I am not the designer, and won't put words in his mouth,... but here is my understanding of some of the design choices.
1. The band explicitly indicated NO
haze/
fog/atmosphere was to be used. So that all
PAR rig of old wouldn't have the same visual impact as it would seeing atmosphere.
2. That dictum resulted in the use of video to provide the primary visual
element of the show. The band wanted something other than just "another video wall" and what you saw was the result.
3. With the original
build using Versatubes, the light boxes were much lower resolution. The DL-3's gave us some higher resolution options for when it was needed. Once the boxes went to LC panels, they decided to keep them to add a little variety to the texture of the video.
4. As far as lighting a black drape... I'm not keen on the concept either, but I understand the band didn't want anything brighter because it might be seen as" overpowering" or distracting. We started with a silky black, but the band thought that was too bright.
Not lighting it left a void.
Just my$0.02
take care
RB