The Backstreet Boys’ DNA World Tour – Australia and New Zealand 2023, commenced in Perth on February 25, followed by two shows in Melbourne and Sydney, then Brisbane before winding up at Auckland’s Spark Arena.
Produced by Live Nation, The Backstreet Boys DNA World Tour – their largest arena tour in 18 years – began on May 11, 2019, with sell-out performances throughout Europe and the USA. The blockbuster production features a series of square-shaped lighting elements, known as “the Vortex”, two huge elevators, giant video screens, impeccable choreography, numerous outfit changes and a whopping 32 songs.
Of course, Covid caused numerous cancellations with the band still catching up on fulfilling these dates – last year they performed 102 shows in 35 countries!
Finally, the world’s most successful boy band from the nineties arrived in Australia. They bought an impressive set with them and utilised JPJ Audio, PRG and TDC for local production as well as ER Productions for lasers.
It is a slick, visually stunning production, worth seeing even if you’re not a fan of the band, and behind much of the creation and implementation of the spectacle is a team of Aussies.
Dan Mercer, Production Designer & Manager
Dan is the man behind the Backstreet Boys’ live shows and has been with the band for nine years. The show we visited at Qudos Bank Arena (two sold-out nights) was show #203 of the tour which is on track to win a Guinness World Record for the most diverse range of markets visited by a concert tour
“In April and May we are doing our ‘Exotics’ run that starts in Iceland, then Cairo, Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Jeddah, Mumbai, Delhi and finally we finish in South Africa!” said Dan. “
Load-in takes six hours and load-out about two and a half, there’s a touring crew of 50 people with around 100 locals employed and 17 trucks.
“So far the Australian tour has been smooth although there are some crew shortages, especially with so many big concert tours in Australia at the moment,” added Dan. “We’ve had to start early in some markets to accommodate… but, there’s always a way”.
“In the US, we’ve done this show five times in one week in five different places,” commented Dan. “We have an exceptionally good crew and everywhere we go we hear that we are the nicest, most talented crew that they’ve had go through their venue in a while and we take a lot of pride in that. Everyone has a lot of respect for each other, it’s a quiet loading dock without a lot of yelling and without people getting upset with each other. We’ve had a long time to weed out the personalities that don’t fit in and everyone is good to each other which is so nice.”
Dan credits the laid-back, respectful environment to the number of Aussies on the full-time crew saying that as Australia is such a small market, all technical crew are used to doing all manner of work and thus have a good well-rounded appreciation of what everyone else on the tour is doing.
Dan production designed the show with lighting designer Graham Anderson and TAIT manufactured the main stage with a diamond-shaped runway, stage lifts, an underworld for quick changes and the dynamic LED Vortex that frames the stage. It is a feat of engineering that allows such a show to go up and down each day quickly and efficiently.
Graham Anderson, Lighting Designer
Graham has been with the band for seven years adding that it’s not uncommon for the act to hang on to their crew. He divides his time between homes in Florida and Sydney, returning to Australia to undertake television work with his illustrious brothers during the rare downtime with the band.
Graham notes that the design brief from the band is pretty simple – make it look good!
“That’s really all they want me to do but we make sure we put them front and centre because when you’re working with guys of this calibre, it’s all about them,” he added. “The audience has come to see them so everything you do is to enhance their performance. I take my cues mainly from the music which dictates how I will tell the story visually.”
The main stage element is the giant Vortex made up of eight angular arches created by 456 Martin Sceptron 10s plus a large, automated V-Screen hung downstage, a rear video wall and a selection of automated lighting trusses.
For the Australian tour, other lighting fixtures included mainly substitutes for the original fixtures although Graham did manage to hang onto the GLP JDC-1, a strobe he describes as the best and so versatile.
“It can be a subtle light with twinkle effects as well as all the hard-hitting stuff,” he explained. “Equipment availability was a problem with so many shows on in Australia but we’re used to using substitutes.”
Martin MAC Vipers (instead of Vari-Lite VL4000 Beam Wash) were the main workhorse fixture with PRG Icon Edges replaced by a combination of Claypaky Mythos and Xytlos as there was not enough of one fixture available to do the job. Martin MAC Auras replaced the GLP X4 impressions and MAC Quantums the X4 XL models. A back wall of Ayrton Magic-Blades provided some interesting looks.
The lighting starts big and finishes big with some huge moments in between particularly using the Vortex’s numerous effects.
“The lighting wows people at the start and has them going away thinking ‘that was huge’ but I like a lot of the subtle moments in the middle of the show where we bring it back with a single Vortex piece, raise the boys on a lift and use just backlights,” remarked Graham.
The show was programmed on an MA Lighting grandMA2 back in 2019 and Graham has kept to the platform having a full-size MA2 console to run the show with an MA2 light as a backup. Another full-size MA2 is used as a tech console and there are ten NPUs on the show as the Vortex has numerous parameters and requires many outputs.
Dave Commisso, Show Caller & Stage Manager
Dave studied opera at Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music, performed with Opera Australia and he was also a stage manager for orchestral performances. A chance meeting with Dan led him up a different path and in 2017 he joined the crew at the start of the Las Vegas residency.
“Dan took me on board as he wanted to run the show like a musical production,” said Dave. “I ensure that everything is where it is meant to be, before and during the show, managing all the various departments to get the show running safely and on time.’
It’s quite unusual for a touring rock show to have a Show Caller but this show is highly theatrical with five different, highly-choreographed performers. There are 146 different choreography positions throughout the show and Dave needs to make sure the band are in them at the correct time!
“I make sure everyone is in their position and all the safety elements are taken care of as we have lifts, screens and trussing that is automated,” he explained. “I’m involved throughout the whole day with that set-up and tech check-ups as well as keeping everything on schedule.”
Dave is located side of the stage for the entire show and has never actually seen the show from the audience’s perspective!
