Robe BMFLs join Metallica anniversary celebrations
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Lighting designer Rob Koenig collaborated closely with production designer Dan Braun whose stunning visual architecture - featuring 45 large multi-layered and overlapping video surfaces - set the visual tone for this in-the-round live retrospective. While the screens were key for showcasing playback video, interviews, artwork, and other archival material spanning the last four decades, lighting highlighted both Metallica and their audience.
Needing a powerful, dynamic, and flexible lighting solution for these shows, Rob and Dan chose 148 Robe BMFL WashBeam moving lights to be the heart of the lighting rig, plus another 16 BMFL WashBeams which were running on four RoboSpot systems.
Apart from 19 x moving LED bars, these BMFLs were the only lights on the rig from which the design team created 36 songs worth of looks and treatments.
Rob and lighting programmers Joe Cabrera and Cat West prepared a pool of 36 songs. However, with no definitive setlist available ahead of the first couple of weeks of previz, and a selection of exceptional wildcards played for the first time in over 10 years, a few curve balls flew. Come showtime, Rob also found himself improvising more than once which kept him fully energised and locked into a “completely invigorating” workflow.
Twenty-four BMFL WashBeams were deployed above the stage, wrapping around one of the smaller ellipses holding the central cylindrical-shaped video monolith, with another 48 on one of the larger ellipses that was also broken up by PA elements.
In the audience, three levels of strategically placed BMFL WashBeams added depth and dimension to the picture, one batch of 24 at ice (floor) level, another 24 fixtures at concourse level, with the third and highest set of 24 BMFLs flown over the audience at optimum positions for hitting the stage, a 44ft diamond-shaped construction in the centre of the space.
A slightly different mindset and approach permeated this show elucidated Rob, who has worked with Metallica since 2008.
That shift was away from being fundamentally dark, brooding and menacing, and while no less intense than standard Metallica shows, there was also an air of celebration.
“Being a 40-year landmark, that vibe was embraced in the lighting but all the time retaining vital Metallica intricacies and characteristics,” he explained. Rob, Dan, and live video director Gene McAuliffe all collaborated closely on crafting this.
The 16 x BMFL WashBeam Follow Spots were positioned along the larger ellipses, spread out to take advantage of some of the negative space up in the roof as well as for beam separation and depth, with four units tracking each band member.
Apart from the continuity and colour matching, with the BMFL WashBeams on the rig Rob could control all the main follow spot parameters - colour, intensity, iris - from his grandMA2 console, allowing the operators - positioned on the venue catwalks amidst all the PD and processing - to concentrate on following the band.
Specific lighting challenges for these two 40th shows included programming. Even songs that had been lit hundreds of times previously had to look fresh, new, and diverse, while context needed adding to those rarely played. All this took time and energy and a fair few imaginative risks, whilst also giving Rob the chance to explore and push out of his comfort zone.
Lighting equipment was supplied by Premier Global Productions out of Nashville, Tennessee, and Rob’s account handler there is James Vollhoffer. Lighting crew chiefs on site were Anthony Kordyjaka and Jason Lanning and video kit was from PRG. The two visual departments also merged and co-managed all their cabling and other basic infrastructure.
