This year, XL is supplying a large 12 x 6 metre (2:1 ratio) upstage soft-screen, two side screens at 12 x 9 ft and four onstage LED screens constructed from 50 panels of Lighthouse 10 mm. The screen configurations are adaptable to suite the different venues.
The Chemicals. visuals have always been cutting edge, and worked seamlessly into their thumping dance rhythms and the essence of their live show. The band members are very much ephemeral shadows and silhouettes onstage, ensconced behind racks of knobs, digits and codes.
The original source material is created and compiled by Adam Smith, and includes "insects, animals, plants, coloured robots, politics, history, colour, shapes, abstractions - asking, questioning, provoking ".
The 250 sources featured in the two-hour show are stored on five Doremi hard drives and one laptop. These are sent to the different destinations via a Leitch 16 x 16 matrix operated by XL's Tim Brennan. He also sends the feeds to Lorenzini who cuts the screen mix using a Panasonic MX70. On selected songs Brennan also cuts the side screen and LED screen mix.
The fifth hard drive utilises a WinAmp plug-in, which takes a feed off the sound desk to produce specific effects, like the oscilloscope style green wavelength modulations that bounce across the LED screens.The large screen is fed by TWO Barco R18 projectors with image overlaid when front projected, boosted to three projectors when run in rear projection mode. The side screens are fed by two Barco G5s.
Lighting is being supplied by Hawthorne Theatrical, sound by Skan and lasers by Laser Magic and the tour is production managed by Angus Genner & tour managed by Stuart James.
(Jim Evans)
