Concerts are an experience. They’re about connection. We get completely absorbed into the atmosphere, feeling the music in our bones, the rhythm in our soul and the light in our hearts. Sometimes just the sheer volume of light is enough to immerse you into the set. Other times, the stage design can be so sublime and mesmerizing, where for a few hours we are transcended into a whole other world.
Get ready to be fascinated as we take a look at 9 absolutely incredible stage designs that will blow your mind.
Lorde
The work of Es Devlin is unimaginable. Devlin is a creative mastermind who has designed insane mega tour stages including Lorde’s Coachella and Glastonbury performances. Lorde truly blessed the audience with this extreme set by transcending the average concert experience. This definitely skyrocketed all expectations following.
Tame Impala
Tame Imapala‘s 2019 tour was absolutely epic due to the production design by Rob Sinclair and WPA. It’s phenomenal, it’s kaleidoscopic, it’s everything you could ask for during a psychedelic Tame show at Coachella. Seriously, have you ever seen such beautiful colours at such a large scale??
Bon Iver
The story behind the creation of Bon Iver’s debut For Emma, Forever Ago is basically a folktale at this point. Although Bon Iver is no longer ‘the heartbroken man in solitude’, for the 10th anniversary of his debut album, the stage design reflects his early years. With what looks like strands of grass or trees, the set mimics the woods that the album was once created in.
Muse
Also crafted by Es Devlin, Muse’s Resistance Tour was a sublime spectacle. It’s becoming more and more clear that Devlin is a creative genius, right?
Daft Punk
Long live Daft Punk. We will never forget the duo’s iconic 2006-07 Alive tour that brought fans an epic spectacle. The two sat upon a A 24-foot-tall aluminum pyramid that was drenched in screens and hypnotic LED lights.
Roger Waters
The legend Roger Waters went full out for both The Wall Tour and Us + Them Tour.
XL video are multi-winning AV experts that helped The Wall Live concert tour go from great to mind-blowing. Every arena used forty units of Panasonic twenty thousand lumens PT-DZ21KE projectors to bring the show to life. Roger Waters commented on the designs, “This wide wall stadium show couldn’t have been done 40 years ago. We couldn’t have filled the space in a way that would have been emotionally, musically and theatrically satisfying. Technology has changed. Now we can.” There is also a film
where you can now watch the show from home in its entirety.
Radiohead
Andi Watson is the longtime the genius behind Radiohead’s stage designs. The set consisted of a grid of suspended LED cables that projected colour, three-dimensional images such as a wobbling rectangular plane, or morphing swarms of vivacious light. Watson spoke about his work, “My job is to create an environment for the Radiohead songs to exist within the stage. With so many layers to what they do, many different instruments and lots going on, I have to build complex arrangements to represent the songs visually.”
U2
Another exceptional design by Es Devlin was U2’s Innocence & Experience World Tour. Goosebumps must have been surfacing throughout the crowd all night.
The Rolling Stones
The designer behind this 1989 Rolling Stones set is Mark Fisher. With the help of Mick Jagger, the two were able to capture the essence of the Steel Wheels Tour.
Lead photo courtesy of Visual Endeavors.