In his fourth tour with Toby Keith, Jackson says that he and Keith are very in sync when itcomes to lighting needs and expectations. "Toby Keith is a rock show. It is big, bright, and anything but subtle, "explains Jackson. "We try to interact with the set design yet still give ourselves a lot of layers and positions so we can create as much depth as possible, while still accommodating the necessities of a rock show: heavy backlight, lots of floor angles, audience lighting, and a lot of pyrotechnics."
Jackson and lighting director, Eddie Connell, are using the VL3000 spot as thebase of the system. In addition, Jackson chose to have a strong base of Martin Mac2000Wash units, Coemar Halos, and a dozen Syncrolite SX-3K.
"The Coemar HALOS are great because they are an incandescent source, which addsanother layer and another texture to the system. The Syncrolite SX-3K is my new 'can'tgo-anywhere-without' light. I just love them. The power of the beam, the speed ofsomething that big, and now with the new Omni-color system, the ability to break-up thebeam with patterns and textures," says Jackson.
Jackson and crew are also the first tour to go out with a product from Elation; the LEDBlinder made by their American DJ line. The LED blinder is an 8-light unit with LEDswhere the lamps would go. Eric Loader, of the American DJ Group, sent Seth Jackson asample unit to try out and Jackson ended up putting them all over the set to tone thestructure.
Bandit vice president, Michael Golden was quick to compliment the lighting crew fortheir work on this tour, saysing: "Seth and Eddie (Bones) Connell have once again come together to create huge and powerful looks befitting to Toby Keith and the rest of the production." Seth Jackson also noted that a key component to this tour's success was Toby Keith's management team, "Without production coordinator, Mark Sissel, production manager, Sean Sargent and tour manager, David Milam, this show would not be the success it is. These guys are inventive, efficient, and a great team to work with."
(Chris Henry)
