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Marilyn Manson “Hey Cruel World” Tour

Marilyn Manson tour photo by Steve Jennings

Marilyn Manson “Hey Cruel World” Tour

Brian Hugh Warner, the artist behind both the man and the band known as Marilyn Manson, has crafted a daunting persona, and the band’s “Hey Cruel World” tour schedule, interspersed with the “Twins of Evil” co-headlining trek with Rob Zombie last fall, was also clearly not for the faint of heart, either. Launched just prior to, and continuing after, the May 1, 2012  release of Manson’s Born Villain album, the tour legs included Australia (six shows in February and March), Asia (five shows in Japan and Taiwan in March) the U.S. (18 shows in April and May) and Europe (24 shows in 24 cities, May-July).

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Bassnectar in the EDM-centric Sahara Tent. Photo by Ian Bislon

Coachella 2013

Since its reportedly shaky start back in Oct. 1999, the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, staged by concert promoter Goldenvoice, is now on solid financial ground. Tickets for this year’s first weekend of events, held April 12-14, not only sold out, they were gone within 20 minutes. Three-day passes for the second weekend, April 19-21, sold out as well, in little more than a day.

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Bon Jovi tour photo courtesy of Moment Factory

Bon Jovi’s “Because We Can” World Tour

At first glance, the design for the Bon Jovi Because We Can World Tour looks extremely simple. When the show opens, there is no video screen, just a wide-open stage and not a lot of lights. On the surface, it seems that Performance Environment Designer Doug “Spike” Brant has taken a severely minimalistic design approach. Nothing could be further from the truth; rather the environment reveals itself, literally at the cue of the video. Building on their dynamic visuals for the last few Bon Jovi tours, Performance Environment Design Group (PEDG) and Brant have taken advantage of a convergence of new technologies and a few innovative companies to realize their most ambitious design to date.

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John Legend performed at the Aria resort’s MJCI VIP party, animated by layers of PixelFLEX LED curtain.

LED Curtain Math Class

Good morning class, does everyone have a calculator? Today’s lesson is about calculating the center point of an image so we can align two LED curtains hung with space in between with different pixel pitches so that the image of one continues onto the second cleanly. The trick is to calculate where the center point is and work outward to find the starting pixel of the image. What follows is an example of how to work that math.

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Knowledge of rigging protects everyone involved.

Rigging Certification: Is It Right for You?

In my travels on Facebook, I happened upon J.R. Clancy’s “Scary Rigging Photo of the Week” page. The (anonymous, to protect the guilty) pictures there capture gasp-worthy rigging situations — rigging setups so obviously dangerous it’s hard to believe they even happen; and yet they do. It cemented even more firmly in my mind the value of a good rigger. But how do you know who is a good rigger? Well, an obvious answer is someone who is been certified in rigging by an independent, accredited organization. I had heard about the Entertainment Technician Certification Program (ETCP) in rigging, and seeing those photos made me decide to take a closer look.

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Philips Vari-Lite VL3015LT Spot

Philips Vari-Lite VL3015LT Spot

The “LT” in Philips Vari-Lite’s new VL3015LT Spot stands for “long throw,” and one of the first things you will notice about this fixture is brightness, along with a zoom range tailor made for long throw applications. With an improved output running at 1650 watts using a 1500W Osram double-ended short arc lamp, the VL3015LT Spot combines some of Vari-Lite’s latest technologies with features that designers have been relying on for years with fixtures like the VL3000 and VL3500 spots.

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Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330

Clay Paky Sharpy Wash 330

Before 2010, if a lighting crew member said “sharpy,” it was probably in reference to a black felt pen (i.e., a Sharpie). Those felt-tip markers are still around, but these days, so are a lot of Sharpys — Clay Paky’s compact, lightweight and quick moving light fixtures with distinctively bright and hard-edged beams. Last fall, at LDI 2012, Clay Paky launched its Sharpy Wash 330, a little more than two years after the company’s original Sharpy fixture made its big debut at PLASA 2010 in London.

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Hoop Stand from Apollo Design Technology

Hoop Stand from Apollo Design Technology

For floor-mounted fixtures, one of the last things we think of is the actual floor base we typically use — until we get to the gig and notice that it’s missing. I can’t count the number of times floor bases have missed the truck! It can be an honest mistake, of course. But someone back at the shop is going to get an earful. To help keep that mistake from happening, Apollo Design Technology has come up with a simple, lightweight and portable design for a highly stable floor stand that can easily fit into any cramped road case, the Hoop Stand.

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Bigger Fish, Same Pond

After a big meal, you want some time to digest. That’s what mega-lighting entity Philips has done after a six-year tear of acquisitions, including its purchase of LED lighting system manufacturer Color Kinetics (announced in June 2007) and solid-state lighting technology company TIR Systems (March 2007). Then, in 2008, Philips acquired The Genlyte Group, an entity which had previously acquired JJI Lighting Group (May 2006), the U.S.- and Hong Kong-based operations of Strand Lighting (July 2006) and, a few years earlier, Vari-Lite (2002).

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