Tokio Hotel: apocalyptic
09 may 2008
The European spring arena tour by top selling German pop/rock band Tokio Hotel, with lighting and sound by Satis&Fy, featured an "apocalyptic and elementary" stage design and an animated set brought to life by an extensive CyberHoist motion control system.
Light and stage designer Günther Hecker, whose had previously designed tour sets for Xavier Naidoo, Die Söhne Mannheims and Die Fantastischen Vier, created the staging for Tokio Hotel with production suppliers Satis&Fy and rigging specialists D.A.R.T.
The stage consisted of an upper level with a platform for Schafer and a main stage for the other three, the two levels connected by stairs. Giant video screens on both sides provided i-mag footage.
The set itself was both simple and stunningly inventive - comprising 46 1.6x1.6 metre polished aluminium plates, which dominated the stage background at the start of the show. These were lit by automated lighting flown high up in the mother grid, their glittering surfaces allowing Hecker to create a plethora of looks.
As the show kicked off, the metal plates revealed themselves to be in perpetual motion, mounted on six quarter-circles of curved truss, flown on CyberHoist motors supplied by Neuss-based Lightcompany, German Service point for CyberHoist, who were brought in by Satis & Fy to provide the show's moving elements.
The stark-looking metal plates first opened up at the start of the show as the band appeared in a cloud of mist, taking their positions in time-honoured rock'n'roll style. 18 CyberHoist CH500 (500kg capacity / up to 20 meters per minute variable speed) motors, under command of an InMotion3D control system, constantly re-shaped the truss quadrants to form large rings which metamorphosed throughout the show into flowing shapes, varying in both height and angle.
The rig's changing height enabled Hecker to use the moving lights to create a different visual mood for each song, with the movements creating unique beams and reflections as the plates changed position.
This effect was supported by another screen behind the drum riser, where photos of the band, the name of the tour (Tokio Hotel - Room 483) or graphic symbols appearing in rotation.
CyberHoist operator Sebastian Habrechtsmeier said: "The CyberHoist system offers quick programming, exact positioning and reproducibility, real-time speed control and a lot of other features. To move the six quarter-circles for each song the InMotion 3D software calculated the ideal speed per movement and per inclination and communicated this via Ethernet to the motors, making programming very fast.
"Using the object-oriented programming I could simply enter the dimensions and the different heights for each new venue offline, without motors, and be ready to do the show that night. The most attractive effects of the movements evolved from programming the inclinations, which gives the stage designer a wide scope for getting creative. It's a very powerful way of achieving fast, safe and almost silent dynamic movements in stage design."
The band - brothers Bill (vocals) and Tom Kaulitz (guitar), Georg Listing (bass) and Gustav Schafer (drums) - has a story so far that reads like a movie script: a band from Magdeburg in East Germany becoming the biggest stars of the past 20 years in their native country, signing to Universal, charting records at No. 1, playing to ten or twenty thousand each night and being feted with every German music industry award.