Visuals Stoke Excitement for Marathon “311 Day” Concerts
On March 11, 12 and 13 — just before this year’s Covid-19 pandemic turned off the lights — the band 311 played three marathon concerts, covering 102 songs, at the Park Theater in Las Vegas. Bobby Grey designed a supplemental rig to light the band in this unique performance space, and also created and curated all of the video content and live I-Mag effects. (The Park has an extremely high resolution projection mapping system on the proscenium along with an 80-foot 4K video wall upstage.)
The design consisted of five snub-nosed triangular pods on automated motors. Grey lined the pods with GLP X4 Bars and JDC1s, Elation WW4 Blinders and Claypaky Mythos2 fixtures. Since the band has such an eclectic catalog of music, ranging from heavy rocking riffs to spacey smooth jams, it was important that the rig stay fresh throughout.
Countdown to Liftoff
“We gave a lot of focus to the opening segment,” Grey says. “In years past, the fans would have entered an arena and spent the ‘walk in’ time looking up at a big and complicated, yet dormant, lighting rig. For this year, we wanted to do something completely different. We flew the entire lighting rig up to the grid behind the proscenium. The backline crew set up everything on risers before soundcheck and rolled them off stage before doors. So the fans walked into a completely bare and swept stage, an empty theater. It literally looked like it did before load-in, from the audience perspective.
“At -15 minutes to show, we blacked out house lights and filled the stage with low lying fog. I created a 15-minute countdown video, rendered from the perspective of looking out the front cockpit of a UFO, complete with a countdown clock and a ‘heads up’ display that utilized some of the band’s spacey artwork, occasionally overlaying the interface with ‘transmissions’ that featured the band’s lyrics.”
Throughout the countdown, the earth slowly crept closer into view, and the projection system displayed a moving star field. Meanwhile, the lighting crew was bringing the rig in to trim one piece at a time, and the backline crew assembled the band’s gear, while moving through UV-Lit low lying fog. It was like a launch, or landing pad, was being prepared. The audience got to see the entire rig and backline get “loaded in.” Needless to say, this built excitement to the extreme. With cryo shooting from the corners of the pods, they slowly lowered in, “beaming” the band onto the stage to reveal them.
Other special moments included several songs that featured throwback content. “We found old camcorder footage of the band playing some of their first shows, and also assembled footage of them playing some of their early songs throughout their 30 year career. I ‘time stretched’ these videos in [Adobe] After Effects so they would all line up with the band’s timing as they play them today and synced them to timecode. The result was a wall of virtual TVs, featuring the band playing the songs live throughout the years, alongside a live I-Mag feed of them playing that night on the stage. This took a lot of time and detail, but really worked in the room.”
Although many of their hits and songs regularly on the setlists are now timecoded, the majority of songs played for 311 Day are deep cuts that are rarely played. For this, Grey had a versatile punt page, and a deep library of visuals, content and I-Mag effects to give each song a unique feel and keep up with the band as they jam and freeform some of their older and more unique songs.
“We also used a system called ‘crowd glow,’ which with a transmitter allowed us to control the audience’s phone screens and flashlights. So the crowd could hold up their phones and their screens would change color along with the lighting rig, and their flashlights could be in sync with the strobes, making the whole house a canvas. It was really neat.”
A Triumph for the Team
As for his history with the band, Grey notes, “I finished growing up on tour with these guys as Joe Paradis’ apprentice, and have gotten to know the entire band and crew as dear friends. I’m thankful to the band and their management for giving me so much trust and freedom to put together the aesthetic of their show for them.”
Grey also credited the band’s tour manager, John “Yonnie” Mckeever, and production manager, Dave Bellis, for “working hard to pull all of the logistics together to get these pods, and the show, ‘off the ground.’ I have to give a great deal of credit and thanks to Alex Parayuelos, who was the assistant designer for the show, and is an indispensable asset creatively. We’ve worked together for almost three years building the band’s content library and putting their summer tours and special events together. He worked tirelessly to help keep all the plates in the air, coordinate all departments, and make the show happen. He’s really a gifted creative.
“Our crew chief was Chris Harshfield and his assistant was Jeremy Davidson. They worked extremely hard for long hours to get the rig put together and kept it in 100-percent working order across the three long shows. Felix Lighting was the lighting vendor, and our rep, Ryan Herrera, bent over backwards to pull this together with us. Grant Sellars, with Strictly FX, and his crew, provided special effects, lasers and Cryo. They did an excellent job as always and made the whole thing very unique. PRG provided the automation motors. Thanks goes to Julian Edwards for assisting us with fitting automation into our budget. Seth Robinson with Sightline Design Group came in to wrangle key lights and interface with the video crew. He’s a master at his craft and a world authority on music for webcast key lighting. Also thanks to Christian Lind, who spent some long hours with us getting all 12K of video raster talking between our server, the in house projection and D3 systems.”
“311 Day” Concerts
March 11, 12 & 13, Park Theater, Las Vegas
Production Credits:
- Production Design, Lighting Design and Video Content: Bobby Grey, Notan Creative
- Assistant Designer, Lighting Director: Alex Parayuelos
- Production Manager: Dave Bellis
- Tour Manager: John “Yonnie” Mckeever
- Crew Chief: Chris Harshfield
- Technician: Jeremy Davidson
- Video Tech: Christian Lind
- Lasers/Special FX: Grant Sellars
- Lasers/Special FX Assistant: Jackson Fraizer
- Keylight Programmer: Seth Robinson
- Automation Tech: Caleb Darling
- CrowdGlow Tech: Nathaniel Lovett
- Lighting Vendor: Felix Lighting
- Special Effects: Strictly FX
- Automation Vendor: PRG
More photos by Marc Graham, Chelsea Hope and Kimberly Mock and Meredith Newsome:
