This Is America tour has been announced by Donald Glover as his last ever tour as Childish Gambino. For the last trek on the North American leg of the tour, Emmy and Grammy winner, Glover used the L-ISA Hyperreal Sound technology to ensure his art and creativity was presented throughout all his performances.
Childish Gambino’s tour director, Christian Coffey, additionally serves as tour director for Run The Jewels and first heard L-ISA when the hip-hop duo went out on Lorde’s North American, Melodrama Tour in early 2018. “Lorde’s tour sounded incredible—really full and panoramic,” Coffey recalled. “Childish’s management was at her Staples’ Center show and felt the same way, so that’s when our discussions began. Everyone wanted an immersive experience with a non-traditional arena show, and we felt that the L-ISA system could be a great fit.”
To widen the sonic panorama and add dimension to the 20,000-seat, sold-out arenas on this tour, the L-ISA Scene system provided by Britannia Row comprised of 3 L’Acoustics center arrays of 15 K2s flanked by a pair of 21 L’Acoustics enclosure Kara arrays. For the increased horizontal spread, 4 L’Acoustics arrays of 15 Kara were flown, two per side, outside of the Scene system as an addition to the L-ISA Extension system, while 2 L’Acoustics arrays of 13 K2s were deployed to provide coverage to the seats on the extreme sides of the stage.
Palpable low-frequency coverage was delivered by 2 adjacent center hangs of 8 KS28s each, flown in a cardioid configuration, while an additional 8 ground-stacked KS28s provided LF reinforcement to the near-field audience. 6 L’Acoustics Kara arrays were spread across the stage lip provided front fill, and the entire system was driven by L’Acoustics LA12X amplified controllers housed in LA-RAK II touring racks.
With Glover unquestionably in his prime as an artist and his This Is America Tour being hailed by the entertainment press as both a culture-defining “work of art” and a “religious experience,” the extraordinary production values did not go unnoticed. “Despite the large venue, the performance still felt intimate,” wrote University of Maryland’s
“The L-ISA system has the capability to improve the overall breadth and dynamic possibilities for a live concert experience,” Coffey noted. “It can really widen and improve the aural experience in a multitude of settings and shows.”