No moving rigging in Tacoma?

[ZephyrSkunk]

Did they sell them to KISS? LOL

"Dear KISS, we have these spatula arms that we got from Motley Crue. They were a real pain in the ass. We're done using them now.  Would you like them? Sincerely, TSO" 

Good one Dan. LOL

I'm okay with the lifts going away again. I like the catwalk. I like the people coming down on platforms during the opening, but my issue is, they didn't do that last year in Tacoma. The show had the cable platforms and moving lighting rigs, but none of this happened in Tacoma-- and I'm wondering why not, and if it'll also not happen here this year.

Probably the roof is not engineered to carry that kind of overhead load. Thats one of the reasons the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA is no longer on the TSO tour. Overhead rigging is too much for the structure, and lets not forget the T Dome is the largest arena in the world with a WOODEN DOME. Thats probably the real reason why.

Seems odd, though, that they could still hang ALL the equipment. Everything shown in videos of other shows was up there, it just didn't move. Even the individual moving lights attached to the rigging didn't move around.

Also, re: Motley Crue. Saw some footage several years ago of a KISS show, and they seemed to have most of what TSO had at the time: fireballs, the fire screens that can perform chases, moving overhead rigs, the cherry-picker arms, lasers with many repeaters, pyro (gerb shots, etc.) The difference was, TSO gives every special effect its own moment to be a prima donna; even during the last song's pyro, one effect is allowed to burn out before the next begins. The performer-flying arms were usually only used in two songs. Fire was used in only a few. In the footage I saw, KISS used every effect they had in every song, all at the same time. It's overkill, and the effects lose their ability to impress. It's said that TSO puts on an over-the-top performance, and that's undeniable, but their tech crew understand pacing, choreography, and how to use each effect to its best potential.

Edit: What I'd personally like to see is a set-up focused on the moving overhead grids. My first year was 2008, and I loved how the trusses were used, and again in 2009, as a sort of sculpture entirely covering the stage. Coming in, you'd have no idea how what you saw would become a stage, and the Versa-Tube displays on the fronts and the intense cobalt blue glow as the trusses rose was incredibly beautiful. I love the use of screens and banks of PAR cans on pantographs. The catwalks out over the audience in '10 and '11 were amazing, moreso (in my opinion) than the boom arm lifts, and I've always liked years when there was some extra special effect in the first song, either performers coming down on suspended platforms or going up on scissor lifts, just to drive home the point that you were about to see something unusual. Sad that last year had the suspended platforms but my local show didn't do that!