After six weeks of rehearsals in Vancouver, the band officially kicked off their new tour in Rogers Arena on May 14. The iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour proves to be a visual masterpiece. Once again the production design team knows no boundaries and ventures into untested waters with their visual concepts.
The UK’s Stufish once again designed the innovative set with designers Es Devlin and Ric Lipson at the helm. With a rectangular stage at one end, and a circular platform at the other, the stage design incorporated a runway down the middle of the arena to connect the stages.
An unprecedented amount of PRG Nocturne V-thru video products were incorporated into the design running the length as well as width of the arena.
Stefaan “Smasher” Desmedt once again calls the video show and manipulates what is seen on the screens. Video content production was handled by veteran Ben Nicholson.
Long time LD Willie Williams handled the lighting chores and shaped all of the visual elements into place for the show, once again thinking “outside the box.” Lighting directors Sparky Risk and Alex Murphy look after the cueing and playback of the lighting cues.
Production manager Jake Berry was once again brought into the fold to look after the logistics and shape the tour’s production into a slick well-oiled machine.
Later this summer PLSN will sit down with the design team to talk in depth about the theories and obstacles the project accumulated during the design and rehearsal phase of this tour. Stand by for the story on how they brought this production to fruition.
{mosapa album=” U2-2015-Tour-Photos-by-Steve-Jennings”}
