Production Designers Daniel Slezinger and Justin Roddick’s company Concert Investor is coordinating lighting, sound and video for the latest Twenty One Pilots (TØP) tour together with special FX, fabrication, content creation and programming.
TØP’s Tyler Joseph has always taken a creative lead in the shows, explained Slezinger, with the team around him interpreting this vision. LD Tyler Shapard – who is on the road with the tour – and Video Director Chris Schoenmen from Tantrum who creates the show visuals, all evolved the aesthetic for the tour under the creative direction of Mark C. Eshleman.
On last fall’s Blurryface tour the band played some venues without flying or rigging, so they devised a custom ground package that could extend up to 16ft and be totally independent of any top rigs that happened to be present. When they stepped up to arenas, they added more production.
At the start of the Emotional Roadshow World Tour in May, Slezinger and Shapard decided to spec the Robes, adding 56 BMFL Spots and 12 BMFL Blades, 68 Pointes, 14 LEDWash 1200’s and 28 LEDWash 600’s to the plot.
“There is a strong architecture to the video content and, especially with some of the earlier and pre-radio era art, the show is essentially a narrative journey,” said Slezinger. “It’s also difficult to take it all in just seeing a single performance!”
For the US legs of the tour, the Robe fixtures are being supplied to Concert Investor by VER. The Emotional Roadshow World Tour’s Production Manager is Daniel Gibson. VER is also supplying video and audio, while Accurate Staging and SGPS delivered the fabrication. Tantrum Content was commissioned to produce the playback video and Image Engineering takes care of special effects.