Pioneering electronic music producer Porter Robinson has teamed up with lighting designer Ben Coker of Orlando’s Zenith Lighting and collaborated with All Access Staging for the 2018 “Virtual Self” Tour. This isn’t your typical EDM blink blitz — Coker, the Porter Robinson team, and All Access Staging have come up with a fully ground-based, modular floor kit with absolutely no front light package.
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The popular Bruno Mars 24K Magic world tour, which kicked off in the U.K. and Europe in late March and has been traveling around North America since mid-July, has been playing to packed arenas in cities (and many multiple nights). Bruno, band and crew head to South America later this month after four shows at the L.A. Forum.
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LD Ryan Williams Brings Arena-Style Lighting to Theater-Sized Show
Ryan Williams launched an arena-style look made for a theater tour — and at the Mary J. Blige Sept. 13 show in St. Louis’ Fabulous Fox 4,500-seat theater, he did it impressively. “The Fox is an intimate space, but believe me, we have been in even smaller venues,” William says. “We rig for where we’re at. Overall, this tour rig is a little modest compared to her normal arena tours, but it packs a bit of a punch.”
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The Rolling Stones recently completed the first European leg of their “No Filter” tour. Neg Earth provide lighting for the shows and Solotech provided the video screens looming in four monolithic structures designed by a team of stage architects from Stufish led by Ray Winkler.
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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.
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Critics have had a hard time categorizing the music of Vérité, since the former Times Square Applebee’s waitress Kelsey Byrne burst onto the scene with a string of self-released YouTube hits like “Strange Enough.” Pop, indie, electro, alternative… it doesn’t matter what label anyone slaps on it, this quixotic mix of delicate, but fearless vocals, soaring melodies and synth flourishes bend and break musical barriers just as surely as it enthralls fans.
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Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is out on his world tour in support of his latest album ÷ (Divide), a title which follows in the footsteps of his previous releases, 2014’s x (Multiply) and 2011’s + (Plus). The albums were released, respectively, in March 2017, June 2014 and Sept. 2011.
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With 16 studio albums and nearly 60 million records sold worldwide, the multi-platinum recording artist Alan Jackson has solidified himself as one of country music’s most iconic talents. In a career that spans three decades, Jackson is still hard at work touring the nation for his dedicated fans. Needing a new production design to support the current “Honky Tonk Highway Tour,” the management team once again enlisted the creativity of Craig Rutherford of Blueshift Design who, in turn, called upon Nashville-based tour provider Elite Multimedia.
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A Well-Crafted Backdrop, Perfectly Lit, Creates a Palette of Possibilities
Creating textures. Accenting moods. A woman with a beautiful voice at a Yamaha grand piano with a fantastic band behind her. All in a day’s work for lighting designer Steve Baird as he works with a perfect backdrop and just the right amount of lights (not one too many or one too few).
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Back for their third tour, siblings Julianne and Derek Hough of TV’s Dancing With the Stars fame were out on their Move — Beyond — Live On Tour, which launched April 19 in Akron, OH and crisscrossed the country before concluding in Santa Rosa, CA June 17. With a combined total of nine wins on the show, the dancers are delighting audiences with their routines with the show visuals adding their own razzle-dazzle. The tour’s designers include Peter Morse (lighting) and Butch Allen (set). We spoke with Morse about the show.
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Fresh Looks for a Unique Co-Headlining Tour
One of this summer’s best tickets for fans to spend their money on is the co-headliner of a set of artists who achieved that rare strata of both popular and critical acclaim, top forty titans Tears For Fears (TFF) and Hall & Oates (H&O).
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U2’s 2017 Joshua Tree tour marks 30 years since the band released the classic album of the same name in 1987. The show highlights themes and imagery still current in today’s culture captured by longtime U2 photographer and film director Anton Corbijn. We spoke with creative director and lighting designer Willie Williams on the third date of this tour, which also features a set design by Ric Lipson of Stufish, staging by Tait, and lighting and video supplied by PRG/PRG Nocturne. New technologies include PRG’s Spaceframe and a 4K broadcast camera system integrated into the design.
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