Kraken In-Game Entertainment Fully In-Sync 

There’s been plenty of trial, error, and more trial still for David Hatch to reach the point where he’s found his Kraken rhythm.

As music director for Kraken in-game entertainment, Hatch, who also goes by his stage name of DJ Cide, has tried an array of options and fan suggestions on how to make the game experience more enjoyable. And as with his own musical area of expertise, he feels the Kraken’s overall game production from start to finish has also hit its Climate Pledge Arena stride with three prior seasons to build off.

“When I first got this job eight months before the (July 2021) Expansion Draft, we were all from different areas,” said Hatch, who grew up on Bainbridge Island and spent two decades as a disc jockey in the Seattle area and abroad. “I mean, we were an expansion team, right? I had 20 years in the music industry, but not hockey. Not even in sports. It’s a different world.

“So, we had a lot of influx, they pulled from a lot of great people, but what we didn’t have at the time was an identity. We didn’t know who our fans were. We didn’t have traditions. We didn’t know what was going to vibe. So, we went with what we thought at the time was going to be right. And that’s been fine-tuned, fine-tuned, and fine-tuned.”

These days, when he looks out at the Kraken pregame introductions or the in-game sights and sounds during intermissions and play stoppages, it all feels more in sync. The results will be on display Thursday night when the Kraken open their first multigame homestand of the season against the Philadelphia Flyers.

An immediate difference between now and what fans first saw back in 2021 is a more refined-looking pregame display, upgraded this season with high-powered laser lights and the use of two 24-foot-long video screen banners – dubbed “scrims’’ -- draped down from the rafters and positioned between the arena’s “Twins” video boards.

The added screens and lasers allow for an extra layer of visuals as “The Tentacle” – a giant Kraken appendage prop -- descends to ice level and public address announcer Chet Buchanan bellows “It’s. Time. To Release. The. Kraken!”

“It’s just giving us more of a canvas to play with,” said Lamont Buford, the Kraken’s vice president of entertainment experience and production who oversees the entire in-game presentation. “With our building being as unique as it is, with the two video boards – the ‘Twins’ as we call them – by having those scrims in the middle, we’re able to kind of connect a little bit more.

“It actually just fills the room a little bit so that you don’t have that vacant space in between the video boards. And we’re able to just put some cool imagery on it to kind of go along with the story we’re telling on the twins.”

But even the scrims are a product of trial and error.

Last season, the team used “Kabuki Drop” curtains to cover the giant tentacle as it was lowered before pulling them away to reveal the prop as it reached the ice surface. But fan exhaust systems within the arena would blow the thin material to where it occasionally got stuck in the pulley mechanism.

In contrast, the scrims are built from sturdier canvas that stays straight the entire time and only folds up in sections once raised back up to the arena rafters.

Buford said the added lasers, positioned at ice level and pointed upward, will “help animate” and “add atmosphere to the show.”

Another new feature is the “Cue Light Show” in which fans’ smartphones are synched with arena music to create a pulsating visual display. Anyone using the Kraken mobile application can download a “Cue Light Show” button and then press it to automatically sync their phone to the music.

“We had a lot more people using it than we thought would be in the season opener,” Buford said. “Our goal is to get a few more fans to join in and add a nice little effect to the show.”

Apart from the add-ons, Buford and his team have brought back several features polished over the years.

They’ll again have a rotating residency lineup of local house bands and DJs playing inside the arena. The first of those was renowned three-time world DJ champion Four Color Zack, who featured in the season opener against St. Louis.

Other mainstays include anthem singer Tommie Burton, an expansion season original who nearly brought the house down in the season opener after holding out his microphone and allowing the crowd of 17,151 to sing along to portions of The Star Spangled Banner.

Organist Benny Drawbars – who replaced Rod Masters of “Slap Shot” move fame after the team’s first season – returns for a third campaign playing his digital version of a Hammond SK-X Pro organ from a platform in the stands. And mascot Buoy – a sea troll now also in his third season -- will again be roaming the arena posing for photos and causing minor mischief.

All of those returnees have undergone some degree of polish and refinement since their debut.

“We always want to keep evolving,” Buford said. “And keep kind of pushing innovation. So, we’ll always try new things here or there.”

Even the “Hoist the Colors” segment – inspired by the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie and the 12th man flag raising at Seahawks games -- is far different from its humble origins two years ago.

Featured at the tail end of the second intermission, with music from Seattle-based EDM band ODESZA, the segment initially saw two banners raised at opposite sides of the rink near center ice. It drew a tepid crowd response on the first two tries.

“I remember being up in the booth and (Kraken play-by-play broadcaster) John Forslund is right beside me saying ‘I can’t see the ice!’ because we couldn’t pull them up fast enough,” music director Hatch said with a chuckle.

The Kraken changed the format and allowed a banner to be passed among fans in the lower bowl. For the spring 2023 playoffs, a second banner was added on the bowl’s opposite side. The segment is now one of the more popular in-game features.

Hatch said the arena music he supervises has also undergone changes to avoid “audio fatigue” of fans tiring of styles and songs. He’s shifted from a heavy emphasis on EDM in the initial season to more funk, pop, and heavy metal music and has a better feel for which songs fans will sing along to.

But some music remains the same as when the team debuted.

The song “Yeti, Set, Go” by the local band Polyrhythmics is still played at the end of every period. As is the “Let’s Go Kraken!” goal song whenever the team scores – with Hatch and his wife two of the five vocalists singing the modified lyric from the original Lithium song by Nirvana.

As with the overall in-game production, it’s been a learning process.

“We do have traditions, which is great,” Hatch said. “I mean, let’s face it, year 1, year 2, and to some extent, every game, it can be a little nerve-wracking to kind of sit up in my seat and watch it all unfold.

“But I’m much more comfortable now. We know our fans, know the flow of the game more after five years.”