Kille Knobel design for Pearl Jam “Dark Matter” tour strikes a perfect balance with Elation lighting
Legendary band Pearl Jam embarked on their highly anticipated “Dark Matter” world tour, sharing their introspective brand of rock with audiences across North America and Europe before heading to New Zealand and Australia. Lighting designer Kille Knobel has worked with the band since 2000 and complements the “Dark Matter” shows with a minimalist yet impactful design that uses Elation KL PANEL XL softlights as a key visual element in creating the distinctive looks.
The show brings video projection to the forefront with soft, organic visuals and minimalist lighting. When choosing fixtures for the tour earlier this year, lighting vendor Upstaging hosted a fixture shootout in Los Angeles for the designer, where she ultimately selected the KL PANEL XL and PROTEUS
MAXIMUS as part of a larger lighting package.
The KL PANEL XL’s full-spectrum LED array, with RGBW + Lime + Cyan color mixing, provided Knobel with what she says is the best-mixed color she has come across.
“I think the KL PANEL XL has the most beautiful color range of any fixture I’ve used,” she stated, noting that she is notoriously hard to please when it comes to color mixing systems. “In terms of the bandwidth of color and nuance of color I could get with it, I was just mesmerized. The richness I could get out of the colors is just gorgeous, and for me to say I like color mixing in a light is really noteworthy! It’s those extra color channels that give you the depth of color you’re able to achieve and for a band that loves color washes, these fixtures were the perfect tool.”
Knobel says that because the color is so rich, the fixtures are best seen when they stand on their own. Knobel, who has 75 songs programmed in the lighting console, says she has a whole range of colors in her palette that she calls dirty colors.
In addition to the KL PANEL XL, Knobel utilized Elation PROTEUS MAXIMUS fixtures as the hard-edged lighting component. The MAXIMUS, positioned upstage, on the sides, and in stadium wings, provide dynamic backlighting and effects along with occasional washes into the audience or onto the stage, complementing the softer wash from the KL PANEL XLs.
Photography © Dallas Sisson
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