Prior to signing up for this joint venture, Senses Fail had never toured with their own light show before; though they certainly performed with some killer rigs on the Taste of Chaos Tour. Still when the band hooked up with Silverstein, they were lighting newcomers. After talking to their touring partners however, Sense Fail had a change of heart and decided that the time had come to engage their fans with lighting.
For their part, Silverstein felt comfortable recommending that their punk rock partners leap into lighting because of their experience with Squeek Lights on their previous tour. "Silverstein was relatively new to lighting when we put together their earlier tour design," said Squeek's president and LD Victor Zeiser. "They were pretty amazed with the good things lighting did for their show, so they wanted to come back for a bigger bite of the apple. They convinced Senses Fail to jump in on the bandwagon and pool their resources so they could have a really great light show together on this tour."
Drawing on the combined resources of the two groups, Zeiser put together a muscular rig that included six Nexus 4x1 linear COB LED fixtures, 12 Rogue R2 Washes, 10 Rogue R1 Spots, and 16 Shocker 90IRC par style fixtures. Although the two bands shared most of the backline, the LD varied how key elements of the lighting rig were used for each act during the tour.
"It worked out where each of the bands had different goals for their lighting, which allowed me to create two different styles of show with the same floor package," said Zeiser. "Senses Fail wanted a heavier, moodier lightshow while Silverstein preferred a bright show with lots of movement. I was able to use the same fixtures, but in different combinations with varying intensity levels to create two distinct looks from the same rig."
At most stops along the way, the Silverstein-Senses Fail tour stopped at larger rooms such as The Electric Factory in Philadelphia and Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, as well as at various House Of Blues sites. When the tour stopped at smaller venues, Zeiser adjusted his rig accordingly.
(Jim Evans)
