Kraftklub on Tour with the ROBE Robin

Kraftklub

Five-piece band Kraftklub regularly rocks concert halls with German-language Sprechgesang “spoken song”. Songs like “Kein Liebeslied” (No Love Song), “Unsere Fans” (Our Fans) and “Schüsse in die Luft” (Shots in the Air) have been hits with fans and critics alike. This spring saw the band successfully touring their “In Schwarz” album around Germany. Part of the team were Gunnar Loose as lighting designer, Complete Audio Berlin providing technical support, and the ROBE Robin LEDBeam 100.

Loose and Kraftklub wanted a rock feel to the lighting design while keeping it flexible at the same time. Loose felt that back and sidelighting that could produce silhouettes would be the best choice for the job, so he turned to 30 punchy ROBE Robin LEDBeam 100 units. These were positioned on a riser set on the stage behind the band. The front lighting truss was kitted out with 12 ROBE Robin ColorWash 2500E AT lights for more discreet frontal lighting.

The spectacular highlight of the stage design was four custom-made pods each equipped with 24 ROBE Robin LEDBeam 100s (in three rows of eight) and with four strobes each in front of the rear truss. Mounted on movable CyberHoist C1 rigs, the pods could produce anything from domes of light to matrix blinder effects to transform the atmosphere on stage.

Loose explained his selection: “The LEDBeam 100 has a fantastic light output relative to the size and weight of the lamps. Clearly, this was of critical importance to our plans for the C1 hoist. And besides that, I’m very impressed with the really rich colour the lamps put out. The first time I used the LEDBeam 100 was as a matrix at the summer festivals with Tim Bendzko in 2014, and they were totally convincing even in full daylight. Since the pods were crucial to Kraftklub’s stage show, there was no way I was taking any chances.”

The C1 motors could manoeuvre the pods into any required position and also tilt them up to 70 degrees either when the band was playing or during the blackout periods between songs. This made complementing the show with an exciting variety of lighting effects possible. “For Kraftklub’s stage design, the LEDBeam 100s were simply in a league of their own”, said André Rauhut, Complete Audio managing director. Thanks to his work, in addition to Kraftklub, the ROBE lamps will also be doing the festival rounds with Casper this year.