GLP X4 Bar 20's back Lauren Daigle dates
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It was her first collaboration with the lighting partnership of Seth Jackson and Nathan Alves of Darkroom Creative, and easily her biggest production tour to date. The arena setting allowed the two men to create a partial rolling stage, giving the design a curved front extension and allowing greater sight lines to be exposed that was vital due to the high demand for tickets.
Helping them to fulfil their creative objectives were a large quantity of X4 Bar 20 battens from GLP. By articulating a desire for her show “to feel like a hug” the artist gave the two men a start point, and consequently their design contained no metal or steel and a minimum of 90° angles. “We really wanted the design to feel more like a home than a structure,” said Alves.
Both he and Jackson have a long history of working with GLP. “I have always been drawn to company loyalty because of the people and their commitment to the product and customers,” stated the latter. “I don’t get wrapped up in the ‘newest and shiniest’ mentality. For me, the consistent development of GLP and the approachability of the team is what keeps me locked in with them.”
His partner agreed that the evolution of GLP has cascaded a number of valuable tools onto the market. “You can find X4’s and JDC1’s peppered all over everything we do. The JDC1’s ability to create multiple ‘feels’ from such a compact fixture make it a huge win. The X4 Bar’s unparalleled curtain of light and quick zoom / tilt makes it a powerful tool, since we like to see devices from our manufacturing partners that do more than one job - which is vital as everyone tries to recover from the global recession caused by the pandemic.”
As for the deployment of the X4 Bars, to create the required welcoming stage environment the visibility of the hardware is minimal. “We created a fly loft above the stage that masks out all the trusses, motors and rigging, and the light fixtures are masked or trimmed in such a way that you don’t see the light.”
Run in hi-res mode, the X4 Bar was tailor-made for this use, said Jackson. “As a low physical profile unit, it tucked in and lined up exactly as we needed. The output of the fixture and the power of the zoom range opened up huge opportunity. Lining the upstage, and left and right side of the stage, they were often the workhorse for lighting the nine-piece band [plus backing vocals]. But at the same time they could become an accent or graphic, and then lift over to tone our soft goods including blending with the video content.”
In terms of other key personnel involved in the tour’s visuals, John Bahnick at Upstaging handled not only the lighting, but also video and the scenic element. “As always, they have been tremendously supportive and have us covered at every step of the process,” said Jackson.
Parker Genoway, who has a long history with Lauren, was programmer, while Simon Roberts was video associate.
(Jim Evans)
