On a sticky late-August night in New York, Drake has chosen to share the stage with a non-human entity. As he bounces around the stage during “Elevate,” a cloud of drones illuminates the dark space above him.
Drake is an artist shaped by the internet, one whose latest meme-frenzy of a song, “In My Feelings,” defined the entire summer through dance challenges and memes. It’s not surprising that the artist would incorporate buzzy, high-tech entertainment into his tours. It is shocking that he’s still one of the few stage performers to do so, given the popularity of the aerial devices.
Drone company Verity Studios has been steadily building its live performance profile. Its drones have flown in performances by Cirque du Soleil and Metallica. But the Canadian rapper represents a new high point, says Verity founder Raffaello D’Andrea. “Drake is about as good as we can get.”
Flight conditions for drones are tricky and vary by venue. An outdoor concert has to contend with weather, while an indoor performance has space constraints. Flying over people is a tricky task; one malfunction could send the machine plummeting into a crowd, resulting in bodily injury or worse. In the case of Drake’s concert, they fly solely around the performer, Aubrey himself.
Verity’s job for Drake required 200 autonomous drones that were assembled and shipped in less than 30 days. The company doesn’t tour with the artist, but it provides equipment that his team’s own operators can start and stop during performances. According to D’Andrea, the team made over 40 changes with Drake’s people to finalize the performance.
“Drake wanted the freedom to move around on stage and not worry about being fenced in,” he says. The drones needed to be elevated above him, and they couldn’t land on the stage and block his path. “There isn’t much space between Drake and the audience,” D’Andrea adds. “So we had to land the drones in between Drake and the audience.”
Verity’s drones are only active for a handful of songs, not the entire performance. (Verity provided The Verge with a ticket in order to see the drones perform live alongside Drake.) Their presence is a quiet one, wherein they hover as a little light show around the singer. From a distance, they look a bit like fireflies on a summer night — or perhaps the light flashing from an eager fan’s phone. Close up, it’s hard to tell what formation they’ve taken around the singer. They exit as quietly as they appear, and the show moves on.
On Drake’s current tour, drones — no matter how technologically impressive — are far from the flashiest trick on display. During different parts of the show, the stage transforms into an iPhone scrolling through Drake’s Instagram account, as well as a laser-lit basketball court, and a flying yellow Ferrari briefly hovers above the crowd at one point.
D’Andrea declined to comment on the cost of the drones at Drake’s show, though it’s worth noting its Cirque del Soleil show (in which the drones donned lamps) was roughly half a million. He says Verity hopes to expand its abilities beyond simple light shows. That may include costumes, or even the ability to safely fly around the audience. “I don’t know if drones are the future of entertainment, but I do think robotics and AI has a huge potential in live events,” he says.
“There isn’t really a lot of high tech in live events. We feel there’s a lot of opportunity there.”
Comments
Saw a few snaps from friends at this show, looked pretty crazy.
I’ll be seeing it for myself this weekend in Boston
By KaySoQueso on 09.05.18 1:23pm
There are TONS of EDM acts that put the technology seen here to shame. Excision and Eric Prydz come to mind.
By Jmills87 on 09.05.18 2:19pm
Migos is awesome… how dare Ashley insult their greatness
By Oldarney on 09.05.18 3:36pm
"There isn’t really a lot of high tech in live events. We feel there’s a lot of opportunity there."
That’s a lie. The big stadium shows have been getting more and more high tech for years. Source, I go to about 30 shows a year (not all stadium obviously). The light shows that some of the bands are doing now are pretty high tech. Staging is getting up there too. Plus we can’t forget about the sound which I won’t cover here. For example RHCP had hundreds of individual pendant lights that were all moving independently (which was the best light show I’ve seen). Gaga has a three stage set up with bridges. Weeknd has a pretty complicated lighting situation that I think is in 3 or 5 parts that mirror his stage. Kanye had a moving stage. Arcade Fire had a mirrored ceiling with lights that moved on 3 axis. Smashing Pumpkins had a 4 or 5 part stage set up that moved around during the performance. That’s just in recent memory. One common theme I see is that none of this is ever reused by another tour.
I saw the Drake show, it is a cool show. I really liked the drone aspect. But this article is overselling what the drones did or how "little" space they had to land. The drones are likely one of the easiest part of the show to be honest. One cool logistical thing about the show though was that they had to remove the center court/ice scoreboard/screen to accommodate the center stage and lighting. That feels like taking the set up to a new level of complexity and time. When I saw Arcade Fire with the center stage, I don’t recall them removing it.
By theconsumer on 09.06.18 9:25am