POST MALONE
Lighting Director, Ben Ward; Production Manager, Dennis Danneels; Show Designers, Lewis James & Travis Brothers; Video Engineer, Glenn Austin; Video Director, Zachary Leonard; Utility Technician/Camera Operator, Jamie Riddoch; disguise Programmer & Media Technician, Asad Yousof & Video Crew Chief, Christopher ‘Topher’ Davison; Lead Carpenter Lashard Davis & Automation Operator, Corwin Scites.
The LD – who moonlights as a drummer and picks up on accents in music - designed depending on minute details highlighted in various elements of the songs. “I always want to accentuate the nuances with tiny moments within light shows.” The care and attention paid meant timecode was a necessary backbone. “You simply couldn’t manually reproduce this show night after night.” Director Ben Ward manned the show from behind a trio of MA Lighting grandMA2s (two full size and one light). Why three, TPi asked? It comes down to the nature of the design, Ward replied: “We have one for each side of the truss and a third for a FOH view. The stage can be looked at straight on from three angles. With so many lights focussing takes a long time. Having three means I don’t have to drag a desk around an arena each day while focusing each position.” The Lighting Director confirmed using grandMA2 made this trifecta of desks manageable as each console networked together utilising the same session across all three surfaces. One of the final elements of the rig was 6 PRG Bad Boy Spots which were operated by a selection of GroundControl Followspot Systems. “We tend to only use two at once,” commented Ward. “We have them arranged in three pairs with two out front, two in the middle and a final pair at the back. All our operators have done a great job keeping track of him, especially in some testing conditions due to the large quantities of smoke we use on stage.” On that note, TPi spoke smoke with Dalgleish, who marvelled at the volume. “I don’t know another show since Nine Inch Nails which has used smoke effects to this level,” enthused the LD. It’s an aspect Creative Director Lewis James was also keen to implement. “The smoke effect really creates an atmosphere that gels with the themes in the show. Once again, it’s another convention we are breaking with this tour as most show designers wouldn’t ever think of covering their artists in smoke, but it really helps create the ambience we wanted.” From FOH Ward controlled the fog and haze effects achieved by 16 Martin by Harman JEM ZR44 Hi Mass smoke machines, 16 DMX Fans and 6 Arena Hazes. “There are certainly a lot of empty bottles at the end of the night,” joked Ward, who was still amazed how much fluid they were getting
through each night. “I really see it as another lighting effect, dripping it in throughout the show and using the fans to ensure it sits low on the stage. At other times we have fixtures on the automated roof which I trickle out during those moments to enhance the effect.” PYRO There’s no smoke without fire, and this tour had flames aplenty, courtesy of supplier Pyrotek. Leading the special effects devision was Effects Crew Chief, Gary Bishop alongside Laser Technician Antoine Cholette and Pyro Technician Jacob Madeiros. The team devised the choreography of the show’s fiery elements at Fly By Nite’s Rehearsal Studios in Redditch. Bishop reflected: “We wanted to know how to maximise the effects with this stage setup. Fundamentally, pyrotechnics have to be a certain proximity from the audience and with a thrust stage setup it’s difficult to get your distances in linear feet so we’ve had to be creative.” Set 8ft above the ground and shooting 20ft high, outer rims have become a staple of Post’s live performances. To create the signature look, Bishop specified 4 Pyrotek Dragon Flame Units with 4-hi/low flame bars and 4 dragon heads with 40kg of propane (or an aerosol substitute for certain arenas). He explained: “We can’t use propane flames because not every arena allows it in the UK.” Due to these constraintes, the crew deployed Le Maitre Salamander Quad Pros. “They use aerosol style canisters you plug in,” he conceded. “Admittedly, you can’t get quite as big of a flame out of those or use it as much during the show. Despite it being a downgraded look it’s still pretty big. Propane is our go-to but we have a B-rig for a backup and all eventualities.” The Manchester show featured a litany of SFX content - 2 concussion hits, 2 line rockets, and 64 red comets. In addition, 30 red mines shoot off with a lyric at the start of the first song in conjunction with 24 white mines, 24 silver comets and 12 white flares which all reach 30ft high. Moreover 24 sparkbursts sparkled at 24ft. “As the show goes on it gets more intense,” he continued. “We also use 6 30W Kvant Laser Spectrum lasers computer 48
