Green Day continues “The Saviors Tour 2024” with Claypaky Tambora Flash fixtures from Upstaging accompanying the band on their world tour. Tambora Flash is a unique hybrid fixture that acts simultaneously as a strobe, wash and blinder, specifically designed for use in a linear array.
The band’s sold out global stadium tour will play over 60 dates. It kicked off in May in Spain and celebrates the 30th anniversary of the album “Dookie” and the 20th anniversary of “American Idiot” with the band playing both albums in their entirety along with hits from Green Day’s fourteenth studio album, “Saviors.”
Green Day tasked The Playground, a creative collective and production house, with creating a production design for the tour consisting of three distinct acts, which give each album its own identity.
“Our goal was to create a trilogy for this show with three completely different art and creative directions — scenic elements, content and Notch design — to capture and reveal the essence of each album,” explains Corinne Merolla, who served as the tour’s Production Designer with Sooner Routhier. Tommy Horton is the Lighting Director.
“We crafted a set design around the Tambora Flash and its unique ability to mold into what looks like an audio line array,” says Routhier. “The main inspiration was a combination of sound and light to highlight the band’s high-energy stage presence. Using dummy cabinets and arc arrays of the Tambora Flashes, we built a set that curves slightly inward and back as if it is exploding from the stage. The shape accentuates the large inflatables that we had crafted for ‘Dookie’ and ‘American Idiot.’”
From a lighting design perspective, Lighting Programmer Dane Kick notes, “the Tambora Flash really helped shape the overall design. They have a unique look that makes them play along very nicely with the sub cabinet set pieces and mimic the audio line arrays very well. Then, in combination with all of the curves on stage with the set carts and flown fixtures, the massive inflatables that come in and out of the show are really part of an amazing set.”
Routhier had visited Claypaky in August 2023 where she was shown the Tambora Flash. “The team at the factory showed me the unique bracket system they had created. My husband Chris and I both had an epiphany that it would be really great to use them in conjunction with audio and dummy cabinets. Mix those elements with fire and pyrotechnics and you have an extremely dynamic set with a ton of elements to play with.”
She points out that “Tambora Flashes look and feel like a modern day audience blinder. They combine the circular lens of a bulbed 4-way blinder with the high intensity of an LED strobe. They’re perfect for that old-school feel but still allow you to cue out a show in a modern way.” The Tambora Flashes are positioned as “light arrays” alongside the PA arrays throughout the set, interspersed with guitar cabinets and mounted above the IMAG screens.
Dane Kick’s favorite part of the Tambora Flash is that “it has two white strobe strips: the first strip on the top of the fixture and the second strip on the bottom fixture. Most fixtures that are similar to the Tambora only have one line and it is typically in the center of the fixture, so getting two lines in different locations really allows this fixture to stand out.”
“The amount of Tambora Flashes that we have and the arrangement of them made them really fun to program,” he adds. “Considering the Tambora only has four RGBWW cells, they really pack a punch with the brightness and the color that they produce. That and the two rows of white strips really helped make some great moments in the show. Also, the fixture itself is pretty big — I was shocked by the size of it. So even from a distance, you can very much make out this fixture and see all of its pixels.”
Routhier says reports from the tour are that ”the fixtures are performing exceptionally well out there! The support we have received from Claypaky has been excellent as always. Claypaky’s George Masek is extremely communicative with the team to make sure that we are always getting the attention we need.”