Rob Koenig connects Metallica to the crowd with 144 CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE Ms.
The eight towers came about when Production Designer, Dan Braun, had to find an alternative to his initial vision of creating tensegrity structures for the show.
“I have been interested in tensegrity sculpture for a while and was working on this concept for an indoor show,” said Braun, who’s worked closely with Lighting Designer Rob Koenig on the production. “Our world changed, when the tour went to stadiums in the round. My first thought was ‘we can’t do that.’ But after careful consideration, I said ‘why not?’”
Adapting to the necessity of working within the parameters of an outdoor 360-degree stage, the designers dropped plans for a tensegrity rig and combined “a study of proportion with paramount engineering,” to arrive at the eight-tower design: “That left us with a way to do the show absent a roof, and meeting all of our production requirements,” said Braun. “We didn’t get to a tensegrity structure, so next time…”
Enhancing this heady atmosphere is the light from 144 CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE M motorised strobes, which like the rest of the rig, were supplied by Premier Global Productions of Nashville.
Koenig has nine of the Color STRIKE M fixtures wrapped around the top of each tower, and nine wrapped around the bottom. “They’re giving us a great level of audience lighting,” he explained. “We looked at quite a few units and we felt these were the best performers, given their brightness, DMX refresh rates, and IP rating. It created a winning combo for us.”
Greens and yellows dominate the colour scheme in the show’s design. “To me, green and metal music are inextricably linked,” said Koenig. “I always got a kick out of Nook Schoenfeld’s views on green, but I do wholeheartedly understand his sentiments when looking at almost any other type of performance. I certainly wouldn’t vibe with this much green on a typical pop show. As for the yellow, it’s thematic with the band’s album,” continued Koenig. “When we started putting together the tour, the thought process was we typically don’t use much yellow at all in the live shows, so it wasn’t a stretch to utilize it as a feature color to help define all of the new songs from ‘72 Seasons.’”
One of the highlights of the tour for Koenig, has been working with a great crew, including his Premier Global Account Representative, James Vollhoffer; Project Manager, Anthony ‘Geddy’ Kordyjaka; Lighting Programmers, Joe Cabrera and Cat West; and LX Crew Chief, Mat Gass.
There are also many moments in the show that have been especially memorable for Koenig, such as those in the song If Darkness Had a Son. “It’s ominous. It’s dark. It’s a bit unsettling,” said Koenig. “It’s a very unique look for a Metallica song from any time frame.”
