PRODUCTION PROFILE: Slipknot
Below: Carpenter, Rick Ortega, James ‘Chief’ Yepa and Jason Berry; Michael ‘Knuckles’ Dunn, Tour Rigger; Steven ‘Waffles’ Lemahieu, Video Crew Chief; Gregory ‘Lil G’ Kocurek, Slipknot’s Lighting Designer; Jacob Raggio, the band’s long serving Stage Manager; Sean Kane, PA and Drum Tech for Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan.
what it had been like working with Clown: “It has been an interesting experience. Clown is certainly very hands-on compared to other artists I’ve had the opportunity of working with. He knows the style he wants and it’s very interesting to be able to get in his head every now and then.” Supplying the video elements for the tour was PRG XL Video. Steven ‘Waffles’ Lemahieu, Video Crew Chief, talked through the products in use. “We are using the ROE Radiant MC-7H along with the PRG Mbox media server.” The screen played content throughout the show as well as streaming footage of the crowd, via wireless camera during the band’s last song Spit It Out.” “From day one of adding the video we have had a great response,” stated Ahlstrand. “Overall it’s a very different feel to the show but I think that it’s a nice change. As we head into another year and they are on the same album cycle it’s nice to change things up a little and bring a fresh energy to the stage.” DUALITY OF LIGHTS AND VIDEO Ahlstrand explained his lighting design for the show. “As we didn’t have any video at the time I was working on the lighting design, not much was altered by the time the screen’s content was sent through. Then I tried to match the video content palette and feel of the lighting and if there was an important video part I tried to back it with brighter lighting. Likewise if the lighting was very saturated and dark I tried to keep the video elements really negative and held back.” Gregory ‘Lil G’ Kocurek, operated the show. 76
Lil G has been involved with the band since October 2014 after Ahlstrad suggested him for the tour. “It’s really pounding!” stated the LD when describing the look of the show. “It’s a real ‘melt your face’ look. Be ready because its coming at you full force!” As well as the video elements, PRG XL Video supplied lighting fixtures and control, along with four lighting technicians. For Lil G this was a trip down memory lane; he used be a tech for PRG
background and effects during those cues but there are also a lot of manual cues that I hit during the show so it’s important that I am always in-sync with the band because there is always a little variation from night to night.” “The majority of the rig is Martin by Harman Viper AirFX, 56 in total, which are all flown. On the front truss we are also using 14 PRG Bestboy Washes.” On the floor were 12 Clay Paky Mythos, four Philips Colour Kinetics Colorblaze
“It’s really pounding! It’s a real ‘melt your face’ look. Be ready because its coming at you full force!” Lighting Director, Gregory ‘Lil G’ Kocurek
several years ago when the company was called Lighting and Sound Design. He continued: “I have not really used them during my career as a designer but the PRG folks have been amazing on this tour and their crew are really great. They have made my life much easier.” Starting with control, Lil G explained why the MA Lighting’s grandMA2 Light was his preference to launch video content for the show as well as to control lighting. “The functionality is one of the things I find so appealing about the grandMA2 as well as its ease of use, and the processing speed is much faster than most.” During the show Lil G wears IEMs to make sure he is in time with the band. “Everything you see happens because I’m hitting the go button. There are a lot of triggered sequences in the
72’s and 10 Chroma Q Colour Force 12’s. There were also 33 James Thomas Engineering 2-Lite Blinders and 137 LED-RGB Globes with 60 on the floor and 137 in the air. NUTS AND BOLTS Rigging responsibilities fell into the capable hands of Michael ‘Knuckles’ Dunn. “I have been with Slipknot since July 2015,” stated Knuckles. “Jordan, our Production Manager, brought me in as their last tour rigger had to go and work another job.” On the tour Knuckles used 12 local riggers to aid him with his 50 point truss. “It’s not particularly heavy this tour, being only around 25 tonnes and there is never much issue working out how to get it into most venues. The only change we made during this tour was in