Chauvet Rogues play the Westville Music Bowl
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Lighting designers Manny Newman for Pigeons Playing Ping Pong and Peter Spadaro III for opening act Eggy unleashed a torrent of dynamic looks, taking advantage of the high (over 30’) stage roof to shower their clients with immersive washes and moving gobos one moment, then transitioning into bright aerials and immersive audience lighting the next.
“There was such a diverse range of looks that it’s difficult to describe it in a few words,” said Newman, who designed and built the evening’s lighting rig. “The one thing that characterized all the looks is that they were complete.”
Helping to create the production were 18 Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Wash fixtures from Newman’s own inventory, and six Rogue R1 BeamWash units rented from Squeek Lites.
Newman hung the Rogue R1 Wash units on a truss grid and used them for upstage washing. Spaced evenly across the central section of the stage’s black backdrop, the RGBW fixtures, not only provided colourful backwashing of the performers, they also created an engaging scenic element behind the bands in lieu of an upstage video wall. (The only video walls were one to the left and one to the right of the stage, which were used to show IMAG images.)
“I tend to avoid using video walls,” said Newman. “Not that there’s anything wrong with them, but my preference is to rely on lighting to create the backdrop, as I feel it allows the audience to use their own imagination more.”
Creating some imagination-inspiring looks during the evening were the Rogue R1 BeamWashes in the rig’s ground package. Arranged across the upstage deck, the RGBW fixtures were used primarily as a side wash, their wide 4ﹾ to 37.8ﹾ beam angle, opened up multiple opportunities to create a wide range on visuals.
Explaining his frequent wide beam angles, Newman noted: “I really like to light up the crowd for our big looks which is usually during the peak of a jam. It reflects the music and engages the crowd.”
