Ben Harper and management team including tour manager, Scott Cadwallader, production manager, Kenny Nicholson, and lighting designer, Keith Wissmar chose Bandit Lites to supply lighting for the tour.
"Ben [Harper] expressed a very keen desire to add video as a new element to his show- simple, big images. This obviously affected the lighting design from the European tour, which had no video. Keith [Wissmar] took this onboard and came up with a very smooth blending of the lighting and video elements," explained Dizzy Gosnell, of Bandit's San Francisco office.
Bandit's own Shawn Beaulieu teamed up with Wissmar to produce the video package by projecting 40' by 20' images to produce a full video backdrop for the band. Beaulieu says the finished product was effective because Wissmar was able to coordinate the lighting mood with the images projected on the screen.
Wissmar was able to design the lighting so that it complimented the band without overshadowing it in any way. Although Harper has obvious talent as a guitarist, he would first like to be recognised as a songwriter. The two-disc album contains one disc of quiet and acoustic ballads. The other disc is filled with songs that are loud and up-tempo. The content of his songs are both personally and politically motivated and he wanted both the lighting and video elements to support his powerful lyrics.
To unify lighting and video, Wissmar used three 10k Ekia projectors controlled by two Maxedia/Video servers to support the video production, provided by Moo TV out of Nashville.
"I basically adjusted my lighting to the projection. [The video element] stepped up the whole show to a new level visually," explained Wissmar.
Wissmar's equipment of choice included Martin MAC 2000 Profiles and Mac 2000 Washes, which were controlled by the Whole Hog II console and wing. The Leprecon Desk LP 1524 was also used to control conventionals.
Bandit CEO, Michael T. Strickland says: "It is always a pleasure to work with the talented Mr. Keith Wissmar and a double pleasure to be able to work with the wonderful Ben Harper team for the first time."
(Chris Henry)
