Rob Koenig lights Metallica tour with Proteus
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Koenig has been part of the Metallica family since 2008. He started as lighting director under John Broderick, eventually moved into the lighting designer role and is now on his fourth record cycle with the band.
Metallica is touring in support of its eleventh studio album, 72 Seasons, which released in April. The number 72, which refers to the number of seasons in a person’s formative first 18 years of life, is a theme that runs throughout the show and indeed in the rig itself, where fixture counts allude to it, for example the rig’s 72 Proteus Excaliburs.
Metallica is visiting 22 different cities around the world and playing two nights in each city, each night with a different set list and different opening act. The brief, says the LD, was to make each show look different while using the same production each night. That’s 32 different looks over the course of the two shows, although Koenig says they programmed about 46 songs in order to have alternates. “We don’t think by any stretch of the imagination that the set list will remain the same the whole tour,” he said.
When talking about his choice of the all-weather Proteus Excalibur, the designer reflects back to Metallica’s WorldWired Tour in 2017 when there were few IP-rated lights to choose from. “There was really nothing on the market then, only one fixture that was a moving head,” he recalls. “Fast forward six years and a lot has changed. We looked at a lot of great IP-rated fixtures for this tour but unfortunately most of them failed on the uniqueness aspect. We really liked the Proteus Excalibur because it had something that a lot of the other fixtures didn’t.”
The M72 tour features an in-the-round set with a circular stage encircling the band's iconic ‘snake pit.’ An in-the-round show comes with a number of challenges however, such as a lack of rigging points, and is not an easy thing for a designer to pull off. “You’re going into a stadium environment so you can’t magically make a mothergrid appear above you,” Koenig says, “plus you have to think about sightlines from the floor all the way to the top.
How are you going to convey an in-the-round show to a large audience with no rigging? Braun’s solution? Eight cylindrical towers topped with video, PA and lighting, along with a suspension grid over the stage for near-field PA. The exterior of the stage is wrapped in lighting and there are other lighting positions further afield where we find the Excaliburs.
Positioned in the corners of the field, on a riser shelf, are eight groups of nine Excaliburs each. “We needed a howitzer for that position because we didn’t know on a daily basis where exactly they could be placed. It depended on the venue, the size and the scalability (or the fire code),” the designer explains. “We needed something that could go to the extreme ends of the end zone if we needed to and still read on camera shooting all the way back towards the stage.”
Production complements the in-the-round format with an electrifying lightshow accompanied by video and the timely use of pyro. The Excalibur fixtures are used for big aerials throughout the show, providing not only dramatic background looks to the stage but a breathtaking backdrop that fills the stadium and matches the energy and power of the music. “We also go straight across the stage at the band with them,” Koenig says, “almost like they are attacking the stage. They are amazing.”
With over 600 fixtures and a profusion of songs to customise across two shows it’s a heavy lift programming-wise, duties that Koenig says were skilfully handled by Metallica programming vet Joe Cabrera and Cat West. Lighting vendor is Premier Global Production out of Nashville, who have been with Metallica for close to 20 years.
