“A thousand years of torment in three minutes.” Falling In Reverse frontman Ronnie Radke shouted that out to the sold-out crowd at Rod Laver Arena on March 14 right before the metalcore monsters from Las Vegas went into a fiery rendition of their hit “Watch the World Burn”. And oh, and what a rewarding torment it was. The scene was repeated throughout Falling In Reverse’s five-city Australian arena tour in Australia, their first of 2025, as the band “tormented” (i.e. enthralled) fans by belting out song after song with a ferocious menacing intensity, punctuated by crowd bantering, and their famous onstage antics.
Immersing fans right along with the music was a lighting and production design by Alex Mungal that matched the fury of the band’s raw performance note for raging note. The internationally acclaimed designer’s stage show didn’t just “support” the performance of the band, it was embedded into the very fabric of the show.
Mungal, the band’s Creative Director and Designer, turned the show’s generously proportioned rig into a giant canvas of bright light and flames. “We had fixtures spanning from the deck floor to 46-feet high,” he said. “We had them above the IMAG screen as well as throughout the stage.
“Pyro was also a huge part of the show,” continued Mungal. “We programmed lighting and SFX together. This let us really incorporate the two to make them work for each other. We used our SFX cues to hide lighting moves, accent hits in trade-offs, and of course, cause absolute chaos and carnage. Our incredible pyro crews -shout out to Howard+Sons — kept it safe and helped me create a perfect storm of danger without putting the artist at risk. Well, maybe there was a little sense of danger, enough to feel alive. It was definitely hot.”
A key part of Mungal’s lighting rig was the 72 CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE M motorized strobe-washes supplied by Showscreens and MPH for the Australian tour. Flown vertically and horizontally, the Color STRIKE M units created a geometrical reference point for the show. Some of the fixtures were arranged in two columns that gradually converged as they got higher, creating a potent towering effect.
Discussing the role of the COLOR STRIKE M, Mungal said: “The fixtures upstage provided our audience light. Our principal artist loves to interact with the crowd and see the sea of people while performing, so I wanted to be able to highlight the crowd without a standard blinder. Additionally, we relied on the vertical fixtures to add to the structure of the rig and give us some alternate shapes beyond just the linear feel from the audience light.”
Mungal created a range of colors with his fixtures, many of them inspired by the cinematic music videos and tones of the songs. For the hit “Bad Guy,” he called on color to suggest a sense of irony. “There is a bit of satire in that song, as the lyrics emphasize the terms people love to spew into the world about the artist,” he explained. “First time hearing the song, I said ‘oh were going Disney villain for sure.’ So, this palette came straight from the Maleficent dragon in the original Snow White animated film.”
A little Snow White mixed with Falling In Reverse? In a show characterized by endless imagination, anything was possible.
Further information about CHAUVET Professional: www.chauvetprofessional.com
