NASHVILLE – Country artists Martina McBride and Trace Adkins toured together and apart throughout 2010, with Bandit Lites supplying illumination needs for both. LDs Abigail Rosen Holmes and Jeff Lavallee designed the shows, respectively, for McBride and Adkins, sharing some of the gear, but not necessarily the looks, on their joint shows. Homes collaborated with Tom McPhillips and the staff at Atomic Design for McBride's stage set. It included ramps, risers, revolving platforms, elevators and McBride's crescent "moon," which she rode to front of house to sing a few tunes.
Also working on the show's looks were Martina's husband John McBride, tour manager Mark Hively, production manager Meesha Kosciolek, stage manager Pat O'Neil and with Bandit VP Michael Golden.
Holmes, now an associate professor of lighting design at Carnegie Mellon Institute, is well-known for her work with artists such as Roger Waters, Peter Gabriel, Cher, Janet Jackson, Disney, The Cure and others.
She used Vari*Lite VL 3500 Washes, VL 3000 Spots, MAC 2000 Washes, Coemar Halos, 150 egg strobes and 220 VersaTubes, all controlled by two grand MA consoles and two Green Hippo media servers. Trevor Ahlstrand was the lighting director traveling with the show.
Trace Adkins worked with the same system as Martina nightly, yet it was reconfigured nightly by moving physical elements so that the two shows look different, and LD Lavallee brought in additional equipment to further distinguish the looks.
Tour Manager Jeff Gossett and Lavallee worked with bandit business development manager Brent Barrett to support Adkins, who went on and off the tour and needed his own stand-alone system when the two acts were apart.
The stand-alone system included the aforementioned gear plus a large number of Color Block DB4s, Atomic Strobes and Lavallee's console of choice, the Jands Vista T2 and S3. Adkins also toured on the 2010 Toby Keith Tour, also lit with gear provided by Bandit Lites.
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