How Phish turned the private Las Vegas sphere into the ultimate music visualizer

Phish at the Sphere was always going to be very different compared to U2's opening residency at the immersive Las Vegas venue. Both bands are known to push the boundaries of live shows. But they rarely approached it the same way. U2's 40-show Sphere was a polished, extravagant rock show with (almost) identical set lists all the way through. The Sphere was the perfect canvas for making rock stars like Bono and The Edge not only appear larger than life, but even bigger.

By contrast, Phish only plays four shows and has no plans to repeat even one song. Based on recent interviews, Abigail Rosen Holmes, the show's co-creative director, didn't want to risk overdoing the visuals; Her goal has always been to keep the focus on Phish and the music, while using the Sphere's 160,000-square-foot LED screen to enhance the tunes — not distract from them. “We wanted to absolutely make the most of the room and also support Phish in doing what Phish does best,” I told Washington Post. What Phish does best is jam, improvise and showcase the group's next level of musicality.

But that was before the first night, when Holmes and Fish were main leads Trey Anastasio We've been tight-lipped about what the show will include other than saying that the four nights will be themed. Now, the premiere is in the books, and it went off without a hitch. Fans in attendance seemed mesmerized by the experience, and those streaming live from home hailed the first night as among the best Phish shows they'd ever heard — even if they couldn't experience all the immersion live. The visuals covering the Sphere's massive screen were suitably trippy but never overdone.

This morning, as Phish's legions were resting up in Vegas for tonight's second round, I spoke with the show's crew last Co-Creative Director Jean-Baptiste Hardouin and Producer Danielle Jean. They both work at Montreal-based Moment Factory. Browse the company's projectsIt is immediately clear that Hardoin and Co. feels comfortable working in unique spaces. They've done domes before. But four nights of Phish at the Sphere required a lot of preparation and perceptions that would be flexible enough to keep up with a 10-minute song that suddenly stretched to 25 minutes.

“It was very clear, what to do and what not to do with the band,” Hardwin said. “Phish has been working more with visual creativity than ever before. It's been interesting to pave that path together and explore it.” Four very different shows posed a daunting challenge – U2 played the same playbook every night – and he wasn't there Tons From the time between the announcement of the Sphere race in the fall and this week's shows. “We had to reinvent our production pipeline,” Jin told me. “So we went to our innovation team to see how we could exploit some of the technologies to create content at a faster pace.”

“We started with the idea of ​​doing 70 percent of the pre-rendered scenes, which are done in a traditional way with CG and all, and 30 percent in real time using Unreal Engine and Notch “And some artificial intelligence,” Jin said. By the time the shows started, that balance started to look more like 50/50. This is phishing, after all, and throttling doesn't exactly work for pre-rendered video. “In fact, we are now playing real-time content at 16K x 16K resolution, which we believe has never been done before,” Jin said.

Some moments Last night it felt like watching massive versions of old visuals from Winamp or iTunes. Others brought the crowd inside Complex and dazzling scenes. “This place is very theatrical,” Hardwin said. “Sometimes, you put a beautiful environment in there, and people are surrounded by that environment. You don't need to be too fussy about the movements and things that are happening. You just have to leave them some time to enjoy the music. There will always be people who expect more. But you have to Also keep in mind that a fair percentage of these audiences will be under the influence somethingAnd you can only push their senses so far. The Sphere is IMAX on steroids. It can be a lot, even when you're completely sober.

The team got a chance to preview what the display will look like at Sphere in March. But their personal collaboration began much earlier: Anastasio Tell Associated Press He first met with Holmes for early planning in June. According to Hardouin, there were also meetings in Montreal and New York City. Even when apart from each other, Holmes, Hardwin, and Anastasio communicate frequently (often daily) to discuss art direction, stage/lighting design, potential set lists for each night, and so on.

There is only one full-sized ball. But a scaled-down version was created for the purpose of stabilizing the highly directional sound mix, which is handled by Phish's sound man, Garry Brown. Tell Washington Post that Phish would have a “much broader soundscape than U2 did.”

Moment Factory also built a small dome for experimental viewing at its home base in Montreal. When the company's artists and designers aren't there, they spend long hours in virtual reality, working with a digital representation of the Sphere to sample how their renderings and CGI sets would look from every angle of the space. “As much as we can prepare for a show like this, there's no way we can see the outcome before it happens in real time,” Jin said. Reading and responding to this atmosphere is where unrealistic, slash-powered animation can prove its value. The team can dial things up or down as desired. “We knew we could adapt to how we felt in the room at that specific moment.”

So far, The Sphere has only had two bands grace its stage. Dead and Company will turn 3 next month. I asked Hardwin for his advice to anyone lucky enough to dream of a future event there. His answer was simple. “Try things,” he said. “It's a new model for live experiences, musical performances, etc. Some things were challenges in the creative process. We're not used to such environments.” [and considered things like] Will people suffer from motion sickness? Is it very fast? Isn't it immersive enough? My advice is to try things.”

Phish's remaining three nights at the Sphere can be streamed live From the band's website. If you're just interested in the audio aspect, SiriusXM will stream each show the next day Fish station The final performance will be streamed live on Sunday.

I'll finish Pass the request To the Phish video production crew from many of those watching from home last night. Just stick to wide shots. This is the area we are talking about. Let people take it all in, even if it's never the same as getting a ticket.