In 2016, Lüz Studio, a Montreal based-company was chosen to do the production, video and lighting design for the American rock band Panic! At the Disco during their summer tour. The tour was a double head-liner with the band Weezer and had 42 outdoor performances across North America.
The band and the management wanted to have a production design inspired by the slick look seen in Death Of a Bachelor’s aesthetic, their most recent album. The look was very different from their usual visual. The artistic aspect of the video was very classy, and black and white. That was the starting point for the stage look.
Mike Victorick
Also, one important challenge was to work with the Weezer’s team in order to have 2 unique shows but with a 15 minutes change over. They needed to create a setting that could appeal different types of audience. They succeed in making the production look like one big show and not something divided in two separated acts.
The team created a very versatile show that could adapt to a lot of venues and that could also be changed over quickly. The two bands shared a part of the gear to save time and minimize the quantity of things to tour with. The set consisted in forty-eight Ayrton Magic panels in the middle with forty-eight ROE 7-mm on each side. The complexity with that product is that its capacity is very large but it demands a lot of time to program. The team also had to combine the video content in both tiles and Magic panels to make it look unite.
Jake Chamseddine
The other challenge the team had to face was the sunset! Since the show was outside, the team had to consider the natural light to create their lighting and video design. Lüz Studio’s team designed custom riser fascias. The look was very Art Déco, but with a Panic! at the Disco touch: the design was made of many exclamation mark, witch is also found in their branding. The fascias were made of aluminium and manufactured by All Access in Los Angeles.
The goal was to start the show with power to attract everyone in the audience, not only the people that were there for Panic! at the Disco. Since it was a show with two bands that had their own creation team, they had to communicate a lot with each other to manage a lot of details both technical and creative. Both were ambitious and wanted something outstanding and had the challenge of having quite opposite crowds.
DESIGN TEAM
- Producer: Crush Music
- Production design Panic ! at the Disco : Lüz Studio
- Lighting design Panic ! at the Disco : Lüz Studio & Alex Specht
- Video content Panic ! at the Disco : Lüz Studio
- Production Design Weezer: So Midwest inc. Robb Jibson
LIGHTING EQUIPMENT
SHARED
- 23 CLAYPAKY MYTHOS
- 12 AYRTON MAGIC BLADE
- 24 SGM Q7
- 12 CLAYPAKY SHARPY
WEEZER ONLY
- 16 CLAYPAKY MYTHOS
- 72 AYRTON MAGIC BLADE
- 12 SGM Q7
- 12 CLAYPAKY SHARPY
PANIC ! AT THE DISCO ONLY
- 6 CLAYPAKY MYTHOS
- 48 AYRTON MAGIC PANEL 602
- 14 SGM Q7
- 12 CLAYPAKY SHARPY WASH 330
- 7 ROBE PATT2013
- 8 ROBE CYCFX-8
- 2 MA LIGHTING GRANDMA2 LIGHT