USA - Djo’s Another Bite 12-city tour concluded 20 October at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Carlos Katsurayama’s light show mirrored the artist’s ambition for the fall tour, which for many shows, drew on the versatility and power of 137 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Colour Sound Experiment.
“This show was challenging to execute because we wanted to take a less conventional approach to lighting,” Katsurayama said of his design. “Our goal was to make bold, sometimes ‘weird’ choices that captured the music’s dynamics as accurately as possible - whether that meant visually matching the sound’s intensity, or creating moments of chaos by introducing light in unsettling, unexpected ways,”
Dark space played a key role in that vision. “We used dark space to create depth and transport the audience into different worlds - like the icy, cold atmosphere of Egg or the psychedelic walls of light, sometimes split colours, in Listen,” said Katsurayama. “It wasn’t easy breaking those walls of light into a more theatrical space, but in the end, I think we achieved it beautifully.”
Awake was a particularly fun song to light, noted Katsurayama, who said: “It starts with soft vocals and gentle acoustic guitar, carrying a delicate intimacy throughout most of the track. To match this, we lit Djo from selective positions in red, revealing as little as possible and keeping the stage feeling close and personal. Then, we’d blackout briefly before hitting the full band breakdown with powerful white flashes - something that seemed to get the crowd excited every single night.”
For the West Coast segment of the tour, Katsurayama relied on 45 Maverick Storm 1 Flex fixtures, 26 Rogue R2 Washes, 24 Strike 1 units and 29 Colorado PXL Bar 16 motorized battens.
Flown on centre stage and upstage truss, the high-output Maverick fixtures were used to down-light the artist. Drawing on the wide zoom range of these fixtures Katsurayama was able to vary coverage areas to create different looks on stage. The Maverick units also joined with the Rogue washes to bathe the stage in vivid mood setting colours.
The Strike units delivered intense side lighting from a variety of angles, often selected to create unusual looks. Arranged along the stage deck and on the drum risers, the Colorado battens added an ethereal level to the show with their evocative deck lighting. The amber tones of these battens combined with very low intensity output from the Strike units created a powerfully transformative mood when Katsurayama artfully turned most of the stage into a sea of dark space and shadows.
Looking back on the tour Katsurayama gives special mention to Colton Sellers, Jake Hershland and Joe Keery.