All Time Low embarked on a three-date summer run with an immersive design by Jeff Mathews of Nashville-based Borealis Live Design, which featured over 100 CHAUVET Professional fixtures.
“Before they reached out to us, the band and their creative director/PM, Phil Gornell, had a good roadmap of the creative vision for this show, in terms of how it would evolve and move through multiple seasons of All Time Low’s career — and how it would seamlessly span multiple album cycles,” said Mathews, co-founder with his business partner Christian Hall, of Borealis Live Design. “They put a lot of thought and work into creating something really special for their fans. So, we worked together to develop a production that would help do just that, trying to create nostalgic moments while still putting on a modern feeling show.”
Borealis scaled the show to adjust to the three venues’ different stage sizes and configurations.
“The general idea behind this specific show’s production revolves around spanning ATL’s 20-year career to date,” said Mathews. “The show evolves throughout the set. This starts with a somewhat striped-back first act. Then, in later acts, new production elements are revealed via automation, such as bringing in the illuminated ‘Forever’ sign and moving elements close to the stage to impart the feeling of a small, intimate club. Later on, the rig is expanded to feel like a major festival and, at points, has big asymmetrical looks. All of the automation gear and programming is provided by Tim Kruse with Entertainment Rigging Services out of Texas. We used a handful of tungsten and retro-feeling fixtures in the show to try and evoke a classic feeling. Ss the show evolves, we bring modern elements like the linear fixtures with strobe tubes, neon scenic, and new elements at other significant points in the show.”
Mathews relied on colour changes and variations in light angles to support the constantly evolving character of the show. “Generally, I like to have at most two colours in play at a time on a stage. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but this show followed that rule pretty tightly,” he observed. “We used a lot of tungsten tones, with ambers, CTOs, and whites, to evoke a sort-of retro feel. For more modern feeling songs, we aimed to cool it off color temp-wise and used more modern feeling colour combinations and monochromatic looks. We lined the trusses with the linear strobe to add dimension to the package and had the pods at angles to give a bit of depth to the stage.”
Helping them create these myriad looks was the extensive collection of CHAUVET Professional fixtures, taken from Borealis Live Design’s own inventory. Included in this mix were 32 Maverick Storm 1 Hybrids used for beams and spots, 18 Rogue Outcast 2X Wash units relied on for stage washing, 18 Rogue R3X Washes positioned in pods, 18 Color STRIKE M motorised strobe-washes also in the pods, 10 COLORado PXL 16 motorized battens, positioned under acrylic riser, and 10 Maverick Storm 1 Spot fixtures as front light for the band.
In addition to the bands PM/creative director Phil Gornell, Mathews credits his partner in Borealis Live, Christian Hall, who is the project manager, and crew-chief/ME on the shows. Also critical to the success of these shows are Eric doss and Devonte Hutchins ho programmed the show with Mathews, as well as Tess Minor, who programmed a few additional songs, and LD’s Rafe Sanger and Corey Moses.
