USA - (June 22nd, 2016) With Phish’s new album in the works, you can expect to hear several of their new songs during their summer tour that launched on June 22nd, 2016 at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The anticipation and excitement of a new tour, was at a noticeably heightened level, when fans took to social media and made “Phish” a trending topic. Known for their epic concert tours and surprise gag elements, Phish deserved to be trending for their fresh-faced, psychedelic, automated 2016 summer tour. Inspired by the concept of video content becoming artwork, Phish lit up the Xcel Energy Center with a massive LED Video screen that displayed patterned splash lighting and articulated into a cluster of kinetic video screens. Twitter user @RealLoBazan shared “I can’t even find one bad thing to say about this set!” while Instagram user @nodragonspress exclaimed, “Why am I so obsessed with this light show right now? OH YEAH: CAUSE IT RULES.”
Phish’s creative team consists of Production manager, Jesse Sandler, longtime lighting designer Chris Kuroda (also known as the fifth band member), and Abigail Rosen Holmes , fellow co-designer with Kuroda, who collectively recruited long time Phish client, TAIT, to build and engineer the massive, custom-designed LED video structure.
As well-documented throughout their long musical career, Phish’s dedicated fan base appreciates the energetic jam sessions, funk experience and escalating surprise gags that have been remiss in video and automation. But, with Kuroda’s innovative instincts and use of non-traditional video technology comes a happy medium between a fresh new visual and intergalactic experience. Think “space invader” meets “Andy Warhol”.
TAIT manufactured an LED video structure, made of 78 individual LED video screens, designed to appear as one large panel that is 5.6 ft. tall x 51.2 ft. wide. During the second set, the one large panel, separates into numerous smaller screens hanging at approximately 22 ft. above stage level. During the entire show, the artwork displayed on the screens, via projection, includes flashing, abstract colors and “pop art” like content.
Operated on TAIT Navigator, the LED video structure uses 10 hoists to lift it above stage level. TAIT also provided a NavHoist lighting package including 36 additional hoists to automate the tours lighting rigs, also controlled by TAIT Navigator.
TAIT’s dynamic video structure pushes the limits of innovation in a concert setting by taking an artistic approach to video technology and creating an LED moving video structure that amplifies the crowds jam experience. Phish’s next stop on their summer tour is at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois on Friday, June 24th, 2016. The jam band will be traveling throughout the United States until the beginning of September.
About TAIT Towers
TAIT is the World Market Leader in staging, scenic design, LED integration, show control and automated rigging. The company designs, constructs & delivers the finest live equipment in the world from world tour stages to kinetic architecture. With incredible growth through the years and with TAIT’s proprietary automation software, it has become the go-to company for all things technology, engineering, design, manufacturing and rigging.
Founded in Pennsylvania, in 1978, TAIT has expanded globally with offices around the world. Boasting a workforce of more than 600 employees, TAIT employs a passionate team of experts in manufacturing, engineering, design, technology and innovation, all of whom understand set and stage creation in its entirety. TAIT approaches projects with a philosophy that the spectacle of the opening night is equally important as a quick, safe and efficient load-out.
Among its claims to fame, TAIT supplied the staging for nineteen of the top twenty highest grossing artist tours of all time including The Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift and Madonna. TAIT also supplied LED integration and customization for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Sochi Olympics, engineered and fabricated the Las Vegas’ Omnia Nightclub Chandelier, and was the production specialist that partnered with US space agency, NASA, to put the lyrics of U2’s 'Beautiful Day' into orbit
Photo Credit: Andrew Wallace, Technical Lead, TAIT