USA - Nine Inch Nails’ aptly named Peel It Back tour ended its 38-city global summer run on 19 September at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. The tour will begin a second North American leg on 5 February in New Orleans.
The result of an intense collaborative effort involving lighting designer Paul (Arlo) Guthrie, Todd Tourso and Mel Roy of MTLA, as well as Cory Fitzgerald of Silent House, the stage production ‘immerses fans in a transcendent visual journey’.
This journey begins on the 360° B stage located in the middle of the arena floor, where frontman Trent Reznor performs A Minute To Breathe lit by Chauvet Professional OnAir Panel soft white lights, and later moves on to a full-fledged visual blitzkrieg on the main stage.
Guthrie, NIN’s long-time designer, described how it all came together. “We had an anti-technology and zero video design aesthetic since 2017, so we decided we wanted a larger scale production for Peel It Back. Todd, Mel and Cory first floated the idea of having two cubes. Over the course of six months, and some experiments with different materials, we evolved it into the A stage and B stage concepts with scrims on the A stage for Act 2 of the four acts.
“Using projection and fairly sparse lighting we created the 3D layered effect that was the crux of the second act leaning into the songs that Trent picked to live in that world,” continues Guthrie. “When we get back to the A stage for Act 4, I used the PXL Curves to create sheets of lights and curtains to layer dimension onto the bare stage.”
Guthrie notes that his rig’s 171 Colorado PXL Curve 12 Battens, supplied by Upstaging in USA and Neg Earth in the EU, are at the heart of the design on all stages. “They are the foundation of the design and provided the very linear look that’s the design’s signature,” he said. “I use them in the entire rig. There are parallel lines of them over the A stage for back and downlighting. Then there are 21 of them on rotators for panning and creating different shapes in the overhead. They’re also used for audience lighting – and they defined the B Stage deck.
“I was able to map them and use a Touch Designer patch written by Kyle Meredith, and trigger them from my finger on an iPad,” continued Guthrie who operated the multi-faceted show without timecode. “They provided sheets of light, wave chases, cages, footlights, wash lights, house lights – they worked hard.”
