The tour primarily plays large theatre venues, and the rig is based around four trusses - front, back and two mid-stage, that were subtly angled into a V-shape.
The upstage truss is used to hang a 33ft wide by 16ft drop of SoftLED cloth, adding a new dimension to his powerful performance, and nine ColorKinetics ColorBlast 12 LED wash lights are also over-rigged on the top rail of the back truss for stage depth.
The two mid-trusses are made up from pre-rigged sections - chosen for the larger spacing between the two rails.They vary slightly in length - the stage right truss measuring 19ft and the stage left 21ft.
On the front rail of these are a total of six Martin Professional MAC 2K Wash moving lights, with eight MAC 2K Profiles lined up across the back chords.These are joined by eight Source Four profiles and another five ColorBlast 12s.
The front truss is rigged with five 8-lites for audience blinders, six Source Four profiles for front key lighting and five MAC 2K Washes for general stage coverage.
The lighting package is completed with six MAC 2K Profiles on the deck rigged on stands in order to raise them to head height, and seven ColorBlasts, five across the front of stage and two back lighting the risers.
Bandit has supplied a complete motor and rigging package, two DF50 haze machines and three Lycian 1200w HMI FOH followspots. The entire system is maintained by crew members Nigel Julian and Jonathan Dawson-Butterworth.
The show is operated using a GrandMA console. The GrandMA also triggers the Catalyst digital media server supplying all the content for the SoftLED, a lot of which originates from Satriani's own film and animation artwork.
The tour is currently booked to run until the end of 2008 and will visit Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, the U.S. and Canada as well as its lengthy stint in Europe.
(Jim Evans)
