Blessed & Free Tour Reflects Family Ethos
The design of Kane Brown’s Blessed & Free tour is a collaboration of the artist with the co-creative directors, Production/Lighting Designer Trevor Ahlstrand and Content Creator/Videographer Alex Alvga. “Alex and I worked extremely close on this tour, he’s a great partner to collaborate with,” notes Ahlstrand. “Alex has been with Kane since the beginning directing his music videos and doing his videography, so he knows what Kane’s style and preference is for all of the video content, when it comes to putting something on a screen. We worked together to come up with the flow of the show and the different moments we wished to create. When initially putting our ideas together, Alex tends to lean more toward the music side, and I lean more toward the production side. We meet in the middle, and our collaboration pushes us both to help Kane create an amazing experience for the audience.”
For Ahlstrand, Blessed & Free is his third tour with Brown, having worked with him since his first headlining tour in 2018, the Live Forever tour. This tour is a mix of performance styles and opportunities, much like the many musical genres that Brown easily inhabits including country, pop, rap, and more. He defies labels. Ahlstrand took his design cues from Brown. “Kane is incredibly creative as an artist and a musician. He definitely wanted a show that was going to give him as much access to the audience and yet feel as big as possible. He wanted to be able to have those moments that feel extremely intimate and others that feel more country, and then he wanted some moments that feel more pop. His music—just like the show—is not genre specific. He wanted to make sure that the entire production followed that ethos. So, we tried to keep it as versatile as possible—both as big as we can, and as intimate as we can—within the parameters of the production.”
Reshaping the Stage
To accomplish that shift between big and intimate, Ahlstrand explains, “Automation was a big part of my design. When I started looking at the design overall, I knew that there was going to be an acoustic set, and I wanted it to have a very, very different look and feel. With the automation of the lighting pods, I created an intimate band shell for this section of the show. I then built out from there to create the rest of the set and the design around them.”
His design of three triangular lighting/scenic pods lets him reshape the stage as well as provide kinetic effects at times through the choreographed use of automation, like during Brown’s hit “Hometown” the pods fly around at almost full speed for five minutes. While for the acoustic set, Ahlstrand, as he planned, flies the pods down to the stage surrounding Brown for a more intimate arrangement. It very effectively lets Brown slow things down while still creating an engaging visual that focuses on the artist. “I was just looking for a way to create something geometrically that would surround him and bring everything down from the big production to the acoustic set,” describes the designer. “Instead of doing the acoustic set at the end of the thrust, way out in house, I chose to keep it on the stage and feel really tight. By using the three triangles in their natural shape, we’re able to curve it and shape it around him and the two musicians; bring it all the way down to the ground and create a little band shell right around them. Then, after the acoustic set, I created a perfect moment to come out of that look and blow it back up big again.”
Ahlstrand further explains how he wanted to use the pods. “I also knew that I wanted to use the pods to highlight things like guitar solos, when Kane walks down a ramp, all those types of things. I knew that I couldn’t put trackers on the musicians—like I’d love to—or to have a Follow-Me remote followspot system, so I worked with the musicians and Kane on hitting certain spots at certain times. Then I could put stage markers within the MA [console] at those spots. What I needed to make sure of was that I could track the pods in real time to where they could hit those marks. In talking with a few people early on, there was nobody that was integrating to the level that I needed.”
To find the right automation solution Ahlstrand turned first to DCR Nashville, who has been working with Ahlstrand and Brown since 2018. “We have been their lighting provider since Kane first entered arenas,” says DCR’s General Manager John Schirmer. “Now we have all moved into NBA arenas recently as he’s grown his production, and it’s gone really well. It’s a great relationship between DCR and both Kane Brown and Trevor.” For the Blessed & Free tour DCR Nashville is supplying the lighting equipment and crew, as well as initially coordinating the automation solutions. “DCR has been great in supporting us,” states Ahlstrand, “DCR’s gear and solutions for this show have been fantastic and the crew we have out there are all rock stars.”
For the automation needs DCR Nashville felt the right solution would be best found by working with PRG. Schirmer explains, “Back in 2019, when we put this tour together, we had to find a company that was capable of allowing the MA consoles to communicate with the Kinesys automation system, and that hadn’t been done very often. We ended up partnering with PRG for that automation solution. That is a big part of how we do business at DCR; we always want to provide the best possible solution for our clients. For this show, that meant brokering the relationships between our two organizations—DCR and PRG—together, we were able to provide that solution.”
Ryan Mast was then brought on board by PRG Nashville, knowing Mast had created Exato Translator to allow the bridge for many automation systems and many lighting consoles, which was what Ahlstrand needed. The Exato automation software provided the ability to easily bridge between the MA Lighting grandMA lighting console and the Kinesys automation system. “I was initially brought in to use Exato Translator to get 3D information out of the Kinesys K2 automation console and into the grandMA lighting console via PosiStageNet (PSN),” comments Mast. “I first redesigned the automation system for [Brown’s] The Worldwide Beautiful tour in 2020. For the Blessed & Free tour this year, we added new songs and kept a lot of the same system design; plus, I joined them on the road as the operator.”
Using Exato allows Ahlstrand the ability to know exactly where all the scenic elements and lighting pods are at any one time in 3D space. To ensure they were fully using the 3D features of the K2, which were a significant part of the creative design, Mast stepped in as automation show programmer. Working closely with Ahlstrand, they programmed the lighting and automation together. “Oftentimes I see automation get siloed on its own,” states Mast. “Automation becomes just a technical aspect; whereas the design process for this show was different, it was more how an animator or a lighting designer would work. Here we were pacing moves along with moods, music, lighting, video, and motion, in a way that was creative and iterative.”
Though there are some automation systems that could do what the show needed, they weren’t going to fill the bill—or budget—for Ahlstrand. When he was introduced to Mast and his software, Ahlstrand knew he’d found the solution he needed, as he says, “Ryan’s made software that looked at the vector information and accurately reproduced the 3D geometry of the triangle so that you could get all the different tilts. There are a lot of systems that can track individual motors, but once you’re dealing with a 3D object—in the older systems—it’s quite hard to do. With Exato he could easily make that happen for us with the Kinesys system that we had committed to for this tour. I could call up Ryan and ask ‘Can we do this’, and he would answer, ‘Yeah, I got that. No problem.’ From there, we didn’t have to worry about it. Once it was online and everything was talking, it’s plug and play every day.”
The real wonder of the automation system on this tour is that while it looks like there is a lot of custom work that went into the automation, it’s for the most part all off-the-shelf products like the Kinesys hoists. Ahlstrand was particularly pleased with this aspect of the design and programming process. “Ryan is super quick on the programming side of it obviously, and really pushes some of these moves that I wanted to do. Like certain ones I wanted to do incredibly slowly and certain ones I wanted to do incredibly fast. I definitely wanted to move these triangles in ways that makes the audience notice the speed and even question their safety. At times we move them pretty quickly. We move them all over the place, side to side. And sometimes they look like they’re going to hit each other, even though that’s not possible. Ryan’s programming, really pushed the motors to their limits on both the low end and the high end. We’d be like, ‘Our goal is 30 seconds.’ And he’d come back, ‘I don’t think 30 seconds is possible.’ We’d work on something else, and he would then say, ‘I got you 29 and a half seconds. Does that work?’ It was amazing that he could figure out the math and the starts and stops to where you didn’t even see anything change in the middle, but he’d dial it in, and we’d have the timed move that we were looking for in the beginning. I couldn’t imagine not having him side-by-side for rehearsals,” Ahlstrand continues. “Obviously when I was building the concept and previzing, I had the moves in my head and how I wanted it to move, but that only goes so far until you’re on site, trying to make this thing look the way you want it to. Having him there from the second I’m on site to the second it’s in the truck was invaluable.”
Transparency
Another big element of the visual look of the show, which Ahlstrand wanted, was to have a transparent video screen where he could blow through light at times. “I feel that you get quite a bit of impact from the blow through with a large wall of lights behind it, but at the same time when turned off, it doesn’t feel like blow through.” Ahlstrand also knew they wanted the blow through effect for a big opening entrance at the top of the show for which Kane Brown is seen flying up the back side of the wall—back lit—then reaching the top, he jumps straight off the front side of the video wall and quickly descends to the stage on a hoist-powered cable. Finding the right screen for this effect—and that would also do Alvga’s content justice—was key to Ahlstrand’s visual vision. To get that right product they worked with Moo TV, the video vendor for the tour. “The support of Moo TV was unbelievable. They found us an amazing product,” enthuses Ahlstrand. “It is called Hox, and it worked really, really well. The panels are actually 7mm pitch tall by 3mm pitch wide, so it has double the number of pixels horizontally than it does vertically.” The 240 video panels Moo TV provided are from Shenzhen BGL Opto Technology; [the product is now called BGL BTP 3.9-7.8HB high transparency LED screen.]
Ahlstrand adds, “It was one of the biggest elements of the show, creating a wall that was transparent enough to work for the opening gag, where obviously, seeing him rise was incredibly important. Then being able to show content that really read on the front is the flip side of that. There are screens out there that are extremely transparent, but then the clarity’s not real great, or vice-a-versa, you lose the transparency. Adam [Groeninger, the production manager] and I looked at a handful of products and I wasn’t extremely happy with any of them. Then I got a call from Moo asking if I would mind coming back; they’d found a new product they wanted me to see. They showed me the Hox screen and asked, ‘Would you be happy with this?’ I was like, ‘How could you not be happy with this?’ We were sold the second we saw it. It’s super transparent and basically disappears when the lights shine from behind it. It was an easy decision. Also, it takes a dynamic load, which was another part of finding the right transparent screen. We do move the screen physically up and down a few times. Trying to find a screen that was thin and transparent and be able to take the dynamic load of motors as well, was a big part of the process. They found the right product; Moo nailed it!”
Light it on Fire
For additional visual impact there are also a number of lasers and pyrotechnic effects in the show, which were provided by Strictly FX. “We had lasers in the last leg from Strictly FX, and this leg, we used six of their 15W lasers along with six Facet audience scanners,” says Ahlstrand. “We wanted to add pyro as we went back out with this leg. We knew that fire effects were one of the elements that we really wanted to bring to the stage; add some different dynamics with it. Strictly FX was awesome to work with on this. One of our big concerns was playing some the venues that we’re playing. We were going to go to a lot of places that have tighter restrictions on propane. Strictly had solutions to basically give us every effect, every day for the most part by swapping between isopropyl or propane—which is always our preference. They had many different sized tanks; whatever it took to fit within those guidelines. They really had that together to where we would walk in and see the same thing consistently. I think their lasers are really something that’s always stood out to me. There are many companies that do pyro well, even though Strictly FX is one of the best, but I think they’re probably the best out there with laser effects we wanted to achieve.”
Blasts of Light
Ahlstrand’s lighting design includes an immense light wall—directly upstage of the LED screen—with fixtures from dasher to dasher as well as spanning from under the video wall to over the top of it. His design blended lighting and video to work together well throughout the show allowing for a wide variety of looks. “We definitely are doing some pixel mapping just driving the [Martin VDO] Sceptrons as well as the [Martin VDO Atomic] Dot wall behind the stage by video at times,” describes Ahlstrand, “trying to match color palettes. However, most of the time that the Dots are used, we are running them with DMX, which gave us the ability to create some really great chases and peels.”
For the lights on the triangular pods, Ahlstrand used Robe Spiider LED WashBeams. Ahlstrand, working closely with Mast, always knew where the lights were in 3D space, so they were able to keep the lights focused where they were supposed to be at all times. “I’m a huge fan of the Spiider,” says Ahlstrand. “It is one of my favorite go-to fixtures; it’s incredibly versatile. I use its moon flower probably about half the time because it looks like an entirely different fixture from the wash. Part way through a song, I’ll flip the Spiider to the wash, and I get something completely different coming from the same area. It’s one of those fixtures I love because it’s a two-for-one, and it’s extremely cost-effective in the first place.” The pods were also lined with Sceptrons between each row.
Ahlstrand’s other key equipment choice includes the Elation Professional Smarty Hybrid luminaire. “It has an incredible amount of output for the size fixture it is,” he says. “I was looking for a minimal footprint with the lights that we put upstage of the screen. The lights are used throughout the opening lighting through the screen for band reveals and effects. Then they return below the screen and serve as my floor lighting. The amount of output that you get out of the Smarty for the size that they are, and then all the effects they do incredibly well—from gobos to zoom all in that small little package; it’s one of my favorite tools.”
The workhorse light in Ahlstrand’s design is the Claypaky Scenius Profile. “It’s consistently doing what I need it to do,” he states. “It’s a fixture with a lot of output; it’s bright and great on the road with very little maintenance. It’s the punchy fixture that we need to fill in all the gaps and do the bulk of work for the show.” The designer is also a fan of the GLP JDC1 strobe, which he lined along his rear truss. “The JDCs, to me, just have more impact than any other LED strobe that I’ve looked at out there. I love that center strip, which I use quite a bit, but the color plate is extremely effective as well.”
Serving as lighting director out on the road for the Blessed & Free tour, was Nick Chang. “I met Nick just before the previous run, and from day one in rehearsals, he has owned it,” Ahlstrand says. “When we talked over the system and the integration of automation, PSN, lighting, and video at first it seemed like a lot, but Nick picked it all up very quickly. He has been able to execute the show flawlessly and troubleshoot any issues that might arise on a daily basis. He not only kicks ass, but is an absolute pleasure to be around and work with!”
Out with Chang on the tour is a crew from DCR Nashville, and Ahlstrand could not be more pleased. “They’ve done the past few tours with us, and their crew is absolutely amazing. I met Jason [Murphy] our crew chief on our first run I did with Kane, and he has built an incredible team; all of them have just been great to work with; plus, the show came out of DCR prepped incredibly well. There’s been very little issues that we’ve had on the road from the beginning; it gets up in a timely manner, and very little maintenance needs to happen. It is great to know that DCR and the lighting crew are out with us.”
Not Just a Team; a Family
DCR’s Schirmer believes that DCR’s and Brown’s matched ethos of treating colleagues as family is key to the success of both. “Without it sounding too cliché, it really is a family type thing. DCR is a growing company that is based on the relationships we build with our clients. The reason this tour continues to be successful is because of the relationship that Kane’s production and management team has not just with our organization, but also has with the crew that we put together out here on this tour,” says Schirmer. “It’s very important for me as a general manager to build the teams on these tours to fit the artist’s mentality. There’s no better example than with the people that are out on this tour, because they’ve been picked to fit DCR’s ethos and Kane’s strong sense of creating a family atmosphere.”
Schirmer continues, noting that working with Ahlstrand is a big part of the positive atmosphere, “Trevor has a really strong vision for how he designs his shows and how he wants to deploy them. He really has an understanding of what the artist is trying to convey to his audience. I think Trevor gives an artist the best opportunity to be able to do that with what he designs.”
Ahlstrand wholeheartedly agrees the Blessed & Free tour really is a family. “It comes from the top, the artist level and the team that Kane has assembled that keeps that ethos at the forefront of every interaction. He is amazing to work with,” the designer plainly states. “His thing is family, and he means it. Kane surrounds himself with an incredible team from Mark Oglesby, the tour manager, to Adam Groeninger, the production manager; everyone from the top to the bottom is part of the family. Everybody’s wearing Family sweatshirts, Family hats, and yeah, anybody can say that—and most do—but in truth most aren’t. Here, with Kane Brown, it is true; the people around him are truly a family. They all spend time together, they work together, they try to enjoy every minute of every day together. It’s a low stress, great place to be, and great people to work around. It’s truly amazing. I think that it always has to come from the top down, and I think that it says a lot about Kane himself.”
Kane Brown Blessed & Free Tour
Production Team
- Co-Creative Directors: Trevor Ahlstrand and Alex Alvga
- Production/Lighting Designer: Trevor Ahlstrand
- Content Creator: Alex Alvga
- Lighting Director: Nick Chang
- Automation Programmer/Operator: Ryan Mast/Exato
- Production Manager: Adam Groeninger
- Tour Manager: Mark “Mark O” Oglesby
Vendors, Crew & Gear
Lighting
Lighting Vendor: DCR Nashville/John Schirmer
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA 2 full-size Console
- 4 MA Lighting grandMA 2 NPU
- 56 Claypaky Scenius Profile
- 24 Elation Smarty Hybrid
- 26 Elation Chorus Line 16
- 50 Robe Spiider LED WashBeam
- 130 Martin VDO Sceptron
- 66 Martin VDO Atomic Dot
- 24 GLP JDC-1 Strobe
Lighting Crew
- Crew Chief: Jason Murphy
- Dimmer Tech: Dee Cunningham
- L1: Kenny Kitelighter
- L2s: Taylor Moor, Angel Sterns
Video
Video Vendor: Moo TV/Travis Walker
- Ross Carbonite 2 ME Switcher
- Hitachi Z-HD5000 Studio Cameras
- PRG Mbox Media Server
- Barco HDF-W30 Projectors
- Panasonic HE-130 Robotic Cameras
- 240 BGL Opto Technology BTP 3.9-7.8HB High Transparency LED Panels
- Gallagher Staging Custom Touring Frames & Carts
Video Crew
- Video Director/Crew Chief: Joe Marcario
- Video Engineer: Blake Coleson
- LED/Cameras: Andrew Scudder, Nate Mcguire
Automation
Automation & Rigging Vendor: PRG Nashville/Burton Tenenbein
- Kinesys K2 Automation Console
- 15 1-Ton Kinesys Elevation+ Automated Motors
- 8 1/2-Ton Kinesys Elevation+ Motors
- Exato Translator (PSN 3D Info to Lighting Console)
- Kinesys LibraPro Load Cell System
Automation & Rigging Crew
- PRG Project Manager: Eric Chabira
- Head Rigger: John Kehoe
- Rigger: Anthony Wilford
- Head of Automation: Ryan Mast
- Automation Rigger: Chris Cadlett
Scenic
- Staging, Rigging, Scenery Vendor: Gallagher Staging
- Nashville Principal: Tye Trussell
- Nashville Project Manager: James McKinney
Lasers & Special Effects
Lasers and Pyrotechnics Vendor: Strictly FX
- 6 15W Lasers
- 6 Facet Audience Scanners
- 8 GFlames
- 6 Flamebars
- 12 Cryo Jets
- 2 LSG Low Smoke Generators
Effects Crew
- Jeff Jowdy
- Joey Atkinson
- Reid Nofsinger
- Alan Grant
- Richard Brisson
