USA – To the casual observer scanning the list of artists scheduled to perform on Coachella’s Sahara stage, the name might have seemed slightly ajar, “Nine Inch Noize!”
A new band? One of those tribute band monikers for a group playing the music of an industrial rock icon? Far from it… the name was chosen to celebrate the collaboration between Nine Inch Nails and German electro music wizard Boys Noize.
When two powerful creative forces are fused like this, the results can be a muddy, unsatisfying mess that does both parties a disservice. Or, it can be like some Fermi style fusion, one that results in an irrepressible outburst of creative energy that can only be described as “brilliant.”
Happily, such was the case at Coachella. The joining of NINs relentlessly brooding, uncompromising rock and Boys Noize’s twisted techno sounds went way beyond riveting. Their combined force created a transformative vibe that one San Francisco music critic called “one of the festival’s greatest performances of all time.”
Moving with the music note for bone-snapping note on the 45-minute set was a kinetically dynamic and immersive lighting design by NIN’s long-time designer Paul “Arlo” Guthrie that drew on the powerful performance features of 57 COLORado PXL Curve 12 motorized battens from CHAUVET Professional.
NIN and Boys Noize played their entire show in a deep cutout atop a steep elevated ramp. This for sure added a gripping surreal element to their performance. Guthrie accented this evocative mood by positioning some of his Colorado PXL Curve 12 fixtures on a square structure over the cutout space, while arranging the remaining battens along the deck. The net result made the band seem as if they were thriving overhead in their own sea of light.
“I used the fixtures in a square above the band and outlining their performance area on the floor so I could make a cage/box,” explained Guthrie. “They created a row of footlights on the downstage that could up-light the dancers (who were on the platform outside the cutout). I also used them for audience punishment throughout the show.”
At times, Guthrie called upon his high-output COLORado fixtures to create jarring effects by covering the entire cutout area in blinding light. Throughout the show, he strobed the fixtures in sync with the music, which added to the immersive effect of his raw, powerful design.
Songs in the set, which included NIN hits like “Closer,” “Heresy,” “The Warning” and “Copy of A” began with deliberative, cadenced strobing, conveying a growing sense of anticipation of the fusion eruption to come. It was a perfect lighting metaphor for a musical collaboration that delivered all that it promised, and then some.
