"Once I was brought on by the band's manager, we began discussing the new album and how they wanted to integrate aspects of the album into the tour," says Sasic. "The overall feel of the album is a sort of journey into their childhood through the looking glass of a faded Polaroid, so this is what they wanted for the tour. The set design would consist of a suburban, outdoor location with a large projection video screen contained inside a road-side billboard frame measuring 20' wide x 10' high. Then we also added a light tower onstage, which we refer to as 'stadium lights', to add to the outdoor feel."
While Sasic began looking for the fixtures that would allow her to overcome the colour-matching challenge, one more design need also had to be addressed. The tour would include a stop at Madison Square Garden for a live streaming HD webcast as part of the Unstaged series presented by American Express. So now, while Sasic needed the lighting to look great for concert-goers, she also needed the design to look great for fans on the web as well.
"In my designs, I am partial to wash lights for the majority of my colour-mixing and matching. I love using new technologies and I had seen the VLX Wash during a private demo so I knew that it would be a perfect fit for this tour because of its power, deep range of colour, and the true LED white. I have used automated LED lighting previously as decorative elements, but never as a main lighting source. Still, I knew the VLX could easily be my main wash light for the tour."
Knowing now what she needed, Sasic acquired a total of 40 VLX Wash luminaires from Vari*Lite Dealers Solotech and Upstaging and began placing them onstage with the band and in both above-the-stage and front-of-house locations throughout the lighting rig.
"The VLX is definitely the bulk of my rig. Due to the power of the VLX, the brightness of the video was never an issue. With its extremely expansive colour palette provided from the LED source, finding the 'colours in between' was quick and easy. And then the colour-snapping of the VLX is incredible. It can change colour without you even really seeing it."
(Jim Evans)
