ER Productions have been working with the Chemical Brothers for a number of years, creating laser visuals worthy of the duo’s heady electronic shows. This year saw the pair appear at various festivals and venues across Europe and ER was on board for the ride once again, and this time bringing some exciting SFX into the mix.
Known for being boundary breakers of their time, Chemical Brothers, Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, have spent nearly 30 years bringing big beat tunes to their fan base of dance and rock fans alike. The 2018 Chems live tour began in June, at Rockhal, Luxemburg, in June, and concludes at Corona Capital, Mexico City, in November.
The show design was to be a combination of mesmerising visuals, and ER Productions worked with Production Manager, James Baseley, Stage Manager Toby Dennis, Touring Lighting Designer, Thomas Deschandel, and Show Designers, Marcus Lyall and Adam Smith to deliver another phenomenal show. The set’s visual highlights included huge LED screens, showing their signature array of 3D characters, an incredible strobe light wall, and the appearance of the famous 4-metre tall robots, affectionately nicknamed George and Mildred, created by Specialz.
As part of the theatrical and immersive experience, ER’s lasers had an important part to play and included a number of carefully-planned and perfectly executed cues. ER’s lasers created a stunning atmosphere during tracks Chemical Beats, Hey Boy Hey Girl, Surface to Air and for the encore Got Glint, using 18 Kinekts, (8 positioned along the downstage edge, 8 upstage, and two located behind a screen on kinesis pods), 1 30w Phaenon positioned centrally on a lifting column, a 24w Tripan centre stage, and 4 custom built Beambursts inside the eyes of the robots, who appeared to come to life and dance during Under The Influence. All were controlled by ER Productions’ senior laser technician, Tom Vallis, via Pangolin Beyond.
14 Viper deluxe and 4 Unique Hazers created the atmospherics via Chamsys MagicQ with a MiniWing. ER’s SFX came into play during Keep On Making Me High, at the five special arena shows in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Dublin. 10 Swirl Fans, fitted over the audience truss, dropped white and silver confetti over the crowd adding to the show’s party ambience.
ER’s co-founder, Marc Webber said of the project, “It’s always a pleasure working with the Chemical Brothers and their team, but it was great to provide SFX alongside our lasers, which has been very well-received. The show looks and sounds so impressive, it’s been fantastic to hear rave reviews.”
