QUINCY, WA — For their first tour in almost five years, with 19 shows in 16 cities across the U.S., the surviving members of The Grateful Dead, now simply known as the Dead, incorporated PixelRange gear along with an eclectic array of moving lights in a rig dominated by circular truss features and mesh scrims. Lighting designer Dan English, who has worked with the band on and off since 1982, noted “the band wanted a space theme. This tour was scheduled for arenas selling 360 degrees, so the entire scenic concept was limited to the overhead lighting rig.
“The design had to offer lots of flexibility, as the music of The Dead is diverse as well as prolific,” English added. “There are about 150 songs that you may hear over the course of the tour and the lyrics are full of symbolism and imagery. It’s not the type of show where you go cue to cue — it’s constantly evolving and full of musical surprises. Fortunately, I have worked with them long enough to anticipate most of what might be coming next.
“I chose PixelArcs as I wanted a small and compact LED luminaire that would fit and stay inside the trusses,” English continued. “It also needed to be a bright fixture with amber. One key element in the design is a 25-foot-long long lightning bolt. It is an exact reproduction of The Dead’s 13 point lightning bolt seen in the skull design known as ‘steal your face.’ It is made entirely of LED PixelLine 110s and PixelArcs. The bolt is hidden behind the center mesh scrim for use in highlighted moments during the show.”
LD Alliance San Francisco and BML/Blackbird New Jersey supplied the lighting gear. Along with LD English, lighting credits include Sholight for their renders and pre-programming with ESP Vision; LD Alliance’s Mark Melhmam; BML/Blackbird’s Shelly Diamond; crew chief Russ Felton; head electrician Dan McDonugh; lighting crew Patrick “Groove” Pirrone and Jim Delayo. An AVO Diamond Elite 4 controlled the lighting. Photo by Todd Kaplan.
For more information, please visit www.pixelrange.com.
