After working on Atreyu's tour for their sixth and latest studio album Long Live, Sasso described how he went beyond illuminating the stage to reflect the varying moods of the music. "The music of Atreyu can get pretty intense and it evokes powerful images," he said. "I wanted the lighting to keep up, to reflect this and contribute to taking the audience on a journey. So, for example, when there were sections of songs that were slow and dramatic, instead of doing a random slow dimmer fade between the lights as I normally do, I opted to play with the ring control of the Rogue R2 Wash and it looked really great. It was a neat little contrast.
"Zone control also played a huge role at one of our stops in Boston, where we were not allowed to use haze," continued the LD. "In this instance I ended up pointing the R2s forward into the audience and used a lot of the ring control on pretty much every song. This gave me more cool visuals, since I wasn't able to really create beams."
For the Atreyu song When Two Are One, Sasso pixel mapped his Nexus fixtures to create extra storytelling imagery. "The song has a long dramatic instrumental intro, which then bursts into a crazy guitar solo," he said. "So what we did was create like a drag strip traffic light effect. So when the song started I had just the top LED red. Then, a few measures later, the next LED lit up red. Eight counts before the solo, the third LED lights up yellow. Then after four counts, the fourth LED lights up yellow. Finally, when the band crashes in, the whole Nexus array turns green. We thought it was hilarious."
Sasso used six Rogue R2 Washes, six Nexus 4x1 bars and four Vesuvio RGBA LED foggers from in his rig, as well as six Shocker Panels from sister company Chauvet DJ and a collection of eight LED pars. Everything in the rig with the exception of the foggers and pars was mounted vertically inline on six pipes. The Rogues were positioned at the top, Shocker Panels in the middle, and the Nexus bars on the bottom. All fixtures were run at 120v.
"The R2 wash was an obvious place for me to start," he continued. "What makes the R2 great is its zoom. For most of our shows, these lights were about 7'-10' from the band members, and I was able to zoom them out and wash the entire deck. Or I could zoom them all the way in and create nice tight beam effects with them. They're fast and smooth, which is great for this band. Atreyu gets pretty crazy at times, so having a light that can keep up and snap quickly to positions is perfect."
(Jim Evans)
