Blood upon the stage plot
Ah, the lowly stage plot. It’s the diagram that lets venues know where bands’ gear should go. Normally it’s a technical document, not a source for pleasure. Yet I take great pleasure in seeing stage plans. They’re cute in their abstraction: a group of humans, dynamic and charismatic, becomes a line drawing of equipment. They’re also proof of the power of planning. Where musicians stand matters. Where their equipment stands matters. Film comes to mind. Actors can give the performances of their lives, but those don’t matter if they don’t hit their marks.
Here are stage plots for a few metal bands. I found these by stumbling across them on the Internet. Stage plots are often parts of contracts between venues and bands, so they’re not usually public information. I would love to see stage plots for bands with elaborate setups, like Slipknot or Jucifer. Gorgoroth’s stage plot for their infamous Krakow concert must have been immense: “20 sheep heads impaled on spikes down stage”; “naked women and men impaled on crosses up stage”; “pyro everywhere else”.
Ludicra’s setup is as basic as can be. See it full size here.
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Sunn O)))’s stage plot depicts a ridiculous wall of amps and cabinets. See it full size here.
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Iron Maiden’s stage plot from 1983’s World Piece tour also depicts a wall of amps. (It fails, however, to depict how tight the band’s trousers were at that time.) See a technical discussion of it here.
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Sepultura’s current stage plan uses Comic Sans font: a terrible font for a terrible (currently) band.
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Nightwish’s stage plan from six years ago features a Minidisc player and keyboards prominently down stage. Barf!
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One of the most interesting stage plans ever (full size here) was for a 200-guitar drone piece by avant-garde composer Rhys Chatham. This was an outdoor performance last summer at New York City’s Lincoln Center (article here). I attended this event. The guitarists stood in horseshoe formation; an audience sat in the middle. This event was wildly hyped, so the audience spilled over into an adjacent space. The sound in that space wasn’t impressive. Inside the horseshoe, however, it was probably awesome.
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If you find any more stage plots for metal bands, please share them in the comments box. Also, here are stage plots for some non-metal bands: The Cramps, Shonen Knife, Pearl Jam, and Phish.
