Rob Deceglio knew he wasn’t taking on the typical tour production when he agreed to produce The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn stadium tour. The R&B superstar’s global run would be another audacious spectacle of light and sound, utilizing some of the most innovative technology on the planet. But Deceglio’s assignment would go deeper; management wanted the veteran production ace to “future-proof” the After Hours Til Dawn set and build a tour that minimized uncertainty without compromising on audience experience.
“I was tasked with looking within and rethinking anything and everything about the show and how all the various elements and systems work together,” Deceglio tells Billboard, leading a brief tour of the set during a stopover at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium. The mandate was to rethink everything, he explains, making the show simpler, lighter and less reliant on physical labor from top to bottom.
Deceglio isn’t alone. The concert industry finds itself at a crossroads, with ticket sales strong for the year but slightly down compared to 2024. Costs for the touring business’ three main expenses — fuel, production equipment like staging and lighting, and human labor — are continuing to grow. Fans, meanwhile, have more options than ever for live entertainment as the number of acts playing stadiums and arenas hits record highs. That kind of competition has forced professionals like Deceglio to think of ways to reduce costs “with a more holistic view of a tour.”
Deceglio began working with The Weeknd for his 2021 Super Bowl Halftime Show appearance and has helped oversee the construction and production of the After Hours Til Dawn tour at production company TAIT’s large set design and rehearsal space in Lititz, Penn. Derek Brener is The Weeknd’s long-time front of house sound engineer, while TAIT was hired to handle all the scenic work for the tour, notes Deceglio, adding, “Like a lot of big shows, TAIT is starting to integrate so many of these tasks.”
It’s not uncommon for scenic elements of the show, even the most mundane like a simple set piece, to serve dual functions. “A small set piece might also serve as a lighting shelf,” he says. “There’s no wasted space — everything has a purpose.”
Another innovation: simplifying the show’s automated features so that they can be operated by an existing support team instead of a separate automation team, which can mean additional labor costs. That was especially challenging for The Weeknd, who anchors his stage with a 20-foot gold statue created by legendary Japanese illustrator Hajime Sorayana. But TAIT’s crew simplified the stage enhancement by operating the automation on a single axis point, reducing its mobility while reducing the technical know-how needed to operate the robot. That one decision — to place the robot on a fixed position on the runway, instead of having it enter or exit the stage — saved the show millions of dollars.
“It’s not a set piece, it’s an actual robot,” Alexander Owens, who manages and operates the robot for TAIT, tells Billboard. “There are two different language barriers at play. First, there’s Japanese to English between the robot’s creators and ourselves, and then there is the barrier between art and functionality. Yes, it is this beautiful element of the show, but ultimately, we have to be able to move it safely, which means packing it, tracking it, dismantling it and setting it up temporarily on a ballast.”
Ultimately, every element of the show does move — after Los Angeles, After Hours Til Dawn moves to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, before heading to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Deceglio says it’s the portability of the show that has the biggest impact on costs.
“Anyone can build something once — it’s how we build it, tear it down, move it and build it again that makes an impact,” Deceglio says, noting that certain elements of the show are duplicated to handle the show’s aggressive touring schedule.
Even the show’s stages and scenic elements have been rethought and revamped with efficiency in mind. After Hours Til Dawn is set in an apocalyptic urbanscape, and much of the stage is covered in architectural ruins that give the show an end-times aesthetic while also secretly housing the show’s pyrotechnic devices.
“The stage lights are a good example of the integration we’re seeing our business undergo,” Deceglio explains. “The light itself is bolted to a deck and then covered with scenic tape” that blends in with the stage to give it a seamless appearance and allows it to be quickly built, wired, broken down and transported by a single team. He also says the video and lighting departments have found ways to complete their work by building systems that operate in unison and emphasize simplicity rather than scale.
“On a project like this, the cleaner and more efficient the install, the better,” he says. “It means better setup times using the staff we already have. Back in the day, touring was very much about, ‘This is my gig, this is your gig,’ and you’d show up on the first day and not even know what the other guys were bringing. Now we have daily discussions with our department heads months in advance on how we plan to build the show and how we can simplify the tour.”
