KMFDM – 40 Year Anniversary Tour
Energized by the overwhelming response to the KMFDM – Let Go 2024 Spring tour, the band reunited this past October to deliver another round of sonic ferocity. Fans from the East Coast to the Midwest gathered to celebrate 40 years of the world’s rotation to the Ultra Heavy Beat. The tour kicked off in Milwaukee at The Rave and concluded with back-to-back nights at the legendary Metro Chicago, showcasing 40 songs across 15 shows. By rotating the setlist each night, no two performances were identical, with songs handpicked from a 23-album-deep discography and the MDFMK side project. R90 Lighting once again provided tour lighting support, continuing an 11-year strong partnership with KMFDM. This marks the eighth tour that R90 Lighting has been a part of with the band. Tasked with illuminating the auditory onslaught was KMFDM’s lighting director and reason-for-the-global-gummy-bear-supply-chain-shortage, James McKenna. Inspired by a single YouTube comment criticizing the lighting designs for KMFDM being too similar over the years, James set out to create something fresh. Pleased with his creation, he sent the design to Megan Moelhman, who was acting as L1 on this build. Megan’s response upon seeing the design? “That’s impossible.” Undeterred, she engineered custom lighting carts to make the impossible possible. The result was a powerhouse setup in a compact frame, with towers designed to roll into place and simply plug in—no fuss. The load-in process took a mere 48 minutes with four hands from cracking the trailer until the rig was fully flashed. This efficient setup allowed us to produce a show that felt massive, even in venues lacking substantial house lighting rigs. The show was feverishly programmed over about two weeks before the tour began, with each of the 40 rotating songs individually programmed cue to cue. Megan did a phenomenal job translating the madness of James’ design into reality. We’ve attached some photos below of the wing truss carts to give you a better idea of how narrow the margins were for mounting all those lights into a 4’x2′ footprint. The rig itself consisted of Showtec Sunstrips, Elation Sixbar 1000IPs, Elation Paladin Panels, Robe Spikies, Chauvet Ovation F-95 WW Fresnels, Chauvet Ovation F-415 VW Fresnels, GLP Impression X4 Washes and GLP JDC1s. The show was programmed on and operated on a ChamSys MQ500M with a ChamSys MQ80 as backup. It takes a village, but we’d like to thank one person especially for helping get the tour equipment prepped and ready to roll, and that’s Brad Teigen. Brad worked tirelessly to make sure the equipment was in proper working order, which was no small task considering the wear and tear on some of our older units. Thanks, Brad! Check out some of the shots below!
