Spikies enjoy time of their lives with Pitbull
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“We had brand new 470W HMI lamps right next to the Spikies, and on a few occasions, I couldn't tell which lamp was which,” stated lighting and visuals designer Tom Sutherland talking about rapper Pitbull’s current Time Of Our Lives residency playing at the Axis Theatre, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas.
Tom first started working with the popular artist, record producer and activist over the last year, and was asked to redesign his show by producer Macarena Moreno with whom he had previously worked on The Latin Grammys.
Pitbull’s Las Vegas residency has been running for the last couple of years, usually in blocks of three or four weeks at a time, three or four months apart, and it’s a “90-minute non-stop party with each song starting big and getting bigger,” described Tom.
The 4,600 capacity Axis Theatre has a massive curved house video wall at the back which is included in the technical package, so Tom’s design was evolved around that, which as it happens, really suits the style of their show. It gave “Pit and the dancers a bit of a playground”, explained Tom.
With the auditorium also being curved, Tom wanted to ensure that everyone, wherever they were seated in the house, received a fantastic visual experience so he added four screens downstage left and right to maximize the space and sightlines.
The Spikies are used to define the huge 90ft curved truss that outlines the shape of the set, which they call The Beast.
Onstage, 12 towers follow the curve of the set architecture, and each of these is also rigged with five Spikies, and more Spikies are positioned on the scenic ramp traversing the stage.
(Jim Evans)
