AUSTIN -- Returning to Austin City Limits for the first time in 13 years on October 9, Kings of Leon opened their 20-song set, with “Comeback Story,” from Mechanical Bull, the chart-topping album released the same year they last played the iconic festival. It was one of many moving, completing-the-circle moments on the T-Mobile Stage, as the muti-Grammy winning quartet from Tennessee reconnected to Austin fans and engaged them with heartfelt sing-alongs of classics like “To Lose Somebody”.
But this dynamic performance was anything but a look back in time! The last appearance in a selectively curated tour in support of their current hit single “My Whole World" and upcoming 10th studio album, “O My Beloved,” the show served up plenty of extra flourishes both musically (a string section “The Strings of Leon,” performing “The Bronx” and “Amarillo By Morning”), and visually, thanks to a stunning automated design by Paul Normandale.
The legendary lighting and production designer elevated the Austin City Limits performance (quite literally!) by having five impressive 12-foot-by-12-foot automated pods from Kinsey Motion Control, moving in an impressive variety of configurations over the stage. Each pod packed potent lighting power with 12 CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL 8 motorized battens, as well as other flash fixtures, all of which were supplied by Upstaging.
“The pods were an addition for our Austin City Limits headline performance,” said Normandale, who worked with Creative Director Casey McGrath and LD Hunter Frith. “We have toured with a LED par-based system for this album cycle. This show was to be the finale, and as such we wanted to have something special in this design. We felt the pods would lend a vertical dynamic to the show. We added something extra.”
Something extra, indeed! Creating a choreography of light over the stage, the pods were raised and lowered, turned in different directions, and had their intensity levels changed throughout the show. At times, some of the pods went dark – at others they directed their light directly on to a performer, each and every move meant to better reflect the mood of the song.
In the end, they did just that… and in the process they add an immersive extra dimension to a show that is certain to go down as an Austin City Limits classic.
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