Panic! At The Disco just finished the last leg of their “Death of a Bachelor” tour with Claypaky A.leda B-EYE K20 and Sharpy fixtures and a grandMA2 full-size console along for the ride.
The two-month run, which began in Connecticut and wrapped in Florida, concluded an extensive arena tour supporting the band’s eponymous fifth studio album released last year. Panic! At The Disco previously played gigs in Europe, Asia and Australia as well as in North America. Luz Studio in Montreal was responsible for the tour’s production design and video content. Upstaging Chicago supplied the equipment. A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of the Claypaky and MA Lighting brands in North America.
Luz Studio worked closely with lighting designer Alex Specht, who has collaborated with Panic! At The Disco for the last four years, on this leg of the tour. It was Luz Studio’s second project with the band.
“For this tour the band wanted a more dynamic and versatile set,” said Luz Studio visual designer Matthieu Larivee. “With the new album [frontman] Brendon Urie marked the end of his bachelorhood, and the music has changed. While they are still a rock ‘n roll band with a flashy look for their older songs, they also have a slick, Sinatra-like look for some new content.”
The set featured three upstage vertical video screens, made from 7mm ACASS LEDs, with embedded lights. Five moving “chandelier” pods were suspended over the stage.
Larivee positioned the B-EYE K20s in the upstage pipe, on the ladders next to the upstage wall, and on the floor. “The K20s are such a versatile fixture,” said Larivee. “They offer so many possibilities. We used them as washes, strong or subtle beams, and for a kaleidoscope look. Alex hadn’t used K20s before, so we introduced him to them.”
For a song featuring a piano, which was revealed rising up from the B stage in the house on a hydraulic lift, Larivee put four Sharpys on the floor and four above the moving piano. “The piano had a reflective lid, like a mirror,” he explained. “The Sharpys were the perfect fixture to accomplish this stunt with both a strong beam and small prism effect.”
Selecting one active grandMA2 full-size console and one back up unit was “a no-brainer,” Larivee reported. “We use grandMA2 for all our projects.”
The console ran the tour’s lighting and video content driving a Hippotizer Boreal media server as well as Barco’s E2 video processor, which controlled all the cameras. “The E2 was new for us but the grandMA2’s Art-Net protocol ran it easily,” said Larivee.