ChamSys mixes Father John Misty concerts
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Throughout his two-hour plus show the artist, whose real name is Josh Tillman, moves from captivating the audience with his rich lush sound, to startling them with theatrical flourishes. Dropping to a knee and clutching the mic to his heart one minute and emulating the hand gestures of a preacher the next, he enthrals audiences with his mix of music and drama.
Supporting this multi-faceted performance every step of the way is an equally engaging and varied lightshow that designer Peter Zellan is running with a ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 console.
Zellan, who has an extra wing with his console and has a rented MagicQ MQ100 as his backup, is using three universes for his 50-plus fixture ground package and an extra universe for his Catalyst Media Server. He designed the show with Capture Atlas Symphony Edition and is using Art-Net control protocol.
The flexibility of this package is playing a key role in the success of Zellan’s design for this varied international tour. Using his ChamSys desk, he moves seamlessly from sidelight stage washing in rich blues and reds, to rock style back lighting and aerial effects, to panoramic backdrop accenting, to theatrical spot and key lighting.
“ChamSys is able to move from being a cue by cue theatre desk and punt desk with no trouble,” said Zellan. “Having a desk that can be both of these things in one show is essential on this tour. ‘Pure Comedy’ is almost more theatre and stage than rock and roll,” he said. “The new songs in the show are all arranged with lots of very specific lighting and video cues throughout each one of them. The songs on the artist’s previous album lent themselves to a more rock and roll vibe.”
Zellan is running a Catalyst Media Server with 12 layers. He has a master stack for lighting and another master stack for video for each song. Using cue stack macros to fire the video stack from the lighting stack, he finds it easy to keep play button presses to a minimum.
“Overall, in terms of managing video and everything else for that matter, the MQ80 helps me stay organized when I tweak lighting or video for this show, which I do on a daily basis,” he said. “When you’re lighting a show as unique as this, you want the freedom to evolve and create without getting tripped up by organizational issues. This is where the MQ80 shines.”
(Jim Evans)
