The highly diversified band 311 once again took the stage at the Smoothie King Center (formerly New Orleans Arena) on March 11 to celebrate the unofficial holiday they created back in 2000. The biannual celebration happens on March 11 (on even years), in a numeric parallel with the band’s name. Once again, there were just too many songs on the set list to fit in any one performance, so 311 Day 2016 included a concert on March 12 as well.
About 15,000 fans bought tickets (good for both nights) to attend the event that was lit by Joe Paradise, who is now in his tenth year of looking after the illumination of this act. Long known for their over-the-top light shows, this year was no exception as the LD brought in a variety of fixtures and some special hexagon truss sections from AG Light and Sound, which provided all the lighting for the third straight year.
Hexagonal Pods
“For the lighting truss layout, I used eight of these hexagonal shaped pods that Andrew Gumper owned,” Paradise says. “I put two of them in the center of the stage and kind of wrapped the rest of them around it to make a giant honeycomb type structure that resembles a bee hive. The band’s last album cover was a kind of honeycomb graphic, and it was a collection of songs they’ve recorded over the years, some rare and some unreleased. I thought it would be nice to pay homage to their career in truss.”
Joe and his programmer buddy Bobby Grey met up at the AG Light & Sound facility in Las Vegas for six straight days of nonstop programming on a grandMA2 console before arriving on site. “The facility in Vegas allowed the crew to hang the rig for us to program. We actually knocked out the programming from scratch. We cued 52 out of the 86 songs they played during those two nights,” says Joe.
To achieve their goal, the two programmed simultaneously while the consoles were networked together. They had just one day to load in once they got the gear to New Orleans, and they continued programming until 4:30 (Joe swears they were back at 9 a.m.). Joe ran the show live from his desk, while Bobby bailed him out at times and ran a lot of the “punted” numbers. (They obviously didn’t have time to program all 86 songs cue-to-cue.)
AG provided the show with Elation Platinum Spot 35 PROs for the hard-edged fixtures while Paradise relied on Sharpy Washes for his base. Eurolite PMC-16 LED fixtures gave the LD plenty of eye candy sizzle, and he relied on the old Martin Atomic strobes to do what they do best. A three-man crew worked with the designers to erect the structure.
Lasers and Haze
Paradise brought in four 30W lasers along with operator Grant Sellers from Strictly FX to add some pizazz. “I can’t say enough about this guy. He was a fan of the band and knew the music. Many cues were recorded, but he excelled on the fly when we punted as well.” Six base hazers were used to enhance the lights and lasers. CO2 cryo cannons and pyro gerbs were provided by local pyro company Practical Effects. Charles Lucia set up the cryo and fired the pyro during the show.
All in all, it was just a really long fun one off for the band and crew. “They played four 90-minute sets in two days. While we were certainly exhausted at front of house, you could see that the band was running on fumes by the end as well,” Paradise concludes. Joe looks forward to hitting the road with the band for a seven-week run later this summer.
