While it has only been a few months since her last tour, the singer-songwriter is offering a different experience for her audience with a stripped, intimate tour that reflects the artful, organic feel of her 12th studio album.
Lighting designer David Hamilton worked with tour manager Steven Girmant to give the show the exposed, rehearsal vibe he and Etheridge sought to express. In his ninth year of working with Etheridge, Hamilton wanted to "turn the venues on their heads" and strip the stages of any and all ornament.
"You see ladders, truss, lighting instruments, PA cabinets, and whatever's back there on the back wall, and all our empty road cases," said Hamilton, who worked with production manager, Galen Henson. "I just light all that stuff. Everything on the upstage side of the proscenium gets stripped away and everything on the downstage where the house is at is all theatrical looking."
In addition to the intimate look of the stage, Hamilton made use of Bandit's GRN LED technology to light the show. With Etheridge long being a supporter of protecting the environment and utilizing alternative, eco-friendly resources, Bandit's GRN LED lighting allowed limited power use without sacrificing the brilliance of the colour.
"The whole rig I'm using now uses about 32 amps, as opposed to ten years ago when you had to have 400 amp service to do 30 or 40 lights," Hamilton said.
Etheridge's tour operates with GLP Spot Ones, a light Hamilton describes as a big step forward in the industry. "The last light I was this impressed with was the impression wash light," added Hamilton. "It's about time someone got the LED spot sorted out. The nice thing about it is that it's got a white LED through dichroic filtering, so you don't have to mix the red, green and blue. You have a white LED source just like a regular fixture running through dichroic and you have much richer colours and they're saturated."
(Jim Evans)
