30,000 fans rocked up to Geelong’s GMHBA Stadium last Friday to watch the Foo Fighters play the nation’s first full-capacity stadium show by any international music artist since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
The show was hastily organised with production getting confirmation only two weeks beforehand. Fortunately, they already had a show designed from last year with the lighting designed to be easily replicable with off the shelf parts. In Australia, PRG supplied the gear and crew as they had throughout the US.
“We designed it this way because we had no idea, due to Covid, how things would turn out once we started the tour,” commented Dan Hadley, lighting designer. “The only thing that is not swappable is the GLP X4 Bar 20 and nothing is as good as a Robe Megapointe although here we have Claypaky Scenius Unico and they’ve been fine.”
A truss of 18 Claypaky Scenius Unico is flown at the rear of the stage for big, sweeping looks and powerful beams to push through the video wall.
“If we have a straight line of all the same fixture it becomes easier to do gradient looks as well,” added Dan. “We have 10 more Scenius Unico directly beneath on the floor so they can interplay with each other.”
The three trusses over the stage all hold 17 PRG Best Boys and 46 Martin MAC Quantum Wash.
“The MAC Quantum Wash is a great workhorse and is very punchy,” said Dan. “I don’t do a whole lot with the rings or effects because they are hung so far up in the air and I don’t want to draw attention up there. They just do their nice tight beams and nice fat wash! Some of their beam effects are good to use in darker moments.”
To the side and also sprinkled throughout the overhead trusses are 19 GLP X4 fixtures purely for twinkle at the back of cross-stage camera shots.
At a Foo Fighter concert, it is always important to light up the crowd and so the front truss held 12 X-Blinders and six GLP JDC-1 to blast the punters whenever Mr Grohl said ‘Dan, light ‘em up’! Also on this truss are five more Best Boys and six more MAC Quantum Wash.
Also helping to light up the audience are the lights rigged above the iMag screens (six Best Boy, eight DTW 700 Blinder and four GLP JDC-1 per side) and the six Best Boy (per side) on the floor. The Best Boys are almost always pointed out at the crowd and ensure there are no dark spots in the stadium.
On the stage floor, the main feature is the wall of nine columns behind the band. Each column is topped by a MAC Quantum Wash and underneath that two angled GLP X4 Bar 20 plus a ShowTec Duet (two on the centre column). At the bottom of each column, there is a GLP JDC-1 and ten Claypaky Scenius Unico are spread evenly in a line.
Black camouflage netting disguises the tower truss whilst also blocking the video wall behind the band members helping for better camera shots.
“As we have to carry this in our luggage it had to be a material that wasn’t going to wrinkle!” said Dan. “It’s all in sections with each tower having its own section so if we have to strike and reset the towers in a changeover, then we can quickly dismantle them. When we play festivals we don’t like to keep our crap onstage and make everybody else play in front of it, that’s not very nice. We like to tone down the ‘we’re the headliner’ bullshit.”
Dan remarked that he battled the MDG ATMe haze the night before with haze billowing everywhere bar the stage however, by the fourth song on the night of the gig, it all went where it should.
Control was a grandMA3 with MA2 software although Dan is hoping to switch before the next tour that will feature a new lighting design …. and the return of the automation department!
The Foo Fighter team arrived in Geelong on Tuesday evening and departed for the US the morning after the concert. Dan described the trip as very emotional.
“We landed almost to the day of the first anniversary of Michael Gudinski’s death and we’re all still sad about it,” he revealed. “Another friend of mine who has been a lighting tech for me in the past was there and he’s very ill, so it’s probably the last time I’ll see him. Watching the crowd turn around with smiles on their faces and after saying goodbye to my friend with Gudinski’s photo still on the screen, I had to sit down and cry before packing up my console.
“Overall, the trip was a massive success and you don’t often get to be that emotionally touched by a day at work.”
The Foo Fighters return for an Australian tour in November.
