Dan+Shay ‘Obsessed’ with Robe
- Details
Lighting is designed, programmed and operated for them by Jeff Mathews of Borealis Stage Lighting in Nashville, Tennessee, and includes Robe Spiider, Spikie and Pointe moving lights. Jeff has been working with the artists for about 18 months and with shows in venues of all types, shapes and sizes, the core touring lighting rig is designed as a dynamic and flexible specials package that can be brought in ‘under’ various house rigs.
It was one of various creative options that Jeff pitched to Dan + Shay and chosen as the best concept to work for the combination of headline gigs and festival support slots that they will be playing until the end of 2017 and into 2018.
The entire lighting rig is deployed via four custom set carts designed by Jeff and fabricated by Accurate Staging in Nashville. They added features like gas pistons for lift-assists and a neat gearbox drive system that determines if the cart is going up or down and keeps carts from rising up inside the trailer.
The set carts are rigged with LED panels in a diamond orientation, with bars of LED video across them also in a diamond shape. Each has three diamond frames, complete with video diamonds and video bars that hang between the carts once onstage.
Across the top of the carts is a row of eight Robe Pointes, used for the upstage spot / beam specials which produce a wide range of looks and effects throughout the show.
Nine Spiiders alternate at the top and bottom of the rig as the main wash fixtures. “They are also fast and intense, with great colour saturation and many ‘cool gags’ that can be pulled out when necessary,” commented Jeff.
Four Spikies are located across the mid-stage risers with another four across the edge of the stage - so when Jeff wants a look with multiple broken-up beams, he uses these very effectively in combination with the central LED / flower effect of the Spiider. He finds the inbuilt patterns on the Spiiders are ideal for disrupting the beams and keeping the looks different and fresh.
As the main spot / beam fixture, he uses the power of the Pointe juxtaposed against any larger profiles lights that they might encounter on the house rigs.
4Wall Nashville are the main tour lighting vendor, with Borealis Stage Lighting providing all the video elements – LED video tiles and bars, ArKaos media server, processing, etc. – plus the ChamSys MQ80 console Jeff is using to run all the lights and trigger the playback video cues.
(Jim Evans)
