Wide Focus

Trevor Ahlstrand Lit the Band with a Gemini LSV Rig for its Tour with Marilyn Manson

American heavy metal rockers Slipknot hit the road this summer with Marilyn Manson on a tour lasting from June through September. Trevor Ahlstrand of Ahlstrand Productions provided the production and lighting design with lighting, audio and video elements for the tour supplied by Gemini Light Sound Video out of Dallas. Both have worked with Slipknot on several tours.

“My goal is that the audience can’t tell when I’m going from the pre-programmed parts of the songs to the improvised ones,” says Andrew Cass, LD for String Cheese Incident (SCI). 
Indeed, he has 90 or so songs programmed in his grandMA2 console, but with this band, there is a section in every song where they go on an improvised musical tangent, and the lighting needs to follow along. He has developed a system that lets him stray from his song cuelist during the “jam” sections and return to the song looks as smoothly as possible.

It was announced at the end of 2015 that “classic era” Guns N’ Roses lead singer Axl Rose, guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan would be regrouping … after months of speculation and anticipation. Fans, press, media, the social universe and the music industry went into overdrive at the thought of one of the world’s most legendary rock bands being back on the road with this incredible lineup.

San Diego has been long known to produce some of the best surf-punk-ska style music originated by southern California bands. Slightly Stoopid, an act from San Diego’s Ocean Beach neighborhood, can’t really be labeled under any genre — they play it all. The band has been building up a fan base for some 20 years now; they were first signed to a recording contract when they were still in high school. In 2015, they released their 12th album, Meanwhile…Back at the Lab, and, as is their forte’, they hit the road.

Michael Smalley and Gabriel Fraboni Update Pitbull’s Show Looks

For Pitbull’s 2016 tour, Michael Smalley and Gabriel Fraboni collaborated on the production design, with Smalley once again serving as lighting designer, programmer and director. Smalley and Fraboni also shared video content duties for the show.

Lighting designers Eric Cathcart and Michael Grant have been busy lately piecing together three different bands — Cage The Elephant, The Arcs and Silversun Pickups. They’ve managed to work out the scheduling to alternate LD duties from one to the other… timing has been on their side. PLSN spoke with Cathcart and Grant about the Cage The Elephant tour.

LD Ed Warren Updates the Looks as the Band Adds New Songs; Par Cans Still Play a Key Role

“I never toured as a light tech. I was a merch guy, and one day I found myself behind a lighting console, running lights for a band. By the end of night, I knew what I wanted to do with my life.” And so it began 13 years ago for Ed Warren as he, like so many others, got into a different part of the business through a twist of fate. He’s out once again designing the lights for the globally famous band Mumford & Sons, as he has done for the last seven years. And yes, he’s still into Par cans.

The English electronic music group Disclosure, whose second album, Caracal, was nominated for Best Dance/Electronica Album at this year’s Grammy Awards, consists of brothers Guy Lawrence and Howard Lawrence. The show design, lighting and production for the Caracal 2016 tour is being done by Will Potts and Okulus (James Scott and Louis Oliver). Potts, who is also directing the tour on the road, programmed the show with Scott. After performing in Europe in February, the tour headed for a series of shows in the U.S. and Mexico from March through May. The Lawrence brothers will be performing in the U.K. and Europe again this summer.

Supporting an A Cappella Group with Lighting and Video

You can’t build the visual elements of the show around the lead singer, because, well, there are five of them. You can’t move in and out on the band because, well, there isn’t one. Clearly the five singers that make up the a cappella group Pentatonix presents a challenge, one that was embraced by a creative team that included lighting and set designer Sooner Routhier and Robert Long; Moo Creative’s editor/senior graphic artist Andy Reuter; and choreographer Lindsey Blaufarb.

Blue Man Group, whose immersive show is a heady mix of music, technology, art, has come a long way from its street corner-performance art origins on New York’s Lower East Side in the 1980s.

After a five year hiatus pretty much characterized by dead silence, heavy metal legends Disturbed returned with a roar on their Immortalized Tour. Judging from the intensity of their performance, the group must have built up a lot of stored energy over the past five years. Judging from the reaction of the crowds, so had their fans!

Sister Act’s Co-Headlining Tour Rocks with New Rig, LD

Forty years after their first hits climbed the charts, American rock band Heart teamed up with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts for a “Queens of Sheba” 2016 tour through Canada. The Wilson sisters — Nancy and Ann — performed their rock staple hits beneath an automated rig provided by Solotech.