The technical production was coordinated and managed by SMART Production, headed by Josef 'Pepa' Ženíšek. The band's lighting designer is Lukáš Patzenhauer, and on his rig were 24 x iBOLTS, 48 x WTF! strobe / wash lights and 5 x BMFL WashBeams running on a 5-way RoboSpot system.
Lukáš has been lighting the band for 12 years, and for this tour design, he worked closely with stage designer Michal Dvořák to create a big, bold and spectacular lighting aesthetic whilst also focusing on the dynamics of the music and reinforcing this with appropriate lighting.
Lighting equipment was supplied by Ostrava-based High Lite Touring, and it was the first time that Lukáš had the chance to use either iBOLTS or WTF!s, so he was very excited to add them to the rig.
Some iBOLTS were positioned on the floor – four below the stage revealed by moving grills above, and five a side along the upstage / downstage edges at deck level for side lighting. The remaining eight were rigged on a circular truss above the revolving B stage – also circular – in the centre of the arena.
The fixtures were used extensively throughout the show for a variety of scenes and effects, including big rock looks to highlight dramatic moments and punctuations in the set.
The WTF!s were positioned on three automated upstage lighting pods, arranged in a 3x3 matrix pattern, so nine per pod, with the remaining 15 along the front edge of the most downstage of the mid trusses, pointing out into the arena for max impact!
The truly impressive and multipurpose WTF! is an incredibly powerful and versatile strobe fixture with numerous options that also moves and can be used for washing vast areas. Lukáš ensured that he used them a lot for strobing, blinding, pixel mapping and washing.
The iBOLTS were ideally suited to this design and were picked for their incredible brightness and speed, which was essential for a hard-driving rock show like this. "It is fantastic to be able to use one light for so many different functions," Lukáš commented on both products.
The stage design featured five separate slabs of LED screen, so it was essential to have some super bright light sources to work effectively with this, and iBOLTS certainly stood out. "It's great that on such a large stage with so many LED screens and other lights, iBOLT will always stand out," he noted.
Four stage lift platforms – custom-built by Gradior – at the front elevated four of the band up and outwards towards the audience. On the B-stage, connected to the main stage via a runway, were 5 industrial robot arms of two different sizes – normally found in the automotive industry, but moonlighting on this show to help create some truly stunning stagecraft.
The smaller robots were on the downstage edge of the B stage, with the larger ones on the upstage edge. They held two different types of objects – either circular mirrors or 'diamond' deco pieces comprising a half sphere covered with cut mirrors.
As you can imagine, these were perfectly placed to create show-stopping effects in conjunction with being zapped by the iBOLTS on the truss above!
The robot arms were used during six songs in the set and were a massive visual hit with audiences.
Lukáš has been using Robe products in his work for some time, and it's not just because he is Czech that he likes the brand by default; he chooses the best fixtures for the artist's show and for what he wants to create.
BMFL has been another favourite fixture over the years, and for Lucie, the five BMFL WashBeams were on the front truss, where they could hit the band at nice acute angles without any unsightly light spillage on the stage. From both a creative and production perspective, this saves on having spot chairs and people on the truss, which is much safer and a more comfortable working environment for the operators.
Lukáš programmed the show himself using an Avolites D7 console. He had started his programming / operating / designing career using Avolites 25 years ago and was very pleased to be reunited with the brand on this tour. He is very enthusiastic about this latest generation of Avolites D collection consoles and recently purchased his own T3 Wing. "Avolites has made great strides in development," he stated, continuing that with the acclaimed brand becoming A Robe Business, it has new energy and impetus for innovation.
For him, the most enjoyable element of working on these important gigs was seeing the entire show in a real environment and collaborating with the production team and working on the concert after approximately a year of preparation.
Lucie is a seminal Czech rock band and part of the country's popular music heritage. They have been active since the mid 1980s and were massive throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, known for their distinctive sound, which combines strong rock guitars with melodic and emotionally charged songs and intricate lyrics. Many have become generational anthems for the Czech Republic's seismic transformational period of adjustment during the early post communist years.
From a production standpoint, Pepa reveals that for touring Czech bands, the most challenging element is always creating a spectacular production with only a limited number of venues nationwide in which it can be accommodated: "Top of the agenda is combining something exceptional with something that is economically sustainable!"
Michal Dvořák played a key role in this process with his stage design, producing a set that kept the energy flowing and the visual surprises coming throughout the whole show and even at the end, where new set components were still being revealed.
With Lucie being among the biggest stars of the contemporary Czech music scene, they joined forces with several technical partners who assisted in making the project viable and memorable for all involved. All of this was co-ordinated by SMART Production, who brought the collaborators together and managed the landmark tour whilst on the road.
Photo Credit: Marco Polasek