In Katy Perry’s world, more is more. Warriors wearing neon clothes holding dimmer-controlled LED infused spears, LED jump ropes, a hanging diamond-shaped structure that lifts her into the arena, a mechanical horse … the audience needs the 3D glasses they receive.
Perry’s “Prismatic” world tour is the artist’s third major trek, in support of her fourth studio album, Prism, released last fall. Launching with a leg in the U.K. and Ireland that ran from May 7-31, the tour visits 46 North American cities from June 22 to Oct. 18 before moving on to New Zealand in November and December. It will then visit Europe next February and March.
There’s a lot of visual eye candy going on as supplied by Silent House Productions, Quantum Special Effects, laser specialists ER Productions, RC4 Wireless, and others, all in support of a show design envisioned by Parnelli-Award winning director and designer and Baz Halpin and the artist herself.
Last year, Perry told Entertainment Weekly that she always tries to take her tours to the next level, and she certainly did that. She also added, “I saw the graphic drawing of the stage, and it’s unlike anything I’ve seen for any other artist … it’s different, it’s fresh, and in the middle of the audience.”
To the Next Level
Halpin first worked with Perry when she was promoting Teenage Dream, her third studio album, which was released in mid-2010. “We worked on X Factor, Christmas Jingle Balls and other promos, and that led into the ‘California Dreams’ tour,” he says, of Perry’s 2011 trek that scored 13th and 16th, respectively, on the 2011 charts for top tours ranked by Billboard and Pollstar.
The design concept for the “Prismatic” tour first took shape when Halpin and Perry had a dinner meeting in Amsterdam to discuss what the tour was going to look like. “We had our laptops, and we looked at lots of different style stage layouts from the last 30 years or so,” he says. “We knew we wanted it to be based around the triangle, as this is the ‘Prismatic’ tour. Katy wanted something huge, naturally, so we ended up with the giant stage we have now. We chicken-scratched it out on pieces of paper and it went from there.”
Halpin and Perry had followup meetings over a period of months until the show design was refined. “Having worked with her for four years, we have developed a shorthand, so I already know what she will like and what she won’t, to a certain extent. So this helps to make the process a little quicker.” During rehearsals, Halpin also worked closely with choreographers R.J. Durell and Nick Flores and the team at Silent House Productions, with Associate LD Eric Marchwinski and Ben Nicholson, video content creative director and producer, also playing key roles.
“The team I work with has been with me on several shows before, so the process is very fluid,” Halpin says. “Katy is as much a part of that team as anyone else. It just so happens she is also the star. She is involved in almost every decision, and the process is democratic and creative.”
The result is an extremely large set, where a lot is going on. Three giant chevrons upstage track up and downstage to form one triangle. There’s a 40-foot high, 75-foot wide freestanding LED screen, which splits into three and tracks up and downstage. Clay Paky Sharpys are on hydraulic flippers that move into position once the screens have passed each other. There’s a triple hydraulic lift that rises to form the stage to create a 14-foot tall pyramid with a lift inside that can go to the floor and up to 15-feet high while rotating. Conveyor belts, band lifts, toasters, and lifts are also part of it all. Then there’s the endless succession of props, “each more fantastical than the next.”
Color-Changing Spears
RC4 Wireless’ Sean Dane explains that they got the call for a special request: 12 spears that could change color. Dane, a former prop master, admits his theater geek side got pretty excited about this. “I wanted to know what kind, from what period!”
The spears would need to have four channels of lighting control, they had to be portable and be battery powered. (And at first, RCF didn’t even know whom the spears were for.) They went to work, using some of their technology that they were already using in other applications. “Then, a week later, they called and said they needed 12 more of these things, and then they wanted it for their mic stands.” The order kept getting bigger and it was topped off by the request to work their magic on the guitars.
Having previously lit up the guitar of Keith Urban with LEDs, RC4 Wireless put together six guitars with their supersonic pwm dimming. “These are the first pwm dimmers in the world that are interference-free when used in close proximity to instrument pickups and microphones — no hum or buzz in the audio feeds,” says RC4’s Jim Smith.
“The guitar work is tricky, because the pulse of a standard four-channel dimmer can effect the guitar sound, making it buzzy and causing feedback,” Dane says. “Jim [Smith] thought this through to come up with a supersonic version that looks and works great.”
“The main element in the lighting is the Vari*Lite VL3500 Wash FX,” Halpin says, with other VL fixtures and gear from Martin (Martin MAC Viper AirFX), Clay Paky (Sharpys and Sharpy Washes), Solaris (LED Flares), Chroma-Q (Color Block 2) and GLP (impression X4s) also playing key roles. Upstaging is providing the gear.
Quantum FX are the pyro vendor and ER Productions are providing the lasers. And both were put to work: “We use many effects within the show, CO2 Jets, Low Fog, Confetti, Flame, etc., etc.,” Halpin says. “It’s a jam-packed show. “
Quantum Leap
U.K.-based Quantum Special Effects was founded by Shaun Barnett in 2009. Barnett cites Perry’s “California Dreams” tour as his company’s “big break” into the American touring market. Quantum also opened a North America office in Las Vegas in 2012.
“We first joined with Katy Perry on the recommendation of Baz Halpin,” Barnett says, adding that the two have been working on various tours for 16 years. “Quantum has been providing effects for all Perry’s performances since then.”
Creatively, the team at Quantum works to have their special effects match the “cartoon-like” pop princess persona Perry projects — and they certainly did that for this tour. “The usual process when designing a tour like this is that the creative team for Perry and production will go into discussion with myself about what effects will be best visually for the show,” he says. Then they talk through safety concerns for the artist, band, and dancers. “The technical aspects tend to all get ironed out during the rehearsal period, but you can get the odd change once a tour goes out onto the road, and the creative team watch the show in its true setting with a crowd.”
The show opens with 10 CO2 jets to going off to the song “Roar.” Four LSG machines are then used to help create a more tender atmosphere for some of Perry’s slower numbers, which include “Wide Awake,” “Legendary Lovers” and “Walking on Air.” For this, Quantum uses Ultratec Special Effects’ floor pockets “to keep a clean look on stage as well as ensuring good coverage throughout the songs,” Barnett adds.
Later in the show, when Perry turns to her older material like “I Kissed a Girl,” eight G Flames positioned upstage are used in a way that tie in with the recurring triangle motif. “The team then add a little pyrotechnic treat for the audience — two guitarists are hoisted into the air, and seven second 10-foot gerbs positioned on the head stack of the guitar are wirelessly fired during the musicians’ solo, to great reaction from the crowd,” Barnett says.
And then there’s the confetti — six blowers fire 20 kg of custom music-note and star-shaped confetti in red, hot pink and gold. It pretty much fills the arena.
“The proudest moment for the Quantum team is during ‘Firework,’” Barnett says. Calling the song a “pyrotechnical dream,” there’s one big caveat – although the brief was to design a firework show for the song, “with venue restrictions as well as performer and audience safety always in mind, fireworks in the traditional sense can’t be used.” They pulled it off, however, with approved pryo devices to the point where the audience thinks it’s the real thing. With nearly 800 products fired from nine positions stage left and right in roughly 90 seconds, Quantum frames Perry in an explosive blow of color. And pretty much everyone goes home with a little confetti on them.
Crew
Show Director & Production/Lighting Designer: Baz Halpin
Associate Designer & Programmer: Eric Marchwinski
Crew Chief: John Chiodo
Lighting Techs: Bart Buckalew, Chris Donati, Tony Cerasuolo, Martin Joos, Rob Corman-Savage, Brian Reed, Calvin Mosier, Todd Turner
Video Director: Omar Montes
Video Engineer: Gene McAuiffe
Video Tech: John Moore
Camera Op: Will Stinson, Ramon Pastrana, Jay Strasser
Projectionist: Scott Grund
Lighting Company: Upstaging Inc
Special Effects: Quantum FX
Video Company: PRG Nocturne
Gear
2 MA Lighting grandMA 2 Full consoles
5 MA Lighting NPUs
9 Reel EFX DF-50 Diffusion hazers
4 High End Systems FQ-100 fog generators
26 TMB Solaris LED Flares
68 Chroma-Q ColorBlock 2 fixtures
39 GLP impression X4 fixtures
64 Martin MAC Viper AirFX
2 Vari*Lite VL3015LT Spots
20 Vari*Lite VL3515 Spots
96 Vari*Lite VL3500 Wash FX fixtures
62 Clay Paky Sharpys
55 Tyler Truss 10’ Black HUD truss
4 Tyler Truss 8’ Black HUD truss
6 Tomcat 8’ 12” truss
2 Tomcat 8’ 20.5” truss
2 Tomcat 4’ 20.5” truss
10 Tomcat 7’9” PRT truss
2 Tomcat 20.5” corner blocks
2 Tyler Truss top mount truss spot seats
Special Effects
1 ChamSys MagicQ MQ70 console
18 QuantumFX Galaxis 10-way receiver
10 QuantumFX G Flames
2 QuantumFX Galaxis firing console
4 QuantumFX LSG machines
10 CO2 jets
Custom made pyro trays
Wireless DMX Products
1 RC4 Wireless DMXio-HG Transceiver
3 RC4 Wireless DMXio Transceivers
19 RC4 Wireless DMX4dim dimmers
12 RC4 Wireless DMX4dim (20kHz) dimmers (for guitars)
