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Written by Will RomanoFriday, 09 May 2014 08:16

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May 2014 IssueProduction ProfileAvenged Sevenfold's Shepherd of Fire Tour

Iron Maiden, eat your hearts out…

Using vintage 1980s metal motifs, terrifyingpits of flame, an ominous structure patternedupon a medieval castle wall and onemonstrously animated mascot, heavy rocktitans Avenged Sevenfold (A7X) have become

the gold standard in ghoulish, budget-conscious concert bonanzas.

The band’s latest production, for their Shepherd of Fire tour, making stops atnumerous big cities throughout North America this spring, skillfully skirts schlockyheavy metal gags while conjuring what can only be termed a nightmarishotherworldly realm. The tour’s support crew and scenic teams worked with GallagherStaging & Productions and Pyrotek Special Effects so that the ideas of productionmanager/set designer Jordan Coopersmith and of A7X bandmembers could comescreaming to life (or, as the case may be, back to life).

“A group like Iron Maiden was a huge influence on the band,” says Coopersmith. “Avenged Sevenfold flies akind of flag from the unbelievable days of ‘80s metal. That’s the music they grew up on.”

Classic Design

But pigeonholing the band’s show as a throwback would be wholly unfair. Yes, A7X’scurrent production contains familiar elements, but there’s something undeniablyclassic about the stage design as well. “Some rock shows have a lot of video andcontent, and a lot of nothing else,” says Coopersmith, who’s worked with A7X forover six years. “With this band, video was not the first priority.”

In keeping with this aesthetic, Coopersmith envisioned a medieval world marked by a weathered castle wall,geysers of flames and monstrous creatures. Documenting his initial concepts in Nemetschek Group’sarchitectural and entertainment CAD software Vectorworks, Coopersmith continually honed his ideas throughoutthe design process.

“I had 200 renderings of different versions of this show before I whittled them down toexactly where the show is now,” says Coopersmith. “I don’t come up with a millionideas, put them all on paper and then have the guys look at them. Nearly two monthswent by before I was at a point where I thought I had exactly what I needed. We livein Virginia and the band was mixing the record [2013’s Hail To The King] in NewYork, so I drove up to meet them and show them the rendering I had. As it turns out,it was exactly what they wanted. We went to a mix session that day, had a meeting

on the way home, and when we came back to Virginia, we got the ball rolling.”

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Building the Castle Wall

It was during the early stages of production development that Coopersmith hadconceptualized one of the main visual elements of the production — the castle walllocated upstage. A vacation in Europe with family and friends inspired the setdesigner to look beyond the Middle Ages, further back into history, for artisticdirection regarding coloring and texturing of the massive wall.

“We rented a car in Barcelona and drove to the south of France, and ended up in Italy,” says Coopersmith. “Wetook pictures of this coliseum in Nîmes, France, that was built in the same century as the Roman Coliseum. Ilooked at those pictures and it happened to be the exact coloring and level of distress that we wanted for thewall.”

Coopersmith considered a number of fabricators, but Gallagher Staging was awarded the project. Basing theirinitial mock-ups on Coopersmith’s Vectorworks renderings, Gallagher created a miniature sample structure forapproval by the A7X camp.

The wall, meant to represent centuries-old stonemasonry, was created from foam blocks, which were handcarved by Gallagher’s sculpture team. The scenic crew then chipped away at the foam material to give it adistressed and crumbly appearance. “Sculpting is a true art, and we take pride in our team’s ability to transforma block of foam into a realistic design,” says Joey Gallagher of Gallagher Staging, describing the process as amix of old-school scenic techniques combined with new age manufacturing methods. “There’s a lot of sandingand polishing to make it look like real rock.”

Once that was finalized, Gallagher adds, the team applied a gray hard-coat — F1 flame retardant coating.“Knowing the band’s plans for insane pyro effects during the show, we ensured that all set items, including thestage decking, could withstand the fierce flames.”

Gallagher also fabricated the wall’s aluminum support framing, which breaks down into three main sections,each of which are linked via De-Sta-Co toggle clamps and guided into place by Delrin pins. The design letscrews easily build, strike and pack the wall quickly — no tools required. Versatility, Gallagher adds, was a keypriority — enabling it to adapt to a variety of indoor and outdoor venues, and stand up to movement and windloads.

Measuring 64 feet wide by 28 feet high, the structure is detailed with treated Super-Velor drapery. “We went totown on them with blow torches,” says Coopersmith. Other set elements include faux-stone pillars, two castledoors, four fire-breathing fiberglass death bats (3D versions of the band’s winged skull logo) and three archwaysoffering vistas of imagery pumped through Absen 7mm video tiles. (The castle wall supports the video panels.)

The video setup includes a pair of grandMA2 Light consoles, grandMA2 NPUs and PRG MBox Studio mediaservers. The video imagery is used largely as a tool to help show visuals coincide with the mood of a particularsong.

His Royal Badass

Gallagher Staging also fabricated one of the show’s most impressive, if not menacing, visual element: theanimated, winged skeletal king, recalling the cover artwork for the CD single of A7X’s song, “Hail to the King.”

The custom “King” assembly was constructed on a mobilator and equipped with animatronics, enabling the Kingto have an actuating head and wings.

Composed of foam and fiberglass, the threatening figure measures 14 feet high by 12 feet wide by 10 feet deep.From his throne of skulls, the king scowls as he surveys the crowd, fiberglass sword gripped in his boneyfingers. For his reveal, the daemonic despot moves up and down the stage through the center archway doors.His wings, fashioned with pyro capability courtesy of Pyrotek, have up-and-down mobility (via automated airshocks). “The king blows fire out of its claws and its head and wings light on fire,” says Coopersmith.

“The great thing is, the king comes to life all his own,” says lighting director Matt Mills of Lighting Programming,Inc. “All he really needs is to be illuminated. We also blast him with fog as he rolls through the doors.”

His Royal Badass can be forked into position, rolled or flown from four rigging points. “He splits in half,horizontally, for travel, and is hauled in two set carts,” says Gallagher.

Pyromania

Perhaps it’s no surprise that one of the main visual thrusts of this modern metal show is pyro. In fact, pyro haspractically become the band’s tour-production signature. Operated by pyro shooter Hans Lundberg of PyrotekSpecial Effects Inc., the flames billow up from the depths of the set, as if Hell itself had cracked open. The pitsof fire may be visually sensational, but they also initially presented challenges for other designs involved withthe show.

“Pyro is bright and there’s a lot of it,” adds Mills. “The lighting looks will be a bit darker during the pyromoments.”

“The key is to program lighting that complements pyro when this element is used,” says lighting designer TrevorAhlstrand.

Yelling, “fire,” in any of the crowded arenas or theaters in which A7X performs will likely do no good. Theheadbanging business the band deals in nightly notwithstanding, the flames are inescapable. Pyro equipmenthas been installed everywhere upstage, it seems, including the aforementioned fiberglass “death bats,” whichspit 30-foot streams of flame above the heads of the performers.

“We mounted the flame shooters right below the death bats,” says Gallagher. “Everything is fire proof. All theflames are positioned to where they won’t burn soft goods. It’s away from everything.”

“The drummer [Arin Ilejay] plays on stage with the pyro going off all around him,” says Coopersmith. “I can’timagine having to do my job in that environment. But he seems to like it.”

Pyrotek pyro units are built into four foot by eight foot stage carts (constructed by Gallagher Staging), whichreceives stock decking and connects into a five foot and eight foot rolling stage, providing a full underworld, orwhat the support crew calls “the dungeon” (i.e. change room, audio mix station and pyro units).

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“Our whole pyro show, except for some random effects, rolls in giant set carts,” says Coopersmith. “I don’t havethe luxury of putting this show in 20 trucks, so everything must roll out in the best and cleanest way. This entiretour is done in eight trucks.

“I challenge anyone to have more sh** in less trucks,” Coopersmith adds, with a laugh. “These guys want tohave a show, and they want pyro, and that costs money. But we’ve made it all work. We put on a surprisinglybig show for a reasonable budget.”

Strategic Lighting

Designing for a show whose main attractions include an animated creature and fire pits has its challenges. Yet,lighting designer Ahlstrand successfully found a way through this maze and completed the main objectives hewas tasked with, such as expanding the appearance of the stage, allowing the lighting to be bold yet expressive,and complementing the other visuals. Ahlstrand achieves his goals through strategic fixture choices and trussplacement, working with gear provided by Christie Lites.

The Martin MAC Viper AirFX fixtures constitute the bulk of the lighting rig and make up the majority of what’svisible to the audience. The AirFXs are hung from chevron- and diamond-shaped trusses located, roughly,above the stage. Floor lighting consists of additional AirFXs and Clay Paky Sharpys, which extend offstage tomake the show visually wider, while half a dozen MAC 2000 Performance fixtures act as shin light for the bandand for further texturing. (Sidelighting is largely accomplished via four trusses — two positioned stage left andright — and these truss sections contain MAC III Performances that allow for additional texturing of the stage.)

The set was continually tweaked throughout the design process. For instance, when downstage kabuki dropcurtains were swapped for a midstage traveler, the change nudged Ahlstrand to rethink his design.

“We ended up splitting the diamond and chevrons at center stage and leaving a gap to accommodate theadditional traveler truss,” says Ahlstrand. “The midstage cable bridge that was meant to live above the rig andhold the MAC 2K Washes, and underhung motors came down next to the traveler track. From front of house thesplit was not nearly as noticeable as I first thought it might be, once we were in a show. The challenge with thetraveler was, when we play venues that have more limited width, the traveler ends up stopping directlydownstage of the upstage side trusses. It’s simply grabbed and pulled offstage as much as possible for showswhere this is an issue.”

Another challenge was ensuring that the lighting properly highlighted the defining features of the wall withoutwashing out other vital visual elements. “I approached the lighting of the wall in the same way I would have if Iwere doing an architectural lighting design,” says Ahlstrand. “The entire wall was washed by MAC 2000Performance units, which allowed me to shutter off the parts of the set I wanted to isolate. I then uplit the wall,doors, pillars and flags [drapery] separately from different LED fixtures placed on the floor. This really let thetexture of the wall stand out while giving the set depth and providing separation between its elements.”

“From the midstage truss we have MAC 2000 Performance fixtures, chosen mainly for their shutter feature,”adds lighting director Mills. “For as much of the wall as we do want to light, there are also plenty of places weneed to avoid. The shutters allow for that. The wall is also uplit using [Philips Color Kinetics] ColorBlaze 72s,which are used for streaking up the wall and not completely washing it out. The ColorBlazes are tight enoughthat just the accents of the wall are lit. It also makes for a great look when the Performances and ColorBlazeshave contrasting colors.”

Versatile Staging

Because A7X’s tour includes a variety of venues, Coopersmith and the band are modifying the production tomeet their day-to-day needs in the foreseeable future. (Typically, the crew will enter a venue at 8 or 9 a.m. andwork until the late afternoon, hours before the start of the show.)

“The staging element will move along with the situation,” says Coopersmith. “We are going to be doing a lotmore outdoor shows; festivals. We do Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio [in mid-May], and then thisentire show will go into sea containers and sail over to England for one show, the Download Festival [in mid-June]. We are building the show for the festival and we will container it back up and it will meet us at rehearsalsfor our summer “shed” run. This new form of the show is dialed in and perfect for the summer. We’re adding I-Mag, we’re getting rid of the doors where the king enters, and we’re adding a bi-parting video wall. The king willmove in and out more, and when he’s not present, we’ll have three equal video walls. It’s much more festivalfriendly — and much more powerful.

Crew

Lighting Designer: Trevor Ahlstrand

Set Designer/Production Manager: Jordan Coopersmith

Lighting Director: Matt Mills

Lighting Crew Chief: Tim Solar

Lighting Techs: Will Anglin, Benjamin Smith

Pyro Shooter: Hans Lundberg

Video Content: Ofer Zmora

Lighting Co: Christie Lites

Account Rep: Rod “Red” Gibson

Set/Staging Company: Gallagher Staging & Productions

Video Co: Media Visions

Pyro Co: Pyrotek Special Effects

Gear

2 grandMA2 Light

2 grandMA2 NPUs

2 PRG MBox Studio media servers

41 Martin MAC Viper AirFX fixtures

12 Martin MAC III Performances

21 Martin MAC 2000 Performances

16 Martin MAC 2000 Washes

46 Martin Atomic 3000 Colors strobes

4 Martin MAC Auras

20 Clay Paky Sharpys

5 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 72s

4 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 48s

13 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12s

8 Mole-Richardson four-light inline moles

20 Mole-Richardson two-lite inline moles

6 Reel EFX DF-50 Diffusion Hazers

2 Martin Jem ZR44 foggers

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