Rob Deceglio knew he wasn’t taking over the everyday tour manufacturing when he agreed to provide The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Daybreak stadium tour. The R&B famous person’s world run could be one other audacious spectacle of sunshine and sound, using among the most modern know-how on the planet. However Deceglio’s project would go deeper; administration wished the veteran manufacturing ace to “future-proof” the After Hours Til Daybreak set and construct a tour that minimized uncertainty with out compromising on viewers expertise.
“I used to be tasked with trying inside and rethinking something and the whole lot concerning the present and the way all the varied parts and programs work collectively,” Deceglio tells Billboard, main a quick tour of the set throughout a visit Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium. The mandate was to rethink the whole lot, he explains, making the present less complicated, lighter and fewer reliant on bodily labor from high to backside.
Deceglio isn’t alone. The live performance business finds itself at a crossroads, with ticket gross sales sturdy for the yr however barely down in comparison with 2024. Prices for the touring enterprise’ three important bills — gasoline, manufacturing gear like staging and lighting, and human labor — are persevering with to develop. Followers, in the meantime, have extra choices than ever for stay leisure because the variety of acts enjoying stadiums and arenas hits document highs. That type of competitors has pressured professionals like Deceglio to think about methods to cut back prices “with a extra holistic view of a tour.”
Deceglio started working with The Weeknd for his 2021 Tremendous Bowl Halftime Present look and has helped oversee the development and manufacturing of the After Hours Til Daybreak tour at manufacturing firm TAIT’s massive set design and rehearsal area in Lititz, Penn. Derek Brener is The Weeknd’s long-time entrance of home sound engineer, whereas TAIT was employed to deal with all of the scenic work for the tour, notes Deceglio, including, “Like a number of massive reveals, TAIT is beginning to combine so many of those duties.”
It’s not unusual for scenic parts of the present, even essentially the most mundane like a easy set piece, to serve twin capabilities. “A small set piece may additionally function a lighting shelf,” he says. “There’s no wasted area — the whole lot has a objective.”
One other innovation: simplifying the present’s automated options in order that they are often operated by an present assist group as an alternative of a separate automation group, which might imply extra labor prices. That was particularly difficult for The Weeknd, who anchors his stage with a 20-foot gold statue created by legendary Japanese illustrator Hajime Sorayana. However TAIT’s crew simplified the stage enhancement by working the automation on a single axis level, lowering its mobility whereas lowering the technical know-how wanted to function the robotic. That one resolution — to position the robotic on a set place on the runway, as an alternative of getting it enter or exit the stage — saved the present hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
“It’s not a set piece, it’s an precise robotic,” Alexander Owens, who manages and operates the robotic for TAIT, tells Billboard. “There are two totally different language limitations at play. First, there’s Japanese to English between the robotic’s creators and ourselves, after which there’s the barrier between artwork and performance. Sure, it’s this lovely ingredient of the present, however in the end, now we have to have the ability to transfer it safely, which suggests packing it, monitoring it, dismantling it and setting it up quickly on a ballast.”
Finally, each ingredient of the present does transfer — after Los Angeles, After Hours Til Daybreak strikes to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, earlier than heading to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Deceglio says it’s the portability of the present that has the largest affect on prices.
“Anybody can construct one thing as soon as — it’s how we construct it, tear it down, transfer it and construct it once more that makes an affect,” Deceglio says, noting that sure parts of the present are duplicated to deal with the present’s aggressive touring schedule.
Even the present’s levels and scenic parts have been rethought and revamped with effectivity in thoughts. After Hours Til Daybreak is about in an apocalyptic urbanscape, and far of the stage is roofed in architectural ruins that give the present an end-times aesthetic whereas additionally secretly housing the present’s pyrotechnic units.
“The stage lights are an excellent instance of the mixing we’re seeing our enterprise endure,” Deceglio explains. “The sunshine itself is bolted to a deck after which coated with scenic tape” that blends in with the stage to offer it a seamless look and permits it to be shortly constructed, wired, damaged down and transported by a single group. He additionally says the video and lighting departments have discovered methods to finish their work by constructing programs that function in unison and emphasize simplicity reasonably than scale.
“On a mission like this, the cleaner and extra environment friendly the set up, the higher,” he says. “It means higher setup occasions utilizing the employees we have already got. Again within the day, touring was very a lot about, ‘That is my gig, that is your gig,’ and also you’d present up on the primary day and never even know what the opposite guys have been bringing. Now now we have each day discussions with our division heads months prematurely on how we plan to construct the present and the way we are able to simplify the tour.”