The Another World Run in Denver Featured Three Nights of Stellar Production
GRiZ didn’t just want a three-show run, but three shows dividing GRiZ’s career into three parts, and the production team of Ian Davis and Kyle Kegan more than met the artist’s vision. The first night was his “house party” styled show done in 360˚, highlighting his early rise as a DJ. The second night, “10-17,” highlighted his music from 2010-2017, which was also in the round with a house party vibe. The third night the production team was asked to support new music that was a peek into GRiZ’s future, requiring a shift to a 180 set. And it all had to be pulled together in just two weeks.
The future-funk electronic sax star’s three-night stand at 1STBANK Center in Denver would sell 21,000 tickets Oct. 29, 30, and 31. Brown Note Productions supplied all the lighting, video and effects, and most of the staging. Accurate Staging provided a circle lift that Gallagher Staging put decking to, and Lightwave International supplied all the lasers. Denver-based Voyage Productions, headed by the team of Kegan (production designer); Davis (lighting and video director); and Devon Brown (lighting and video programmer) brought it all to life. GRiZ “always wants to try something new and isn’t scared of pushing boundaries or creating a new environment,” Kegan says. “Right off the bat, the most challenging part was taking those first two 360-show nights and shifting it to 180. We had to basically flip all our thinking. Going to the 180 show doubled the lighting, programming, and workload in general.”
“Working with Voyage and GRiZ has been a real pleasure over the years,” says Brown Note’s Ryan Knutson. “I have known Kyle and Ian for well over 10 years now and have watched them grow into their design and director roles. It is refreshing to work with their creative visions as they have outstanding paperwork and a real sense of making designs come to reality with the documentation they deliver. This sense of detail translates into a rewarding experience for everyone involved as the final product is designed, programmed, and operated with the highest level of quality in mind. We are thankful for the opportunity to support Voyage and team GRiZ with their vision and customer experience.”
From Clubs to Semis
Davis and Kegan have been creating visually intoxicating shows for GRiZ since his early years, going on a decade. Atlanta-born Davis was a student at the School of Art Institute in Chicago where he would earn a BFA, Photography, Motion Graphics. At night he was out shooting photos of local acts, including a new DJ, GRiZ. Kegan, too, was involved with working shows in the local Chicago scene and touring the country. He grew up in New York and first started working production in middle school theater. That grew to working on all kinds of productions in the city including off Broadway shows, corporate events, and live music. He moved to Chicago to study Lighting Design at DePaul University. The three came together around 2011 and have remained in orbit together since. “We’ve been with him from clubs to semis,” Davis says.
Davis is on tour full time with GRiZ as his lighting and video director and programmer, while Kegan is the production designer with a hand in lighting and video as well. Coming out from a successful Red Rocks Amphitheatre show earlier in the month, the three-night Denver stint was an intense, short turn around in a two-week period. The duo needed a major assist on programming duties and to help, they brought in Voyage Production’s Devon Brown. A creative workflow structure was built and all three actively programmed simultaneously, tripling the speed of that process. “Devon is a wizard and merged all our work into the show,” Kegan says. It was all out of the box as the team only saw their work in previz before load in.
That first early beginnings show was a punt show, basically busking in reaction to whatever mood GRiZ was creating on stage. “Back in the day, he would go perform small house parties after a show, and that grew into a couple of ‘house party’ shows at Red Rocks,” explains Davis. That vibe called for overhead club lighting but scaled way up. The second night featured music from his five albums starting in 2010, showcasing how he branched out as a songwriter and saxophonist, but basically handled on the fly as well. “It was all building toward the third night which featured all this new music from his latest album, and that required us to get into the right mindset and crank it out and get it done,” Kegan says. The ground-breaking new music was time coded and featured all new video content.
“GRiZ likes to push boundaries, and his audience now expects it,” Davis says. “For this one, we added a lot more lasers to all the already insane lighting programming and video content by Jawhosaphax.” Pittsburgh-based Lightwave International brought in four different types of lasers (a total of 53). For the 360˚ shows, it was important to the team that everyone in the arena have the same experience no matter where they were sitting. The lasers were evenly distributed in the center rig all facing outward toward the crowd.
The Third Night
“We actually had to double our gear count for these shows which neared 600 lighting fixtures and 300 video tiles,” Kegan says. “Brown Note supported the idea and came through to make it work. I think we almost exhausted their inventory for that weekend!”
“One thing to note is the night three rig was hung almost in its entirety the whole week prior for programming and timing purposes, and then we incorporated the remainder of nights one and two into the night three 180 look,” Davis adds. For video, the first two nights relied on a lot of throwback back-catalog and punt content fans may have seen from previous shows. The 180 content was all new and created with GRiZ working with Jawhosaphax and the production team. “We all worked closely with the artist as he had specific ideas on the mood, and in the end, the colorful big video content was awesome.”
As far as that extensive gear list goes, almost none of the gear used was anything they hadn’t used before; it was just the scale of it all which brought up new challenges. “The Robe FORTE is a new fixture that we loved and will definitely be using on future shows,” Kegan says.
The direction for the staging was simple enough: It can’t be anything they’ve done before. “GRiZ is always trying to put different designs in front of the fans,” Kegan says. “You can see it in the audience’s eyes when they walk in and first see it—there’s a look of excitement.” The challenging aspect is that GRiZ is so in tune with all the guest stars, vocalists, and horn players that he wants to make sure everybody gets their time in the light, he adds. This set did that well with a lift in the center of the 360˚ versions on the first two nights. The 16’ circle riser was used to lift GRiZ up on the first song and then used in other moments for the other musicians. “It created cool, unique moments not just for himself but for the other singers and horns.” On the third night they added a large catwalk tilted upward at a 45˚ angle. “That lent itself to special moments and new choreography,” Davis says.
Kegan and Davis both agree it was a tremendous amount of work, but they’re pleased with the end result. “There are a few deeper moments that were especially effective, like when GRiZ has a sax solo, and for that we were able to create a wistful look outlining his riser with the lights shooting down directly above his head,” Davis says. “The moody solo sax solos were nice, surreal moments that were a big hit with the audience. Another highlight was during the song, “My Friends and I” which featured GRiZ, two horn players, and two additional vocalists on the rotating lift. The audience is the ‘friends’ and GRiZ is the ‘I’ and it’s a big, beautiful moment where it’s about coming together and living in the moment.”
Elements of this show will be brought forward to the next show, but the team will no doubt be asked again for new, additional elements. “It’s a very exciting time, and we’re glad to make things happen with him,” Kegan says.
Crew
- Production Designer: Kyle Kegan
- Lighting Director/Programmer/Operator: Ian Davis
- Lighting Programmer: Devon Brown
- Production Manager: Grant Simmon
- Tour Director: Stuart Karmatz
- Stage Manager: Ken “KB” Brown
- Backline/PM Assist: Connor Meginnis
- Crew Chief: James Watt/Brown Note Productions
- Audio Lead: Matt Brown/Brown Note Productions
- Carpenter: Zach Roberson/Gallagher Staging
- Lift Tech: Zach Eastland/Accurate Staging
- Laser Lead: Josh Tkaczuk/Lightwave
- Laser Tech/Operator: Glenn Wright
Gear (Night 1 and 2)
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA 3 full-size Console
- 1 MA Lighting grandMA3 light Console
- 36 Martin MAC Axiom Hybrid
- 108 Martin VDO Fatron 20
- 144 Martin VDO Sceptron 10
- 72 Robe Robin Spikie
- 36 Robe Robin Pointe
- 18 Elation Proteus Rayzor 760
- 24 Elation Proteus Maximus
- 18 GLP JDC1 Hybrid LED Strobe
- 18 Lightwave PHENOM Laser
- 18 Lightwave 21W Laser
- 16 Lightwave Lixel Laser
- 1 Lightwave 30W Laser
Additional Gear Night 3 (180 show):
- 32 Robe MegaPointe
- 23 Robe FORTE
- 30 Elation Proteus Rayzor 760
- 20 Elation Dartz 360
- 45 GLP X4 Bar 20
- 18 GLP JDC1 Hybrid LED Strobe
- 12 Martin VDO Fatron 20
- (MAC Axiom not used on night 3)
Photos by: Jason Siegel @jsiegelphotography
