Rocking the Nordics: Disguise powers Kaizers Orchestra’s 2025 tour

Attending a Kaizers Orchestra concert is an experience. The Norwegian rock band is known for their unique performances that include steampunk-inspired stage sets, oil barrels for instruments, and even band members wearing World War I gas masks.

When the legendary band – who rose to fame in the early 2000s – announced their first comeback tour, tickets sold out within minutes. They saw similar hype again in 2025 when they announced their five-night Nordic tour, which included being the Friday night headliners at Tons of Rock, Norway’s largest music festival.

However, the 2025 tour had a twist. For the first time ever, the band wanted to introduce video technology and screens into their shows. Norwegian video technology company Colorspace helped bring the band’s vision to life, with the support of Disguise’s VX4+ media servers and Designer software.

The Challenge

As Morten Øvergaard, Video Engineer for Colorspace, explains: “Kaizers Orchestra is a band that likes to do things the analogue way.” This means no click trackers or time coding, and relying on manual queues in timelines. 

Morten says: “The main aim of introducing video screens was to make something cool. Its a band that references WW1, Germany in the ‘20s, oil barrels and gas masks. We wanted it to be unique and authentic to the band and suit their look and feel. And they have a story through it all.” 

To achieve this, the team worked with lighting designers and camera operators to figure out how to amplify the band’s theatricality, exploring pre-made loop segments and multiple cameras focusing on the band members.

Meanwhile, Morten needed to find a video set-up that would be adaptable enough to suit the crew and the band themselves, so everyone would feel confident in their approach. Some of the shows had different setlists, while other venues were smaller in size. 

An additional challenge was the Tons of Rock Festival, which was outdoors in Oslo in peak summer, with the sun setting midway through the concert. This meant that the team needed to ensure any LEDs could work effectively from day to night to avoid the screens being washed-out, grey slabs that would lose their visual impact.

This meant that they needed an adaptable solution that could meet the needs of each venue but deliver quality results each time.

The Solution

To ensure consistently spectacular visuals, Colorspace used Disguise’s VX4+ servers and Designer software across the five nights.

The team opted to use seven IMAG screens (five small, one large) and run seven camera sources simultaneously, all powered through two of Disguise’s VX servers, which are specifically made to handle heavy content and live shows.

Some of the venues needed custom solutions for specific screens. The Tons of Rock Festival, for example, had square IMAG screens and one upstage screen. The team were able to make adjustments on the day of the festival, while also overcoming the day-to-night issue by avoiding the use of too much black space on the LEDs.

“We needed to adapt a few things for Tons of Rock, such as the outlines in borders and some art decoration,” says Morten Øvergaard. “Luckily with Disguise, you can pop open Designer and your changes are done by the time you’re at the festival.”

In addition, Colorspace used Disguise to play a click track during one song, which was a new experience for the band. The team used the click track to cue in a one-minute tap session with the lead singer and pianist, which could then be synched to a pre-recorded video for maximum effect.

"Kaizers have always been an analogue band, no metronomes or click tracks, no time code, everything cued by feel and old school musicality and showmanship. It was important for the band to add video without losing any of that. Disguise let us prep and previs the whole show on a laptop, then walk into each venue and adapt on the day, which is exactly what a band like this needs."

The team were able to use video technology to enhance multiple songs during the set. For example, during the song Hjerteknuser, Colorspace used Notch to put the camera lens through glass refractions. This created a distinctive aura that complemented the onstage practical effects, such as strobes and fog.

The Results

Kaizers Orchestra’s 2025 sold-out stadium tour was the band’s most visually-ambitious performance to date. Colorspace were able to use Disguise’s technology with ease to amplify the visuals of the set, and power the band’s on-stage performance to maximum effect.

The performances were full of spectacular visual effects, from black and white elements to experiments with silhouettes and lighting, which allowed for audiences to experience the legendary band in a brand new way.