Australia - American singer-songwriter Noah Kahan played a vibrant, sold-out show at Perth’s Red Hill Auditorium in Western Australia in front of 5000 fans.
Lighting director, programmer and operator Alexandra Lutz-Higgins utilised a largely Robe lighting rig supplied for this show by lighting and visuals rental specialist, Showscreens, also based in Perth. The company has recently invested in Robe Fortes.
The Robe count totalled 22 x Fortes, 21 x BMFL WashBeams (four running on a two-way RoboSpot system), plus 32 x Spiider LED wash beams.
Chase Hall from US-based design studio Cour Design originated the visual design and Lutz-Higgins has been onboard and on the road with it since May 2023 when the tour kicked off once Kahan’s third album, Stick Season, dropped.
Lutz-Higgins originally programmed the show together with Will Flavin. Over the months the look has transitioned slightly, evolving into this latest touring version, with more songs added to the set which have been programmed from scratch. The Australian leg included six performances across the country, with Perth being the concluding show.
Lutz-Higgins was pleased to see Fortes on the rider in Perth, as these and BMFL Washes have been the regular spot / wash combination used on the US leg for which lighting was supplied by LMG.
The stage at Red Hill Auditorium is covered and relatively compact for the overall size of the space, but tucked into the natural scoop in the topography around which the auditorium is shaped, a gentle curved bowl with near perfect viewing angles from every direction, and the city lights of Perth twinkling magically in the background.
The overhead lighting was arranged across three trusses, and this was where all the BMFL WashBeams were rigged in optimum positions for general stage coverage.
The Fortes were rigged on two ladders (roll on frames in Perth) located each side of stage, six fixtures per side giving 12 in total with the remaining 10 x Fortes upstage on the deck just in front of the video wall for high impact back lighting and effects. In front of them on the floor was a row of strobes.
Onstage, six 4.8m-high towers, three per side, were each rigged with five Spiiders and some blinders.
The Spiiders were used mainly as washes and to create fat beams of white light rather than as pixel effects.
Under the band risers extending the depth and impression of stage space were assorted blinders, LED PARs and strobes.
The show comprises a mix of time coded and manually executed lighting cues and is run by Lutz-Higgins using a grandMA3 console.
On site at Red Hill, the project was production managed for Showscreens – who supplied lighting and video – by Kale Tatum, who comments that from a rental company perspective, their Fortes are proving a sound investment suitable for all weathers and all environmental conditions.
