Unfortunately, the 24-year-old New Jersey-born rapper's magic ride came to a sudden pause in September 2015, when he suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident. A few months later, though, he was ready to resume touring. One of his first performances was close to home for a sold-out crowd at the SECU Arena on the campus of Towson University. Lighting designer Brett Angstadt of Round Peg Productions was ready to support the lyrical rapper's trap boom performance with a powerful light show anchored by 18 Rogue R2 Wash moving LED fixtures from Chauvet Professional.
"I was excited to light such a hot new artist, especially since this show was so important to fans that hadn't seen Fetty Wap perform since his accident," said Angstadt. "The Rogues were critical to reflecting the mood of the music and highlighting the artist on stage. We used beams and aerial effects as well as some blinders in our rig, but we avoided spots to evoke a more intimate mood. Without followspots, we really counted on the high output and the wide zoom range (12°-49°) of the Rogue R2 Washes to provide front light on stage. They delivered all the brightness we wanted."
Angstadt flew the Rogue R2 Washes on two rows of overhead truss. Arranged in groups of two and linked via DMX, eight of the RGBW fixtures were flown on the upstage truss and ten on the downstage unit. Positioned between beam and profile fixtures, the LED washes had more than enough output to stand out and fill a variety of roles during the course of the show.
"This was a fully busked show covering a wide range of emotions, so I used a little bit of everything these fixtures had to offer to keep up," said Angstadt. "We relied on the Rogues' zoom to create different looks. We used lens effect macros to create some cool audience lighting for high-energy parts of the show - and fast pans and tilts to add to the eye candy effect throughout. We also used them to colorize the artist's backdrop."
(Jim Evans)
