Niller Bjerregaard’s Godsmack Busk Dream With ChamSys

OBERHAUSEN, GERMANY – What a way to end things! Godsmack has just about finished rocking the historic Turbinenhalle April 12th on the final stop of their 14-date European tour, when front man Sully Erna went into an intense encore singalong rendition of “I Stand Alone.”

It was one of many raucous crowd-frenzied moments on the American metal giants’ 10-city EU run, and lighting designer Niller Bjerregaard was there for every impromptu onstage antic and growling guitar riff. For an inveterate busker like him, it was a FOH dream come true; and the highly regarded LD from Denmark played it to perfection with his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium Console.

”Godsmack is a LIVE BAND, so no timecode or prerecording,” said Bjerregaard. ”All cues are executed by hand. I made a Cuelist for each song — some songs were very detailed with 60 cues. On the side, I had bump buttons on my ChamSys with extra effects like Strobes, Fly Outs, Color Bumps, Dim Chases and Gobo Looks. The guys also played a cover song, which I busked by hand. Very busy — and I must admit, I was tired after the show. It called for full concentration from the get-go. But of course, it was also very satisfying to go through a show with such intensity and precision. I had some big transitions between the songs which linked with macros and crowd interaction looks.”

Working from the original Godsmack USA tour lighting design by the band’s LD Jeff Reils, Bjerregaard adapted the show for the EU, which often meant creating the band’s signature big looks with fewer fixtures. He accomplished this with some bold color combinations, the adroit use of side lighting, and very big blinder moments.

“Jeff Reils sent me a video taping of the last show they did on the USA run for inspiration, which was really helped me understand what the band was about live and how they look on stage,” said Bjerregaard. “From that I took the general idea and put my own twist on it. It was a very interesting way of doing things with the lights I had at my disposal and then make my own looks and transitions. Jeff was a big help and gave me a lot of support during the journey.”

Also helping Bjerregaard on the two-month tour were his colleagues Scott Tkachuk (FOH Sound – PM), Steve Wood (Tour Manager), Peter Da Cruz (Stage Manager), Paris Visone (Video Director), and Eoghan Tansey (Lighting Crew Chief). Then, of course, there were also the many helpful performance features of his console.

”The MagicQ MQ500M is ideal for this kind of tour,” said Bjerregaard. ”Not only is it a rugged console that supports a lot of universes, it’s also very intuitive for busking. In this tour, the Remote Focus feature was especially invaluable, since I had so many different highlight cues , especially for the Drum Gag, during which I had two different drum kits to focus on. It’s easier on stage, when you can sit on the drum position and see the lights. Also, the piano front light had to be very on point in this show, and again, sitting at the piano while focusing was perfect. Then, the Execute Page, where I put everything I needed to control , such has haze machines, extra positions of strobes, color bumps – you name it, they were perfect too.

”Another important feature was Macros, as it helped me with extra cues that weren’t on my primary cue list,” continued Bjerregaard, who acknowledges that there were times when he needed all the help he could get from his console to keep up with this fast-paced show.

Challenging on occasion? To be sure, but for someone born to busk, it was very well worth the effort.