COLUMBUS, OH - Crowds streaming down High Street dressed in garb that displayed their fan loyalty, some of them with body paint… a typical fall Saturday in Columbus, home of perennial football powerhouse Ohio State?
No, not on this Saturday October 17. The Buckeyes were 225-miles away that day playing a road game against Indiana. The crowd that packed the town weren’t there for football, they came, many of them clad in the signature red robes and black body paint favored by dedicated Twenty One Pilots followers, for a homecoming concert by the Columbus-born musical icons.
Those fans filled Ohio State’s historic “horseshoe” stadium, 102,000 strong – and were most definitely not disappointed, captivated as they were by an immersive three-hour show that featured a range of Twenty One Pilots hits.
Over 100,000 fans? A 3-hour set? Yes! Everything about this concert was impressive, including the stage production by Tyler Shapard and Dayne deHaven of District 5, that featured 510 4Wall Entertainment supplied CHAUVET Professional fixtures that were spread out across a 75’ wide by 48’ deep main stage, as well as two side stages, plus delays.
Working with a talented team, Shapard and deHaven created a production that was not only immense, but also immersive on myriad levels. Among this group of collaborators were Trenton Varnell who helped program and operate the show including many of the songs, plus all of the wristband looks. Also making key contributions were Nick Arnold (NXFX), the SFX programmer/designer, as well as Chris Shrom, Brian Luftig, Dan McDonough Spencer Fecho and Noah Abrams from 4Wall.
Carefully calibrated audience lighting, well-timed blackouts, artfully layered lights and smoothly flowing color changes along with dynamic video content flowed seamlessly with the band over the three-hour show.
One of the more remarkable things about this very remarkable concert was the level of intimacy between the band and the fans who filled this large football stadium.
The engaging stage presence and music of Twenty One Pilots was a big reason for that, also playing a key role was the well-executed crowd lighting from the rig’s 165 Color STRIKE Ms, 118 STRIKE Array 4 blinders, 68 Maverick MK3 Washes, and 56 Rogue Outcast 2X BeamWashes.
“We wanted to light the crowd evenly so that everyone could see each other and feel like a part of the show,” Shapard explained. “This has always been very important to the band because the audience is what makes each show special. Being able to push up a fader and bring everyone together is a huge part of that. As the band likes to say, ‘We’re Twenty One Pilots and so are you.’”
“We used a few things to make that happen,” added deHaven, “The Color STRIKE Ms were our backbone strobes providing both colored crowd light and powerful strobes for big moments. The STRIKE Array 2s and STRIKE Array 4s were used for crowd blinders on the stage truss, imagine wings, and delay towers. We also had IP rated Outcast 2X Washes on the wings and delay towers, paired with MK3s and other fixtures on the main stage, the B Stage and the C Stage.”
The massive size of the stadium notwithstanding, Shapard, deHaven and their team were able to rivet the large crowd’s attention at the same critical moments during the concert through some dramatic video displays using content created by Mark Eshleman (Band Creative director from Reel Bear Media), Chris Schoenman (Video Content Creator) and Nathan “Barney” Barnier (D3 programmer), as well as timely blackouts when the entire stage went dark.
“We love a good well-timed blackout, either in the middle of a song or between songs, said Shapard. “Many of these songs were stitched together throughout the three-hour set, so when there were defined breaks between songs we took the opportunity to turn everything off and give the audiences eyes time to reset before going into the next part of the set.”
Another design feature that unified the crowd was the way the District 5 design team framed the stage with light from their Color STRIKE Ms. “We wanted to make sure the audience could feel the dimensions of the stage from everywhere in the stadium,” noted deHaven.
In keeping with the grand scale of the show, the famed Ohio State Marching Band joined Twenty One Pilots on stage. “We were ecstatic to bring the drumline on stage,” said deHaven. “We especially liked being able to layer them throughout the stage, while still framing them.”
Backlighting and uplighting were essential in making all the performers stand out on the stage. The rig’s 14 STRIKE Array 2Cs and 29 COLORado PXL Curve 12 motorized battens contributed to the uplighting and backlighting.
Throughout the concert, the District 5 team reflected the different moods that ran through the music by conjuring up a rich variety of colors, many created with the help of their rig’s Maverick MK3 Wash and Rogue Outcast 2X Wash fixtures.
“We took great care in what colors we chose for each moment of the show, especially songs that are heavy Lore based,” said deHaven. “Anyone familiar with this band knows that yellow and red are not just colors, they each have a much deeper meaning. We took great care to make sure that every song, every color palette, is tailored to convey exactly the emotion it is meant to convey and tell the story the band is trying to tell.”
Not surprisingly in a project of this magnitude, many different hands were involved in making the Columbus concert come off so smoothly. In addition to 4Wall, other vendors included NightHawk (video), Claire (sound), Strictly FX (SFX), All Access (staging), and Upstaging (trucking).
“This effort involved a great effort by a lot of people,” said Shapard, who added that everyone involved will have “great memories of this show.” So too will 102,000 very happy fans.