Canada - Lighting designer Michael ‘Herk’ Herkimer of HLX experienced a slight career epiphany when lead singer Raine Maida, of popular Canadian alt-rockers Our Lady Peace (OLP), briefed him ahead of the band’s 2025 Canadian tour.
Raine asked if Herk could possibly look at a link to a 2013 Nine Inch Nails touring show video from the Staples Centre in LA – among his inspirational sources. Herk has admired NIN designs for many years. He took this and other elements as a starting point and produced a a look and original style for the OLP30 tour, which celebrated 30 years as a band.
Robe Forte and MegaPointe moving lights were prominent on the lighting rig, with six of the 50 x Fortes running on three RoboSpot Base Stations, all supplied by rental vendor Soundbox.
This was Herk’s first time working with OLP. He was offered the gig when production manager Matt Blakely came onboard, with whom he has worked closely on other projects for several years. Herk also took on the production and stage designer roles, the LX design and programming, plus video design and programming. It was a demanding schedule.
“Clearly there was a commitment to excellence from the artist. I’ve always trusted Matt implicitly to deliver and saw an opportunity for us to work collaboratively and produce something special,” he explained.
Four large triangular trussing pods were flown over the stage, each rigged with 10 x Fortes to produce high-impact rock show looks in addition to lighting the standard upstage positions, complete with another eight Fortes deployed upstage on the deck.
The six Fortes used on the RoboSpot systems were all rigged at acute and steep angles to the stage to keep that “God-light celestial look”.
MegaPointe is a regular choice for Herk’s creative lighting work, and here they were deployed six a side on ladders, stage left and right, covering all the “high interest” areas near to the band, delivering both beam and spot looks with their “superior optics”. They were complemented by 12 x Pointes around the front of the stage.
He likes the MegaPointe for many features including for producing equally high-calibre spot and beam looks, and believes that these are still “unrivalled” compared to any other equivalent multifunctional light source.
For Herk, using RoboSpots on a show brings “a level of precision, accuracy, and dynamics that is unachievable using traditional follow kit and operation.” For this OLP design, RoboSpots facilitated the steep spot angles that were so essential to the show aesthetic, keeping it looking stylish and raw.
RoboSpot tech Mark Tissen was “surgical” in his daily efforts to optimize this element while lighting system designer Rob Mcintosh was instrumental in setting all of it up pre tour.
Video content was created by Raine Maida, together with Dan Fusselman of DFUSS.TV from Phoenix, and Toronto-based Fezz Stenton. The live video director was Taylor Green.
Lighting crew chief Arnold Pereira made time in his busy schedule to go on the road with them. “His character and loyalty over the years is only outshone by his incredible standards of excellence,” says Herk.
Mark Tissen looked after dimmers as well as RoboSpots, and they were joined by LX crew members Alex Jeffrey and Curtis MacNeill. James Plouffe from Light and Dark Toronto assisted with the Vectorworks drafting and the systems designer was Rob McIntosh.
This show was programmed during two very full weeks at Herk’s studio in southern Ontario before kicking off in Calgary.
