Claypaky Xtylos light Korn summer tour
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The lighting designer and director for metal band Korn since 2015, Christmann, who is known as ‘Church’, thought the 2020 tour planned for the band would be the perfect opportunity to use the first moving head light with a laser light source. “I’m not a big fan of beam lights and try not to use them for effects lighting,” he says. “But I love the Xtylos beam, their colour and speed and was eager to use them.”
Then the coronavirus pandemic intervened and 2020 touring for all bands was cancelled. But as soon as Korn was booked to play two 2021 summer festival dates, Church put 20 Xtylos from OSA International, Inc. in the rig for Rock Fest Wisconsin and the Upheaval Festival in Michigan.
Now Korn has begun a 28-date US tour with Staind. The run kicked off in early August in West Palm Beach, Florida and will wrap at the end of September in Dallas. Church upped the ante and specified 36 Xtylos for the tour, also obtained from OSA. He mounted four each on top of a straight line of five upstage pods, which roll onto the set, and eight on each side of angled upstage trusses, which split over the drum riser.
“My lighting designs are pretty theatrical with cues and strong looks - I don’t go crazy with a lot of positions,” Church explains. “The Xtylos’s beam light was very impressive when I saw it the first time, and I trust OSA’s (vice president, lighting) Mark Fetto, whom I’ve worked with since I started doing Korn’s tours. I love the look of the beam and how it works with colours. Other beam lights don’t work well with colors, but with Xtylos even the red punches through. The strong looks Xtylos delivers, even with colours, makes the stage look even bigger than it is.”
Church has not been able to leave Germany to join the US tour so he has not actually seen Xtylos in person. “I pre-programmed the festival dates in Germany and programmed this tour before handing the show over to tour lighting director Matt Mills.”
Mills notes: “At first, like a lot of LDs, I thought Xtylos was just a Sharpy with a laser for the lamp, but it is so much more. Using a typical beam fixture, there's no way I would even consider putting a gobo and two prisms in the beam path due to loss of intensity. That is certainly not a problem with the Xtylos.
OSA’s Mark Fetto, who supplied the entire lighting crew for the tour, says that Mills ”has done a great job with the Xtylos. He’s getting more out of them than I’ve seen anybody do, including some really neat effects.”
