LD at Large

Q: What’s the difference between a Lighting Designer and a Lighting Director?

A: About $20,000…

As a touring lighting director, I get asked this a lot — and the reality is few people outside the industry really understand it. The roles are similar, but the responsibilities are vastly different. The lighting designer is responsible for pitching, selling, and securing their visual concept for the show to their client. The lighting director is responsible for implementing the design and making sure its vision remains intact for the duration of the tour.

We examine the scenario in which a nightclub LD (me) hosts a show with its own traveling LD. Should make for an easy day for me, eh? Perhaps. In the red corner, wearing cargo shorts, five laminates and a radio with a Jack in the Box head on the antenna, weighing in at 100 pounds soaking wet, is El Vato de la Ruta, the tour guy… And in the blue corner, wearing carpenter’s trousers, an aloha shirt and a grimace, weighing a lot more than he used to, is Surly McGee, the house guy.

These days, putting on a harness before you climb is as automatic as putting on a pair of gloves or checking your radio channel before you start work. But any lighting technician or rigger of a certain age remembers when wearing a harness — even the ones that are illegal today for fall protection — was optional. In the early 80’s I was a house rigger at the Rockford MetroCentre in Rockford, IL. The head rigger there was Bo Medearis. Bo was a thoughtful, methodical, and confident rigger — which made him everything I wasn’t. I was young, brash, and cocky.

Lynyrd Skynyrd is a great band to work with, for several reasons — one of which is they get booked on all sorts of different festivals/gigs because of their iconic music. Since I’ve been with them (2010), we have played every type of gig, from southern/classic rock to classic/New Age country and heck, even hard rock and metal festivals like “Hell Fest” in Europe. I mean we just did a gig with Judas Priest last month! It’s great, because it means this band is always working, and that means I am always working.

So I’m rapping on the phone with my buddy Scott Plummer. He owns the finest little mom and pop lighting company down in Tucson, Arizona called Total Lighting Support. One of my acts is coming to his local casino, as they do every year, and it gives us a chance to catch up. Of course the main reason I’m calling is to advance my gig and make sure he has all my lighting plots and I have his. But somewhere along the way he stops me and asks a question.

I have been working in lighting on a national scale for almost 35 years, five more if you count regional club bands in the 70’s. I have worked in every sized venue, designing and programming lights for every type act, from hardcore country to the heaviest of heavy metal. I’m not exactly sure where my latest band falls in that category, but I can certainly say they’re never boring.

We’ve all had those moments. A familiar face catches your eye and you think, “That guy looks just like fill in famous name. The thing about being backstage after a show is there is a pretty good chance that the person you’re seeing is actually who they look like. About 20 years ago, I met Sarah McLachlan after a show in Toronto. A pleasant conversation ensued between the two of us and a fellow crew member, who was lamenting on the length of our tour. When Ms. McLachlan commiserated, it got interesting.

I’m lighting a Truck Press Event… That’s right. Trucks. Those things that people like me can’t even fit in my garage. Even if I had a garage, I would have to move my clothes rack/treadmill and my complete collection of plastic wrapped Mad Magazines.