Linkin Park collaborates with Cohen on cohesive design
“There is no more fun to be had than collaborating with Production/Lighting Designer Butch Allen. He is a production-savvy, creative-solution-oriented soul. We sat down at dueling computers, rendering and passing sketches back and forth, and he really helped me find the core of the de-sign. I am not sure if the arena stuff will be realized, but there are some outside-the-box elements that wouldn’t have happened if not for Butch’s irreverent prodding. He did the first lighting design pretty much single-handedly, and onsite in Copenhagen for our first show 12 hours after load-in.”
Production Designer Steve Cohen : “On approach, we were given a free hand in conceptual design. This was for three phases of touring: a headline tour of Europe, Projekt Revolution and an expanded thematic design for a U.S. arena tour. Linkin Park’s guitarist Mike Shinoda played the new material for us, and with some word play and conversations on artistic influences, styles and themes, we went off to design the three phases at once.”
“With budget and freight constraints in mind, we built a distressed industrial ground-based structure, applied a generous amount of LED fixtures: Chroma Q Color Blocks and PixelLines, hung a Main Light Industries SoftLED drop and placed an array of 5k Syncrolites to backlight through the structures. Footlights serviced key light with some fill from followspots; cueing and graphics were integrated on our ESP Vision system, driven by four Martin Maxedia media servers.”
“I asked Butch if this limited timeline was the exception in this type of touring scenario — me being the veteran of old guys and kiddie bands. His response was, ‘Get used to it; you’re getting more time than I get with Metallica.’ But we kept close and gave the band a complete show that night. Butch is going to do amazing things this decade. I will be working for him soon.”
CREW
Lighting Company: Christie Lites
Account Rep: Martin Kelley
Production/Lighting Designers: Steve Cohen, Butch Allen
Associated Lighting Designer/Programmer: Mark Foffano
Lighting Director: Sooner Routhier
Production Manager: Jim Digby
Video Content: Kimo Proudfoot
Maxedia Programmer: Curtis Cox
Crew Chief: Geoff Frood
Dimmer Tech: Mike Kapler
Systems & Syncro Tech: Glen Rupert
LED Tech: Mark Abra
Lighting Techs: Travis Braudaway, Erin Charlton,
Christopher Hollis
FOH Tech: Shane Crowl
Rigger: Michael “Knuckles” Dunn
GEAR
12 Altman focusing cyc lights
1 Christie Lites high-density distro rack
220 Chroma Q Color Block DB4s
2 ETC 96 x 2.4K Sensor dimmer racks
25 High End Systems cyberlight turbos
4 JEM ZR33 fog machines
36 4-Lite Blinders DWE w/Spectra scrollers
8 8-Lite Blinders DWE
4 Lycian M2 2.5k medium throw truss followspots
1 Main Light Industries SoftLED drape
15 Martin MAC 2000 profiles
46 Martin MAC 2000 wash lights
28 Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes w/scrollers
2 Martin Maxxyz consoles supplied by Cohen Productions
3 Martin Maxedia Media Server supplied by Cohen Productions
42 PixelRange PixelLine 1044 LED units
8 Reel EFX DF-50 hazers
8 Syncrolite B52s
6 Syncrolite MX3000s
