The artist ZHU went into his 10th sold out performance at Red Rocks with the intent to make history. Escalating and enhancing his brand, evoking the stark yet effervescent video Musical Chairs, he wanted to create a Guinness World Record for the largest musical chairs game ever. What was seen—and experienced—on those two cold November nights high in The Rockies may not enter the Guinness book, but it certainly will go down in history for its design. ZHU conceived of a sea of chairs and lights, something like when a treasure chest is opened in a movie and golden light pours endlessly out of it. Creating this effect required hundreds of Martin Rush PAR 2 Zoom fixtures under 260 clear plexiglass chairs on the stage.
The team that brought ZHU’s vision to reality consists of his Production Designer/Manager Andrew Dugan; Lighting Designer/Director, and Programmer Lorcan Clarke; and Video Director Elan Oatway. The chair idea took form initially as a staging concept during ZHU’s summer 2022 opening for Swedish House Mafia by placing wash fixtures under a dozen chairs on that stage. “On that tour, which included many festival dates, the audience sightlines were for the most part level with the stages,” points out Clarke. “At Red Rocks we were able to take full advantage of the natural amphitheater seating and the entire stage. We figured that the chairs placed above the lights would create a really nice light diffraction effect and thus create an imposing glow on the stage. With all 260 PARs on full, it looked spectacular and ethereal.”
Surrounded by an Air of Mystery
The design had dual functionality. The crowd closest to the stage could actually see the chairs covering the stage with lights underneath them. However, further away from the stage as the amphitheater ascends, the distinctive glow and reflections from the floor lights obscured the clear plexiglass chairs. This added to the aura of mystique leaving people in the audience wondering ‘what did I just see?’
Clarke selected the Martin Rush PAR 2 Zoom, suggested by PRG as a better alternative to the Martin MAC Aura. “ I always look for an LED product that has white cells in the engine. The fact they zoom to a super wide wash created that ‘Godly’ effect ZHU was looking for.” Centered on the stage floor in the midst of the chairs, Clarke further framed a 24’ square band performance area with Astera Titan Tubes in 96-channel mode. He utilized every channel—and every pixel—available to him in executing his looks. Illuminating different blocks and areas of fixtures under the chairs isolated the musicians for their introductions, while at the same time highlighting the fact the fans were not just witnessing another electronic DJ set, but a live performance. This is an important part of ZHU’s message to his fans—‘We are live brothers and sisters!’
Highlighting the Artists
ZHU appears in silhouette on stage by himself for the intro. Then, Mitch Bell, the guitarist, is illuminated in the downstage right corner to play the breakdown guitar solo by four chairs gently pulsing around him. Clarke ghosts the guitar solo from the front with the Robe BMFL FollowSpots for I-Mag. The rest of the stage is in blackout. The sax player, Aaron Leibowitz, is introduced much the same way. “As a lighting designer, I was really fortunate that one of ZHU’s main objectives for this show was to keep lighting the center focus of the show, especially the chair lights,” Clarke says. “He had some great ideas to create really unique sequences and patterns throughout the chairs.”
Elan Oatway is Zhu’s VJ and Video Director. He utilized the recently added Red Rock I-Mag screens rather than distract with an upstage video wall and cover nature’s architecture. He triggered and sequenced the 14 camera feeds and video content manually. “My challenge, or goal really, always is to find a tasteful balance to create a strong narrative; to synergize the artist.”
You Need How Many of the Same Light?
A large challenge for Dugan was finding a lighting vendor with that quantity of the same fixture. “The initial design called for 360 PARs with zoom, and finding that in a couple weeks was no easy task. Luckily my friend Burton [Tenenbein] at PRG came through and made it happen,” he says. “PRG really nailed it on this one for us, professionally maintained equipment and a properly trained crew go a long way in today’s post-Covid world of event builds.” In the end, Clarke’s design included a total of 260 of the Martin Rush PAR 2 Zoom fixtures.
Of course, the fact that it was 23˚ Fahrenheit presented its own challenges to the crew. Even veteran Brown Note Lighting Crew Chief Felix Parra noted that while it did not snow on the load-in, the cold was brutal. Robin Downes, the Lighting Crew Chief for PRG, notes the cold weather made the foggers a bit sluggish in heating up. Downes’ game plan for the backbone of control of the system was rock solid however, with redundancy backups incorporated through the signal flow from the grandMA to the floor package PRG provided and interfacing with the Brown Note flown rig overhead.
Two full MA Lighting grandMA consoles with 8,192 channels were networked together at FOH via a fiber optic switch. Out of that, Downes fed a fiber optic snake to his signal rack onstage. At dimmer beach, he split the network into four NPU’s and a backup of four MAnet nodes. These fed 20 TMB opto isolators, which then fed 20 individual DMX lines to the Martin Rush PARs under the chairs.
Laying it All Out
Downes used a Vectorworks plug-in, Lightning Tapes (normally used as truss tapes) to mark the floor following Dugan’s layout. “To the discerning eye, there were some color temperatures differences amongst the fixtures,” he says. “Sourcing so many units led to that slight problem, but I’m sure you won’t hear any complaints from the audience. I thought the show was amazing. Lorcan did one of the most amazing, programmed shows I have ever seen. Both nights sold out, and the crowd loved every second. Both Clarke and Dugan acknowledge the distinct advantage they gained being able to program and previz the show at Frameworx Studios in Culver City, CA. “My friend Davey Martinez referred me, and we will definitely be back. Amish [Dani] and Frameworx have an excellent space, staff, and location.”
The goal with the overhead rig was to keep it simple so as not to distract aesthetically from the 260 chairs on the stage and the center performance box outlined with the Astera Tubes. Even so, they wanted it to have enough punch and variety in there to be able to complement the floor package. “I purposely designed it with a variety of spots, beams, washes, strobes, battens, and blinders,” says Clarke. “This was to be able to clone in my festival programming for ZHU’s music. This is one of the benefits of being the designer and programmer. You get to make calls that benefit the show further down the line. On the DS and US trusses, I butted the [GLP] X4 Bar 10’s together in twos as close as possible to make it look like one big X4 bar. It made for a cleaner and more defined linear look across the three sticks of Tyler GT truss sticks which Brown Note loaded with the fixtures, while enabling more programming capabilities.”
Clarke adds, “I have to say, Brown Note did a fantastic job in the prep and getting the rig in the air as quickly as they did. With that much of a floor package and a show the same day as load-in, we needed every minute we could squeeze. Cloning to the ground package lights was not an option. That all had to be programmed very specifically.” The lighting was run on timecode. Dugan also credits Brown Note Productions for going “above and beyond with their rig prep and staff on execution. Our internal team of management, the band, Scott, and all of our regular touring personnel turned something as challenging as this into a smooth experience from start to finish. Very grateful for every member of this team and the staff at Red Rocks are the best.”
Form Follows Function
Another challenge, and one of the most important aspects of the show, was getting the rows of chairs and PARs perfectly aligned. There was a grid of 18 rows by 18 columns. Production Designer/Manager Dugan saw that this meticulous task was carried out with precision, noting, “Working on designs with ZHU has always felt well branded and created with a definitive aesthetic purpose. He is the mastermind behind all of it. My main gig is to bring those visions to life and also maintain reasonable budgets along the way.”
Dugan’s first consideration and major influence on design decisions is a bit of a twist on the old Bauhaus philosophy, Form Follows Function. “Simplicity and clear symbolism are major factors,” he explains, “It doesn’t need to be a sensory overload and have a hundred of the latest fixtures to be a memorable and life-changing event for the fans. It just has to have a purpose and a story, so space is followed by mood.” He designed the chair layout in the combined form of two Native American symbols that represent enclosure and happiness. “I felt these symbolically represented the game of musical chairs and were the perfect complements to the square stage dimensions and album concept. Red Rocks is such a sacred place; you can feel the energy when you’re there. It’s an honor to have executed 10 sold-out shows there with ZHU, and I can’t wait to design more there.” The crew at Red Rocks won’t soon forget the ZHU shows either. These were the final two shows of 2022 season at the outdoor amphitheater, with one of the largest ground packages ever deployed at the venue. Quite a successful way to end the year for the crew, fans, and ZHU.
ZHU Production Team
- Production Designer/Manager: Andrew Dugan
- Lighting Designer/Programmer: Lorcan Clarke of Owl Vision LLC
- Video Director: Elan Oatway
- PTZ Camera Tech: Benjamin Levin
- I-Mag Director: Sam Leabo
- Tour Manager: Joey Vitalar
- TM/PM Asst.: Marlowe Teichman
PRG Crew
- Lighting Crew Chief: Robin Downes
- Lighting Tech: Lawrence Colon
- Lighting Dimmer Tech: Avianna Meck
Brown Note Crew
- Lighting Crew Chief: Felix Parra
- Lighting Tech: Adam Miehe
- Dimmer Tech: Matt Dury
Red Rocks House Crew
- House Head: Brian F O’Reilly
- House Head: David Soules
- Head Rigger: John Willmann
- Riggers: Seth Bruce Charbonneau, Jason A Dreith, Joshua D Fabrizio
Vendors
- Lighting (Overhead): Brown Note Productions
- Lighting (Floor): Production Resource Group
- Cameras: Levin Digital
Gear
Lighting: Floor Package
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA2 full-size Console
- 4 MA Lighting grandMA NPU
- 4 MA Lighting grandMA2 8-Port Node
- 4 1GB etherCON Net Switch
- 12 TMB Opto Isolator A/B Switch MX/TMB ProPlex OpticalCON 4-Channel
- 1 Fiber Snake
- 260 Martin Rush PAR 2 Zoom
- 72 GLP impression X4 Bar 10
- 28 Astera FP1 Titan Tube
- 4 MDG Atmosphere APS
- 4 UltraTec Radiance Hazer
- 4 Martin Jem ZR44 Hi-Mass
Lighting: Overhead Package
- 26 Ayrton Perseo Profile
- 8 Ayrton Diablo Profile
- 30 Robe Robin Pointe
- 20 Martin MAC Quantum Wash
- 20 GLP JDC1 Hybrid Strobe
- 20 GLP impression X4 Bar 20
- 10 Elation DTW 700 IP
- 1 Robe RoboSpot System with a Robe BMFL FollowSpot LT
- 12 Sticks Tyler GT Truss
Video / Cameras:
- Video Server: Clevo PC laptop with NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 2080 Graphics Card
- Depence2 Visualizer
- 3 PTZ Cameras
