migrated to the grandMA2 for lighting control. “I’ve used a few different control systems in the past,” he notes. “The grandMA2 is a very versatile, safe and secure platform. And every lighting director is fluent on grandMA today.”
Jibson also credits the console’s manufacturer and U.S. distributor for support. “MA Lighting and A.C.T Lighting have been very receptive to my questions as I learn the console,” he says. “They’re very open to adding new features and making the product better.”
For the Mania tour, Jibson has one active and one backup grandMA2 light and four active and one backup NPUs and 12 DMX nodes. The systems are integrated with PRG’s Mbox media servers for video control, and screens management/camera effects are handled via a d3 Technologies 4×4 media server with Notch software.
As for lighting control software, Jibson is particularly pleased with MA 3D, which was used for the tour’s previz process. “It’s amazing — very intuitive, clean and simple,” he says. “Its 3D representation of fixtures in physical space blows every other operating system out of the water. MA stands alone in that. No other system interprets positional data and makes changes the way MA does.”
Brent Sandrock, who serves as So Midwest’s programmer and assistant lighting designer, is already adept at the grandMA2 light, Jibson says. “He takes my awkward finger movements in the air and translates them to the stage,” Jibson notes. “He really makes it sing.”
The So Midwest team also includes content creator Josh Stone, content producer Kyle Flaherty and chief animator Matt Barker, along with a host of other freelancers supporting the production.
