Wide Focus

Hall and Oates are getting ready to spend some considerable time on the road this year, playing 95 percent amphitheaters while performing on some three-week long legs of a tour. They recently held a one-day production rehearsal followed by an intimate first show at the Santander Arena in Reading, PA. Then they packed it all up and headed to the Big Apple, where they sold out a Saturday night show at Madison Square Garden. Opening the show with “Out of Touch,” the hits kept coming, and the audience did their part to sing along at the big dance party.

Tool performed 17 dates for the month of January 2016 using a rig that still had its foundations in a design from 2006, with bits and pieces added and shuffled around, but some of the same infrastructure underneath. We spoke with the band’s designers —Mark ”Junior” Jacobson (lighting designer & director) and Breckinridge ”Breck” Haggerty (video designer & director). We also touched base with Howard Ungerleider (Production Design International) about the laser aspect of the tour and Delicate Productions rep Jason Alt.

Everyone in the music industry feels the crunch of the digital revolution. Used to be a band would tour the world in the hopes of attracting interest in their new album or latest creation. These days, however, it seems up-and-coming artists who circle the globe place less emphasis on earning royalties from record sales than in racking up revenue from concert tickets.

Grunge rocker Chris Cornell, frontman of bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, is on an intimate acoustic world tour showcasing those songs and new ones from his Higher Truth CD. Perched on a stool in front of a mic on a bare stage, Cornell sings folksinger-style and from the heart. Suddenly, over his shoulder, a beam of violet hits the plain backdrop, bringing to light the appearance of a big scarlet heart.

Madonna kicked off her Rebel Heart tour in Montreal Sept. 9 to huge accolades as, once again, she presented her fans with an over-the-top concert production. Starting off her tenth world tour with a video montage and a stage full of sword-wielding dancers reminiscent of the Game of Thrones cast, the artist descended from the heavens in a pointed cage while the song “Iconic,” from her latest album, got the show started with a solid beat.

Rundgren’s EDM Project (with Singing Dancers) Fills Smaller Venues with a Big Rave Vibe

Martin Thomas apologizes for being a few minutes late to the interview. “I’m solo on this tour, and I touch everything,” he says, explaining that, besides a few local tech hires, the whole operation is literally in his hands. You could say the whole “world” is.

The Smashing Pumpkins + Marilyn Manson co-headlining tour was out this summer with the Pumpkins set designed and directed by Lawrence Upton and Manson’s set designed and directed by Jon Eddy. PLSN spoke with Craig Gaff, lighting designer and director at UV Lighting, about the Pumpkins side. UV Lighting, based out of Chicago, is Gaff and Upton’s design and consulting company. The tour’s lighting provider was DPS Inc.

With the release of their first studio album in five years, Born in the Echoes, The Chemical Brothers are once again out on the road doing what they do best — laying down some solid grooves with a heavy dance beat. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons joined forces some 25 years ago in Manchester, England as The Chemical Brothers, one of the pioneers of Electronic Dance Music. Through a history of festival gigs their visual performances at live shows have reached legendary status, and once again they have not let their fans down with the current touring set up.

Jon Pollak must be something of a mathematician, because he’s dealing with a lot of numbers. The first is Steely Dan’s band: There are 14 musicians to keep track of, and even on the typical big shed stage here on a not-too-hot July evening, that’s a crowded stage. Next, any given show’s set list comes from a master list of 70 tunes, all of which he has to be ready for.