For Play On Victoria, The Arts Centre Melbourne staged one massive celebratory evening of live music at Sidney Myer Music Bowl, with some of Victoria’s finest performers including King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Amyl and The Sniffers, Baker Boy and Vika & Linda.
This COVIDSafe Test Event for close to 4,000 people was the first major gathering in Victoria after the end of lockdown.
Phaseshift Productions supplied the lighting and crew with Simon Johnson from Frontier Touring and Johnny Bamford co-designing the rig.
“When we started putting the list together we didn’t have confirmed acts and then acts got confirmed it looked like some might bring LDs so we were waiting on their specs then it looked like there wasn’t any LDs coming so we quickly smashed together a design!” revealed Johnny. “It needed to be a standard festival rig that could be used for anyone and if bands did decide to bring someone, then it needed to be easy enough that anyone could get a show out of it with limited programming time. In the end, Mike MacDonald came in as guest LD for Baker Boy and all other acts were handled by Alex Saad.”
The other thing Johnny had to keep in mind was that the budget was quite tight. There was no extra money if they wanted to add more lights.
The other thing that was discussed was followspots which were required for certain acts. Although the gig wasn’t shot for TV, they knew the press and every concert photographer was going to be all over it so they needed to make sure there was plenty of front light on the stars.
“We decided this would be a great event to try the new Zak Trak System,” added Johnny. “The Zak Trak System is ideal for Covid times with fewer things like spot controls and headsets to be handled.
“Also, we had to consider any floor kit either that needed to be right out of the way or easily moveable as it was essentially a festival with risers rolling on and off every 40 minutes.”
Johnny explains that this show wasn’t about getting creative but rather about proving to the government that we as an industry could work safely and put on events. It was done as a test event with Services Victoria onsite monitoring all aspects.
“In saying that we still wanted to put on a good show,” he said. “The design had to be flexible with every band being a drastically different style. Grace Cummings, being blues, the soul sisters Vika and Linda Bull, the energetic Baker Boy, punk stylings of Amyl and the Sniffers with the psychedelic rock of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard to finish the night. Also, with half the show being in daylight we had to provide something that would give impact during the day as well as being able to pull out all stops once the sun went down. We also wanted something to sort of mimic the shape of the venue.”
The front wash was eight Martin MAC Quantum Wash and 22 x MAC Viper Profiles were spread across the three trusses with some of these used on the Zak Trak System. The rear wash was 17 x MAC Aura XB and also in the air were 15 x Phillips Nitro 510C, eight 4lite moles and 15 x Duets.
On the floor, below the screen was a row of eight Claypaky Sharpy Plus with JDC1s in-between.
On either side of the screen was some truss still on its dollies and these were loaded with more Sharpy Plus, vertical GLP X4 Bar20 and more JDC1s. Floor Side Wash was supplied by three MAC Quantum Wash per side.
Also in the rig was CLS Truss, two MDG AtME, two Antari Z3000 smokers, LSC Dimmers and Distro,
Full Boar 4 for Alex Saad and an MA2 light for Mike MacDonald. The ZakTrak was supplied by SWS.
“It was the first time I’d seen the Zak Trak System in operation and it was super impressive,” commented Johnny. “It sometimes struggled with the crazy jerky movement of the lead singer from Amyl and Sniffers but overall it performed really well. The versatility and consistency of it is something I look forward to hopefully being able to incorporate into my other shows in the future. Matt Downs was able to map which fixtures went to which tracking tag for each act and still give Alex control of intensity colour, size etc. It also meant Alex still had full access to the fixtures when they weren’t being used by Zak Trak. For most acts, it was easy to put the tag in their pocket and collect it off them when they come off stage …. but the lead singer from Amyl is renowned for stripping off so Matt had one tag safety pinned to her shorts and the other one was in her leather cowboy boot!”
Woohah Productions with Mediatec controlled all the cameras and feeds for the main rear screen that highly featured in the last two acts.
The biggest challenge for Johnny and Simon was the reasonably short time frame. With all the gear having sat there for months everything had to be thoroughly run up and tested and most of the gear had to be retested and tagged.
“Also, there was the risk that at any point someone on the crew could develop symptoms from just being in the wrong place at the wrong time and I would have to swap out the whole crew,” added Johnny. “For example, I was originally meant to program and operate but a child at my kid’s kinder got sick and that meant my kids had to isolate for 14 days leading up to the show. According to the Victorian government restrictions, I was still allowed to work as I’m double vaxxed but if my kid’s day 13 test was positive then I would be deemed a close contact and by that point, I would have already been onsite programming. So we decided to swap me off the show about a week out just before we started prep.”
Unfortunately, Johnny didn’t get behind the console or load a truck but he did get down to the show and says it was great to see everyone again.
“Talking to the crew, seeing smiling faces and watching the crowd dance and sing was awesome,” he said. “I can’t wait to get out doing shows again.”
Hopefully, that time will be soon as from the start of December it kicks off pretty hard for Phaseshift. They’ve got gigs at the Bowl, Max Watts, The Forum, 170 Russell, The Palais, Werribee Mansion, Rye Foreshore and the Timberyard in Port Melbourne all before the year is out. With heavy bookings from the second week of Jan right through until April and more bookings coming every day, it looks like it’s going to be a good year.
“But I said that about last August and that went completely down the drain!”
www.phaseshiftproductions.com.au
