LAS VEGAS — PRG provided production support for the recent performance by Limp Bizkit at the Pearl Concert Theater in Las Vegas. LD Jeff Rials lit the show. And although if it had been eight years since the band’s last U.S. show, Rials had considerably less time to prepare with the rig, which included two dozen Clay Paky Alpha fixtures. “It was a kind of a throw and go show,” Rials said. “The challenge was building the rig from scratch that day and putting it together in a three-hour window. We also had to then color-balance the lighting since we shot this show to be released on iTunes,” Rials added, noting that Stan Crocker served as video lighting director.
The band, back to its original lineup of Fred Durst, Wes Borland, Sam Rivers, John Otto and DJ Lethal, had made a quick detour from their current 2009 Unicorns N’ Rainbows tour in Europe and Asia to play the free concert at the 2,500 seat theater at the Palms Casino Resort as a gift to its fans.
Rials and the band decided on an old-school look with a club feel. “We had Limp Bizkit back together after an eight-year hiatus, so we wanted to bring it back to the old-school for a minute. What we were thinking was floor lighting,” said Rials. “Wes and Fred were really into the idea. It was something that they had never really done before. So, we went with a ground package.”
For the Pearl show, Rials said he “wanted to bring something else to the table and the Clay Paky lights let me do that. They looked amazing and were extremely quiet.” Rials used 12 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s, 12 Alpha Wash 700s and one Alpha Spot 700 as his primary lights.
“I had used the Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500s and Wash 1500s during the band’s Europe dates. I loved them so I talked to Tim Brennan at PRG, since he is the Clay Paky distributor, to see what I could get for the Pearl show in the quick timeframe we were dealing with. He got me the 700s, which worked great,” Rials said, calling them “workhorses.”
Rials added that along with reliable operation, “the dimmer is very smooth—both in and out” for the Clay Paky fixtures. “I also like that you can make clean color transitions with nothing in between. You can go from a red to a Congo blue and it is no problem whatsoever; the color transitions are very, very smooth.
“The resolution on gobos is great; really nice optics,” Rials added. “The output of the fixture, even with that lamp, is hands-down one of the best outputs of fixtures that are out there right now. The Alpha Beam 1500s I used as washlights in Europe looked excellent.”
Having worked previously with PRG on Godsmack, Rials was confident they could support the fast paced production. “I am the head LD for Rainbow Production Services out of New England and whenever we have worked with PRG, it has always been great; it is a great partnership. They have always taken care of us and our company.”
For the continuation of the Limp Bizkit tour in Korea and Japan, Rials is using the ChamSys MagicQ MQ100 console, supplied by PRG. “There are a lot of cool things with the console,” he said. “I tried it out in London and now I have it in Asia and will take it out with me for the tour in the States. I like it a lot for programming a tour.”
At the end of this year, U.S. audiences will again get a chance to see the band when they tour stateside. “It is Bizkit 2.0,” said Rials, “it is an amazing show. We will also have some design surprises coming out for the new tour.”
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