Nicks's latest tour, in support of her album, 24 Karat Gold - Songs from the Vault, launched in Phoenix and will wrap in Los Angeles. While the singer/songwriter appears as a solo artist, she tapped the Pretenders to open for her - delivering a powerhouse show for ticketholders.
A veteran of Nicks's tours, Guthrie endeavoured to "create something new and a bit more modern" for her new show. "Stevie enjoys using video content so the tour features a lot of video on an LED videowall backdrop and L-shaped scenic pieces," he explains. "Our overwhelming lighting edict is always no smoke. So, we defer to lighting the band and adding in layers of light to create new looks."
The versatility of Mythos offers myriad options to Guthrie. "It's fun to have one light that can produce a multitude of different effects in the same head," he says. "Mythos is basically the workhorse light in the rig." He notes that the tour's complement of 100-120 moving lights "is now considered a medium-size rig for an arena tour. It used to be that 16 were considered to be a lot! We've come a long way." PRG's Las Vegas office supplied the fixtures.
Eighty Mythos are mounted in the overhead lighting trusses where they form "solid lines of Mythos", Guthrie reports. "On the downstage and mid-stage trusses they provide stage wash and beam effects. Those on the most upstage of the trusses, upstage of the videowall, create layers to add depth."
Eight more Mythos are positioned on the floor upstage of the band "to set fire" to their dynamic performance. Tom Wagstaff, the lighting director for the Pretenders deploys about 60 Mythos, on the downstage and mid-stage trusses, and repositions the complement on the floor, says Guthrie.
For the 24 Karat Gold Tour Thomas Mayer is the lighting crew chief and Cecil Nelson, Matt Schiller and Scott Naef are the lighting crew.
(Jim Evans)
