Rammstein trust in grandMA2

When light beams meet fire balls, when blood mingles with sweat, when pounding beats and extravagance clash together, then its Rammstein time!

The legendary German artists have defined dramatic and exciting new standards for live shows over the past 25 years. It’s a standard that audiences worldwide celebrate and the reason why their fans are awaiting any new tour with such huge anticipation. As controversial as they also are sometimes there is a broad consensus that Rammstein shows are totally unforgettable!

Therefore the task for lighting designers Patrick Woodroffe and Roland Greil was to meet all these expectations during the new Rammstein stadium tour 2019 / 2020. Using 4 x grandMA2 full-size consoles, 1 x grandMA2 light, 15 x MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) and 7 x MA 8Port Nodes, the LDs could rely on MA Lighting’s power and expertise for lighting control.

Roland Greil explained: “Together with our programmer Marc Brunkhardt, we made the decision to specify a proven workhorse in the form of a grandMA2 system. The reasons are its reliability, performance and all our positive previous experiences with this console.”

“Our concept from the beginning was to create a range of very unique scenes”, continued Greil, asked about the lighting design. “Therefore, our approach was quite theatrical. Obviously, the whole design needed to work hand-in-hand with the overall production design and be different to the more regular concert designs out there. Besides the very industrial look, we also wanted to create a modern aesthetic for part of the show. All that said, whatever we did, needed to fit into the very specific world of Rammstein.”

“We didn’t want the design to be too generic. It had to be potent and memorable in every way. Therefore, we designed various lighting elements to be integrated into Florian Wieder’s set design, which could be used on their own to create incredible scenes, or combined with other elements for the later parts of the show, making bigger and even higher impact looks. The overall lighting design follows a strict dramaturgy and story line running through the whole show, and gets bigger and more energetic towards the end.”

“From start to finish the design process and creating this show has been an absolute pleasure as there is a lot of freedom and room to build something very big and spectacular. The collaboration with the band and their management has been superb and was the perfect breeding ground for imagining and realizing something amazing”, concludes Greil.

The show design was realized by Woodroffe Bassett Design. Florian Wieder was the production designer, Cuno Hahn the set designer and Marc Brunkhardt was the LX programmer and Tim Hornung is the video programmer. Faren Matern and Marc Brunkhardt are the lighting directors, Sven Offen is the camera director. The live visuals were created by Haegar De & David Gesellbauer. Nick Barton is the LX crew chief and Nicolai Sabottka the production director.

Neg Earth Lights is supplying the lighting equipment, Solotech the video equipment. Jeremy Lloyd (Wonder Works) was the technical consultant.

Photos: © Manfred H. Vogel