The Red Hot Chili Peppers currently have the largest kinetic lighting rig for a tour, with a matrix of 1,040 LED cylinders rising and falling to create a seemingly endless array of unique show looks. PLSN caught up with longtime RHCP production designer and lighting director Scott Holthaus, media server programmer Leif Dixon and, handling video direction backstage, George Elizondo for their insights on this trek.
Scott Holthaus
Production Designer/Lighting Director
“In design, we are constantly struggling with major human emotion and man’s struggle with good and evil. Everything is in flux, in agitation, overlapping and joining with everything else. Even abstractions grow disheveled. Nothing is motionless. There is only activity, concentrated activity: Form… Every form in the universe is exactly calibrated as it passes through the same matrix. It is obvious that the Bone should hollow itself out, that the optic nerve should stretch outwards like a tree, that man should walk upright…blah blah; blah blah...
“That line was just to see how much artsy bollocks your dear readers would swallow before catching on. Actually I pretty much steal all of my designs.
“The Chili Peppers are more comfortable in a closer space, so I’m happy with our 49-foot-by-40-foot rolling stage. We have added more Nano Winches since we started with the tour, we now have more than a thousand-piece kinetic sculpture. I don’t care who has the biggest this or that but damn, it looks huge when it is wailing down on you en masse.
“Tait Towers and I had an adventure finding the optimum light to hang from each Nano. The options were endless…large, small, long, short; we did many studies as to the best shape and wrestled with the idea of the lenses being shaded so they would be less visible when off. But in the end, I wanted simple form — more of a modern sculpture than a big bright rock-and-roll thing. Brian Levine from Tait gave us a ton of examples, and we had some good and bad luck with blackened prototypes, but in the end, we landed on acrylic frosted white cylinders to look super mod.
“Then Adam Davis (Tait boss man) called and said we had a couple extra wires to each tube, and what do we want to do with them? We put the equivalent of a mag light bulb in the bottom of each with the idea that a thousand mag lights would be awesome… In reality it looks best in the cigarette smoking countries… Italy, Spain, bits of Germany, and any former Russian state. Not so much in the USA. Dang, I love smokers… your clothes smell bad, but the show looks so much better. I think I’m going to design a hazer that burns tobacco or cardboard or maybe plastic cups as there are so many we’re just going to throw into the ocean anyway.”
There are “three ways we created looks for thekinetics,” says Holthaus.
“There’s straight out of the grandMA desk, which is a fast and easy way to make straight forward simple songs. Or through Catalyst… Richard Bleasdale (really cool guy) worked with us a ton so we could use our media servers to create color and motion. Then there’s Touch designer; Moment Factory joined up to create some songs. This offered more depth in complicated motion, also involving real time cohesion with the media on the video screens so the Kinetics and video imagery can be a single object.
“The only drawback is that we need to import a Frenchman or two to do any programming tweaks. Leif Dixon is a crucial partner. He knows how all of this stuff works. I found him when he was assistant LD at a Dick Cheney rally in the parking lot of the Broome County Arena. I offered him fifty bucks and a pork sandwich to come work with me!”
With a revolving set list and unexpected changes, the band keeps the crew on their toes.
“We have total busk manipulation of the rig on the fly and can control the rig like we were finger painting in space! ….No, that is another lie… All of the songs are single song macros and if the band calls an inaudible — they huddle up and change songs without telling us — we scramble to call it up. We do, however, have a number of deformer buttons in each song so if they go off script and jam in the middle of a song, we can veer off with them and not suck as much.”
Holthaus thanks longtime RHCP lighting vendor, Premier Global Production, for once again stepping up to support this latest tour.
“A Canadian pro hockey player from Regina retires and builds a successful lighting company in Nashville! How can you not love that story? James, Kevin and Geddy have done some world class service here. From holding our hand while we were doing European Festivals with a ton of sub-hired (read: no profit for the vendor) gear to buying a pile of brand new lights for our U.S. tour. I’m happy as a clam at high tide. My traveling crew… I really never need to talk with them about day-to-day, or the shop, in that case, because there are never any issues! Their daily housekeeping and servicing keeps the rig at one hundred percent every night. Oh… one afternoon a cable got kicked out of a floor light, and it didn’t work for a few minutes. After I calmed down and found my happy place again, the issue was resolved. Some harsh punishment was given to all lighting crew. I think there is a video of that horrible incident somewhere on the Internet. I hope I will soon forget it and be able to sleep again.”
The lighting rig has four ingredients, says Holthaus.
“The PRG autofollow Bad Boys — not too much to say that hasn’t already been said… they’re just amazing! What I have are 200-plus foot candle (at 50 feet) followspots that I control color, iris, and strobe while enjoying having no one scrambling around my trusses kicking out intercom lines. They are perfect for me. Next design, I will get rid of any and all house spots and use only this system. The Ayrton MagicBlades are so cool and bulletproof, [and] great for people tired of round sources. We stack them really close and get great lines of light as opposed to just more circle sources. Clay Paky B-Eyes are an excellent big source — bright, with a damn good dimmer curve. I love them. Then Solaris Flares, my new reality in strobes. They don’t thermal, and I use them mostly as a wash.”
Holthaus also gives special kudos to the tour’s production manager, Narci Martinez.
“Without Narci, this would never have had a chance. First of all, he believed in the vision, and then went at it full steam. We were both nervous that after we sold the Idea to band and management that we might not be able to create the design, as the technology was new and nobody knew what something like this would cost. Adam, Winky, and Brian from Tait figured it out somehow, and how to tour with it. Tours with similar technology were reporting horrible load in’s and equipment failure, so it was a bit nerve-wracking.
“Also, how many designers get to credit the band’s manager? Peter Mench from Q Prime got on board early and not only helped sell this big expensive idea to the band, but he participated in many aspects of finalizing the finished show. It was actually fun to work with him. He had a ton of good Ideas (and a couple of bad ones).
“Working with Tait in this case was a life saver. I would be negligent to leave out the crew that make this system scream every night, so a shout out to Paul Sapsis, Casey Roche, Dan Porter, Chris Butterfield, Russell Macias, Timothy Woo, Matthew Medina, Olu Kiara and McLane Snow.
“I’m having a ball with this design. I think I will need to have a wardrobe malfunction to top this show. But, I must be honest. Trade mags are a bit tough to read. I usually scan big blocks of text even in my own longwinded articles. A photo of some sound guy leaning against his desk…Yikes. Why not have a bit of fun. Throw around some names of the great people who never get to do this but make me look cool? I have the best equipment, the best crew; even I can turn that into a great show.
“Please let it be known that I love Dave Rat (longtime RHCP FOH engineer, recently retired). He is one of my few friends. He has taught me many things in the time I have spent with him on the road. I plan on continuing this friendship until I am an old man… and he is much older.”
Leif Dixon
Media Server Programmer
At FOH, there are two grandMA2 desks controlling the lighting and video rigs. Lighting, video and Nano Winch control are all together in one show file, notes Dixon.
“We can control the Nano Winches (both RGB and motion) from either of our media servers or the console itself, and many songs are a combination thereof. It’s not uncommon for a song to have winch motion coming from Catalyst while RGB is coming directly from the console, motion from Touch Designer while RGB comes from Catalyst, or even have a server and the console both doing motion in a song, alternating from cue to cue depending on which has the most efficient method for the look we needed.
“Both servers output Art-Net and the grandMA serves as traffic cop for purposes of Art-Net merging. We use macro commands embedded in our song programming to automatically switch Art-Net source switching/merging for each song. Our lighting programmer, Zach Peletz, also wrote some clever macros to control our DVI matrix and ImagePros directly from the grandMA, so that all of my source switching can be embedded in the song programming. This also allows me to keep my focus on the console — in the rare event of a server lockup, I can immediately switch to the backup directly from the MA without ever taking my focus away from the show. Zach may be pocket-sized, but his programming stands tall.”
After a recent addition, the tour is now running 1,040 Nano Winches on the show, up from 800, says Dixon.
“We pixel-map the array in Catalyst and Touch Designer, and while the array looks massive in the venue, it’s not actually very many pixels, just 20-by-52, when mapped. I am amused by the fact that while most productions are trying to cram as many pixels onto the stage as possible (with the newest LED walls offering pixel pitches of 2mm or 3mm), we have gone the other direction with our array; our Nano Winch RGB system has an effective pitch of 762mm!
“On previous RHCP tours, the LX/video area at FOH just had Scott and myself for showtime, but on this tour, we added a Cort (Cort Lawrence, FOH Tech). For the uninformed, a Cort is a useful thing for taking notes, yelling at local spot ops, and receiving punches. A Cort is a good barrier between Scott and I so that the Cort will receive the punches instead of myself. Cort is also good for deploying snakes in the afternoon and retrieving them after the audience wanders away, and can even create beautiful renderings in C4D. Any production lacking a Cort should consider getting one.
“My only disappointment on this production has been the lack of a FOH oven. I bake a lot of homemade cookies and was hoping to bake daily on this tour, but our snake didn’t have the capacity for powering it up. Plus Narci (Martinez, PM) yelled at me for requesting seat kills to make space for baking at FOH and was giving me static about shipping the oven overseas with the rest of our kit. Some nonsense about voltage being different… I don’t understand any of that stuff. I certainly miss my fresh-baked cookies, but it’s probably best in the long run; I was getting fat.”
George Elizondo
Video Director
The content the audience sees on the screens is driven by Leif Dixon at FOH and directed backstage by George Elizondo.
“Content was created by multiple vendors. Sometimes the content is mixed with live-action shots and can be in as many as three different aspect ratios. My job is to direct cameras to fit into those ‘holes,’ whether it’s full screen, portrait, square or some combination of the three. Either way, tied in with the rest of the show Scott designed, it’s really exciting and looks great.
“Each band member has their own camera dedicated to them, but as the band members move around the stage, camera ops will switch assignments to accommodate positions. The band’s set list varies from night to night, and the band isn’t always committed to the same position for any given song. It’s challenging and exciting all at once. Having great cameramen, Scott Lutton, Nick Weldon, Steve Gray, Tyler Raphalian, and a great engineer, Roy Fountain, makes my life easier. I’m positioned backstage; FOH is too loud for me. I like to be as far backstage as my cables will allow. As a matter of fact, I like to be hidden whenever possible.
“I would like to say what a pleasure it is to work with this organization! That includes every department (audio, lighting, backline, automation, all production and tour management). This is my third tour with RHCP. Narci Martinez creates an atmosphere out here that makes work a real pleasure.”
Red Hot Chili Peppers The Getaway Tour 2017
Production Companies:
- Lighting: Premier Global Productions/James Vollhoffer
- Video: CT Touring/Van Jarvis
- Staging/Kinetics/Motion: Tait Towers/Brian Levine
- Trucking: Upstaging (U.S.), TransAm (Europe)
Crew:
- Production Designer and Lighting Director: Scott Holthaus/Happy Machine
- Lighting Programmer: Zach Peletz
- Lighting Crew Chief: Jason Henry
- Lighting Tech: Mark “Paint” Liatos
- Media Server Programmer: Leif Dixon
- Video Director: George Elizondo
- Video Content: Million Monkeys
- Video Assistance/Content: Moment Factory
- Tour Manager: Gage Freeman
- Production Manager: Narci Martinez
- Stage Managers: Clifford Sharpling, Philip “Big Daddy” Danneman
- Automation Crew Chief: Paul Sapsis
- Automation Techs: Casey Roche, Dan Porter, Chris Butterfield, Russell Macias, Timothy “TK” Woo, Matthew “Skippy” Medina, Olu Kiara, McLane Snow
- FOH Tech: Cort Lawrence
- Ground Control Tech: Ryan Sclavi
- Systems Tech: Greg Nunz
- Riggers: Gabe Wood, Chuck Anderson
- Production Companies:
- Lighting: Premier Global Productions/James Vollhoffer
- Video: CT Touring/Van Jarvis
- Staging/Kinetics/Motion: Tait Towers/Brian Levine
- Trucking: Upstaging (U.S.), TransAm (Europe)
Gear
Lighting/Automation:
- 3 grandMA2 Full Lighting consoles
- 50 Claypaky B-Eye K20s
- 55 Ayrton MagicBlades
- 6 Martin MAC Viper AirFX fixtures
- 8 PRG Bad Boys (GroundControl Followspots)
- 26 TMB Solaris Flares
- 1,040 TAIT Nano Winches with LED Cylinder
- Whirlwind PowerLink Stringers
Video:
- ROE Linx Series 9mm LED Video Panels w/ HD101 Processor
- 3 Sony HSC-300 Hand held Cameras with Canon HD 22x Lens
- 2 Panasonic AW-HE130 HD Integrated PTZ Cameras
- 1 Panasonic AW-HE2 HD Compact Electronic P/T/Z Camera
- 1 Sony BRC-H900 Remote PTZ Camera
- 5 Marshall CV200-MB Lipstick Full HD POV Cameras
More Red Hot Chili Peppers 2017 Getaway tour photos by Steve Jennings:
{gallery}17/04/RHCP{/gallery}
