ABBA Voyage—Wow!

I saw ABBA Voyage last night; it’s an incredible production. And it's also one of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had as a passionate fan of live performance.

From the technical production viewpoint, it's a remarkable achievement. Without really spoiling anything, (and unfounded rumors of "holograms" aside,) it's a massive, high res 65-million-pixel video screen playing incredible video created by ILM, seamlessly integrated with real concert lighting, lasers, effects, and a live, large and quite talented band playing along with the ABBA performers on track. Every aspect of it is phenomenally well produced. The video is based on motion capture from the actual performers, detailed below in this video from ILM:

Like many modern, high tech productions (Maybe Happy Ending Rise of the Resistance and the Bourne stuntacular come to mind—see many of my writeups here) I don’t think (possibly aside from some ILM software) they had to invent anything for ABBA Voyage; they just did a phenomenal job integrating modern live storytelling tools.

I got a “Dance Floor” standing general admission ticket, and they have a very cushy floor which my tired feet appreciated (that would be difficult in a typical arena where the hockey ice or basketball court is still underneath). It was funny to me that at this “concert”, when the audience came into the general admission area before the show, most went to the back of the room, away from the stage. This is the exact opposite of a live concert where everyone rushes to the barricades to be as close to the live performers as possible. I guess they knew what was coming, and I went there and watched the first few songs from the center back. The first time you see "ABBA" from the back it's quite an effective illusion. Probably the most remarkable thing is how well the lighting—both virtual and real—is integrated (they even render virtual truss and lights over the ABBA sims on the video). Being a geek, I could see the slight difference in color temperature between the screen “lights” and the real fixtures, but aside from that—especially if you’re at the center—it’s impressively well done.

After a few songs, I moved around the room to see from multiple angles, and the care taken to integrate the real lighting and lasers with the screen is remarkable, and the use of some physical elements in the room (which I won’t give away) is spectacular. At first, they do a remarkable simulation of a concert, with a level of polish never available to an actual live show. They then move away from that for a while, and really exploit the video screens, returning to a concert simulation for the inevitable encore and the "curtain call". They use some brilliant tricks of showing virtual camera angles from the 3D modelled virtual performers that really were very effective, and I was so relieved to see a live camera on the incredible band for some of the close ups in the song that featured them with no virtual performers. It’s almost certainly all locked down in time, which was a bit awkward when the ABBA members’ recordings addressed the audience. They have quite strict enforcement of no cameras during the show, which I appreciate; you can see a lot of photos in the links below.

And while I'm certainly glad I saw it, as an artistic experience it was quite strange. Of course, I am not the average audience member--I've been working backstage for 40 years, and go to live shows typically weekly or more. At 61, I was probably around the median age of the audience, although there were certainly younger people there whose parents weren’t alive in 1979 when the actual ABBA last played London. It was certainly a collective experience, which I'm always in favor of, and the well constructed set of songs showcases ABBAs remarkable ability to write hit songs.

But with the focus on the stage it wasn't really a dance party, which I would understand; it was quite bizarre to me when the audience applauded, they almost all applauded at the virtual ABBA on the video screen—even when they were in sight of the real band. I ended up watching much of the show close to the real musicians so I could feel a connection with actual, live performers, who are off stage right and in the dark most of the show. While I’m sure the musicians love having a regular gig and playing this music, it must be quite strange for them to be playing second fiddle in this massive shared experience which in the end is driven by massive, pre-recorded images on a screen. And while something like the Sphere is primarily a video experience, that (at least for now) is mostly based around live bands.

So ABBA Voyage has many of the characteristics of a live concert, but it's also a massive exercise in nostalgia that rung emotionally hollow for me. I am not generally a nostalgic person, but I guess I am nostalgic for the time when a current, popular music act had a large, broad cultural impact and you could be in the same room with those amazing artists and have that kind of authentic connection and community (my first concert was Led Zeppelin). But I guess I'm old, and those days are gone. Taylor Swift is a remarkable artist and has a cult-like following, but I bet if you ask five people at the grocery store to name two of her songs, they would be hard pressed. Ask the same question about ABBA and most people could probably sing three songs.

This production has been running almost three years at this point, and on a random Thursday night it was absolutely packed, so by all measures it is a roaring success, and the audience all around me absolutely loved it. Undoubtedly, with this success, there will be more "concerts" like this; KISS has announced a “hologram” show in 2027. There are rumors of additional productions of ABBA Voyage, but this show as currently designed needs an immense and purpose-built building. So somewhere like the rumored Vegas production makes sense, while the other rumors of an NYC production seem insane to me from a real estate perspective (unless they make a stripped down version).

Here’s some information on the amazing lighting and video design from Green Wall Designs. Solotech was the AV integrator on this huge project, and here’s a writeup about their work from LSI. The massive video screens were by ROE, information about their work here; playback was from VYV Photo servers. Information on the audio here. Theatre Crafts has general information on the show.

Tomorrow I continue this UK trip going to see my friends in Tragedy do their “All Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees and Beyond”. Tragedy has a couple ABBA songs in their set; sweating away with a bunch of fans in a rock club in Nottingham is a much more human way to me of honoring this great music; hopefully that will never go out of style.