BOSTON — Boston Strong, the benefit concert staged at TD Garden here on May 30, featuring performances by Aerosmith, Boston, James Taylor, Carole King, NKOTB, J. Geils Band, Extreme, Dropkick Murphys and Boyz II Men, among others, raised more than $2 million of the $61 million One Fund contributions donated in the wake of the April 15 bombing attack at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon.
The One Fund, established by Boston’s mayor, Thomas M. Menino, and Massachusetts’ governor, Deval Patrick, has already disbursed those funds to surviving family members and those wounded by the attacks.
Bob Morrissey and East Coast Lighting & Production Services (ECLPS) said his company was more than happy to oblige when they were called upon to provide the lighting equipment for the benefit concert.
ECLPS worked with designer Butch Allen to come up with design that would work for a variety of musical acts and comedians. Allen brought in programmer Rob Koenig who worked long hours the night before so that everything was programmed and ready to go.
Koenig also ran the grandMA 2 console during sets featuring comedians Lenny Clarke, Steven Wright, Dane Cook and Steve Sweeney. Other LDs ran the lighting for the variety of other performers on stage, including LD Cosmo Wilson (Aerosmith), Jesse Blevins (NKOTB), Tom Wagstaff (James Taylor/Carole King/Jimmy Buffett), Aaron Swetland (Jason Aldean), Greg Maltby (Boston), Ephraim Sosna (J. Geils Band), and Martin Favorite (Extreme).
Tickets for the live event, priced from $35 to $285, sold out in five minutes, and the event also raised funds through merchandise and concession sales.
Plans to televise the event did not gel in time for a live broadcast, but the May 30 concert was eventually aired on WCVB Channel 5 June 29 from 7 to 11 pm, with support from John Hancock Financial. (A live webstream during the event, swamped by demand, was marred by technical glitches.)
PLSN also received a press release recently from grandMA distributor A.C.T Lighting (www.actlighting.com); it is reprinted below.
BOSTON – A packed house raised the roof at TD Garden – and raised substantial funds for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing – at the Boston Strong concert May 30. The five-and-a-half hour show, headlined by top performers in music and comedy, used a lighting rig and grandMA2 consoles supplied by East Coast Lighting & Production Services (ECLPS).
ECLPS’ Robert Morrissey worked with lighting designer Butch Allen to build a rig around the company’s inventory of fixtures. He also quickly worked out a deal with Brian Dowd of A.C.T Lighting to take speedy delivery of additional grandMA2 full-size and grandMA2 light consoles, boosting the ECLPS roster.
“Programmer extraordinaire Rob Koenig flew in and worked tirelessly to have the rig all programmed and ready to go and ran a grandMA2 for comedians Lenny Clarke, Steven Wright and Steve Sweeney,” Morrissey reports. The grandMA2 was also used by Jesse Blevins, who lit New Kids on the Block; Greg Maltby, who lit the band Boston; Aaron Swetland for country star Jason Aldean; Ephraim Sosna for J. Geils Band; and Martin Favorite for Extreme. LD Cosmo Wilson tapped the grandMA for Aerosmith; and lighting designer Tom Wagstaff programmed for performances by James Taylor, Carole King and Jimmy Buffett.
“The concert went off without a hitch, thanks to all of the great people who participated in the event,” says Morrissey.
Proceeds from the benefit concert went to One Fund Boston, the compensation fund established by Gov. Deval Patrick and Mayor Thomas Menino to help bombing victims.
A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting in North America.
