Hall and Oates are getting ready to spend some considerable time on the road this year, playing 95 percent amphitheaters while performing on some three-week long legs of a tour. They recently held a one-day production rehearsal followed by an intimate first show at the Santander Arena in Reading, PA. Then they packed it all up and headed to the Big Apple, where they sold out a Saturday night show at Madison Square Garden. Opening the show with “Out of Touch,” the hits kept coming, and the audience did their part to sing along at the big dance party.
Previz to Production
Jesper Luth, who has been behind the band’s lighting console for 14 years now as the band’s full-time LD, jokingly pointed out that he hasn’t gotten a watch yet. He took over production manager duties full-time last year as well as directing the lighting. John Oates had made a DVD in Nashville last year. During that time, he dealt with the folks at Morris and developed a good relationship. When the decision to design and carry a production came up this year, the band was looking for some fresh ideas. Matt Geasey is a production designer who works over at Morris and had met Oates on his previous project. Matt came up with a new look and programmed the show’s cues himself.
Jesper and Matt started out by coming up with looks at the production company’s highly touted previz studio, which is all part of the Morris Experience down in Nashville. Luth offered up his two cents on direction; things the band liked and color schemes. “But basically, the ball was placed in Matt’s hands,” he noted. “With my new hat as production manager, this ended up being a godsend. Especially when the band is in rehearsals and I’m dealing with advancing the Garden. In addition, Oates stopped by the previz studio numerous times to see how things were going. Once we got to Reading, Daryl and John both spent a little time sharing their thoughts on the looks of the show. From start to finish, Matt did an outstanding job.”
Ready to Roll
The design features six custom set carts manufactured by Accurate Staging. The carts have cranks in them that lift up a structure to 16 feet in height. The set carts each contain 20 TMB’s Solaris Mozart LED fixtures, which Geasey ran in extended mode to take advantage of the incredibly bright individual pixel effects. Five Clay Paky Mythos rode on each cart as well. Above the carts is a hinged rear truss that wraps around the band and back lights them with Sharpy wash and Mythos fixtures.
An arched front truss contained more Sharpy washes and Mythos fixtures as well as a row of 4-lite LED Moles. The designers utilized 24 Elation Cuepix WW4 LED Blinders for this role. Further out in the house is a straight stick of truss with four Martin MAC Vipers. These are key lights Luth likes to use on the band, for keys at a 45° angle. Neither Daryl Hall nor John Oates are particularly fond of followspots, so he tries to only use them for band solos, or if the lads walk out of their key light. All of the lighting was run off of a grandMA2 Light, which also controlled the Hippo media server.
The Video Setup
“The band is big on being the center of attention. So we try and use content on the upstage screen while we dedicate side projection screens to I-Mag shots of the artists. The guys from Moo have made us some great content as we move along,” explains Luth.
Moo TV out of Nashville is looking after all of the video needs. Besides screens and projectors, they supply an upstage 10mm high resolution wall that is 18 by 12 feet (WxH). Three camera operators take the manual shots while some robocams and stationary cameras add to the director’s cut. The video director is Jesse Byrd, who hails from Moo TV as well.
Jesper started out as a stagehand in New York while only 16 years old, working the likes of Iron Maiden shows at the local civic center. Through theatre classes and work touring for lighting vendors, he advanced through the ranks. His first LD gig was working as a moving light operator on a Billy Ray Cyrus tour. He’s moved up the ladder since then, expanding into the corporate and special events world as well.
Matt Geasey has this to say about lighting the legendary Philadelphia crooners. “When Ed Wannebo reached out to me about the lighting design for Daryl Hall and John Oates, I jumped at the opportunity. Working with this team presented unique challenges that we were able to creatively solve through our hands-on, interactive work together in the Morris Pre-visualization Suite.”
Hall & Oates 2016 Tour
Production Companies:
- Lighting: Morris
- Video: Moo TV
Crew
- LD/Production Manager: Jesper Luth
- Production Design/Programmer: Matt Geasey
- Tour Manager: Richard Rosabella
- Production Assistant: Andrea Muraglia
- Stage Manager: Matt Fowler Jr.
- Lighting Techs: Marshall Blair, Zach Schwandt, Ricky Krohne
- Video Director: Jesse Byrd
- Video Techs: Jon Hurley, Mark Jarsen, Travis Walker
Gear
- 2 grandMA2 Light consoles
- 32 Clay Paky Mythos (flown)
- 30 Clay Paky Mythos (with custom gobos)
- 32 Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330s
- 4 Martin MAC Viper Profile Spots
- 140 TMB Solaris LED Mozarts
- 24 Elation Cuepix WW4 LED Blinders
- 6 Custom light carts (Accurate Staging)
- 2 Haze Base units, Base Hazer Pro
- 2 EIKI 15K projectors
- 1 LED video wall (10mm DigiLED MC 10, 18’ x 12’)
- 1 Ross Carbonite 2 M/E switcher
- 1 Hitachi HD Z5000 camera package
- 1 Green Hippo media servers
For more information, please visit www.experiencemorris.com.
