Elation at Detroit’s El Club
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“I pride myself on El Club having an eclectic calendar,” says Flegenheimer, who has a background as a music publicist. “There’s not a typical night here. It’s always changing and Elation is able to meet every requirement of the artist coming in here and capture the vibe of the evening.”
Since opening in May of 2016, El Club has arguably become Detroit’s hottest night-time venue with a mixture of acts that is attracting a wide audience. “It's really an amazing room that's giving a massive high-end light show experience to underground artists in a 300-capacity venue,” stated Adam LaBay of Future Weapons Laser & Lighting Design, who chose the Elation lights for the venue. “There's nothing quite like it and it has a very unique aesthetic.”
Built in 1950 as a banquet hall with an adjacent bar that dates from 1921, Flegenheimer renovated the space by restoring much of the interior and exterior of the building then completed the project by installing a state-of-the-art lighting and sound system.
El Club’s Elation lighting rig is as diverse as the acts that play beneath it: 12 ACL 360 Bar LED moving bar effects, 12 compact ACL 360i beam effects, eight Elar Ex Quad Par HP LED lights, six Sniper 2R effect lights, six Colour Pendant LED colour-changing downlights, and eight Protron 3K LED strobes, all run from a HedgeHog 4S lighting console. An Antari HZ-350 hazer and Antari Z-500 II fog machine provide the mid-air projection canopy and fog effects.
“The goal of the lighting of the space is a reflection of the whole club,” Flegenheimer says. “I wanted everything to have an artistic statement.” When building the club, the owner worked with Adam LaBay and Taran Allen, who had built him a number of custom lighting rigs over the years in LA for special events. He invited them to build a custom rig for El Club and gave them free reign on the design. “I wanted to make a statement with a versatile rig unlike anything ever seen in a club this size,” he said. “I wanted something beautiful and they delivered.”
(Jim Evans)
