Latin America. "We are deeply grateful and savor every nanosecond of this," Flea proclaimed to fans at the start of a Friday night show on the Red Hot Chili Peppers Global Stadium Tour. It's a safe bet that everyone in the sold-out arena knew exactly how the legendary bass player felt.
None of them would have changed that moment either, as they joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band on a two-hour musical odyssey that made its way wonderfully through classic hits and new material, with many spontaneous bursts of soft, silky improvisations.
Track listing has been more or less a formality on this tour; the band tends to invent new ones while traveling to keep things fresh and shiny. Scott Holthaus and Leif Dixon have reflected the open and stimulating spirit of music every step of the way with an extensive panoramic light and video show that includes more than 250 CHAUVET Professional equipment supplied by Premier Global Productions.
Like the music of the clients it supports, the production design seamlessly combines several parts into a magnificent, multifaceted and always captivating whole. Just as the four Los Angeles rockers fuse their performances into a single harmonious sound, the design team often blurs the lines between lighting and video to create a unified, compelling image.
"The most important thing in this show has been that the generative video spills off the screen and between the surrounding lights to allow them to work together instead of programming lighting that would be similar in color tempo," said Holthaus, who began working for Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1999. "Geddy (Anthony Kordyjaka) of Premier Global Production was instrumental in putting together a team that would allow us to achieve this balance between video and lighting."
A fundamental part of this balance on stage is the collection of 68 teams COLORado PXL Bar 16 and 180 COLORado PXL Bar 8. "These luminaires have a sharp square beam, which makes them perfect for use with video walls," Holthaus said. "I wanted to have less equipment, but brighter luminaires on the platform... and PXLs are incredibly brilliant. Also, they do a good job of mapping pixels."
COLORado PXL Bar 16 motorized bars are used to accentuate the three video walls with upward illumination from the stage cover and descending lighting from the top of the structures. They are also relied upon to define the two banks of panel lights that flank the central video wall on each side. Most smaller COLORado PXL Bar 8 luminaires profile the top and sides of the walls.
To add an extra jolt for visual energy to the screen, four COLOR STRIKE M motorized strobes were added that run through the stage cover under the central video wall. Being a curved structure, the video wall conveys a wave-like sense of fluidity that captures the fluid nature of the band's performance. By extending the video images from the back to the top "ceiling" of the wall, the design team can create fascinating 3D looks around the band.
"I'm always excited when the waveform of the curved screen is revealed at the top of the show," Holthaus said. "He always gets a standing ovation. Being a large and simple structure, the video wall is in line with our vision for this design. It plays an extremely important role."
By shining the lights through the wall, designers can add even more dimensionality to the show. They also turn on and off the lights that line the walls in different patterns. This suggests the idea that the walls themselves are changing configuration, which in turn keeps the stage cool. That's exactly the kind of vitality that has been a trademark of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
