The production design is a collaboration between Belgium based Painting with Light's Luc Peumans and Paco Mispelters. Luc's creative relationship with the band goes back many years, and this year Luc asked Paco onboard specifically to craft the lighting, which again has introduced new ideas and perspective to the visual equation.
Paco listened to the new album which introduces a dancier groove to Clouseau's extensive and diverse existing catalogue and discussed his initial ideas with Luc.
The lighting brief included utilizing eight ribbon lifts that had appeared on the 2014 tour and proved a great solution for facilitating a fast load in and providing upstage lighting positions in the venues they play - typically theatres and concert halls between 1000 and 3000 capacity.
After careful consideration and active demonstrations, they decided to specify moving and effects fixtures from one manufacturer - Chauvet.
Lighting supplier Coruna Lights, from Mechelen made a large investment in the manufacturer to provide new kit for the seven-month tour, with Chauvet's Rogue R2 Wash and RH1 Hybrid Spot fixtures comprising the backbone of the rig.
Six of the eight towers are positioned in a line upstage, each loaded with four Chauvet NXT-1 moving head LED tiles, orientated at 45 degrees to look a bit quirkier, with one Chauvet Strike 4 blinder in the centre (of the four NXTs). All are attached by special brackets fabricated by Coruna.
The other two towers are slightly further down and offstage, and all eight of them are rigged with three Rogue RH1 Hybrid Spots.
Paco explains that the towers are positioned at each gig to create the best overall viewing angles for the light show and effects from all around the auditorium.
The back truss is flown just upstage of the six back towers, and on this are six Rogue RH1 Hybrid Spots and another six Strike 4s which double as general back lighting and specials.
Directly below the back truss on the floor are another 6 Rogue R2 Spots, equally spaced and lining up with those in the air.
Downstage at the front are two fixed position side towers - made from 30cm truss secured on floor bases - which are loaded with LED PARs and two Rogue R2 Washes each, all ideal for tidy and well-targeted front lighting. These fixtures are supported, slightly further upstage each side, by another three R2 washes on 2m high scaff poles.
Clamped to the music stands on the band risers are some very small Colordash Quad fixtures - also a Chauvet product - for close key lighting on the faces.
Chauvet Epix Strip Tours are used to delineate all the risers. Run via ArtNet, these produce fluid kinetic effects adding another layer visual interest to the performance space.
Paco programmed the lights on a grandMA2 light which he is also operating, supplied to the tour by Painting with Light together with an NPU as they are consuming a fair few DMX universes.
FOH audio engineer is Marc Luyckx, Marcel Cortleven takes care of the monitors and Luc Peumans is also production managing the tour.
Clouseau Danst runs until September playing extensively in Benelux. In December the band will stage their traditional biannual 'spectacle' shows at Antwerp Sportpalais.
(Jim Evans)
