"I'm a grandMA guy through and through," says lighting designer/director Christopher Stuba. "The band wasn't really into IMAG but had been wanting to do video. So we bought a Catalyst system a couple of years ago. We're running the soft LED drape with it and using the grandMA through the Catalyst. The grandMA is wonderful and easy to manipulate. Troy Eckerman is our grandMA programmer; we've been working together on and off for 15 years - he's the best there is."
Currently, the grandMA controls an array of moving and conventional light fixtures, including 14 Vari*Lite VL3000s, five Vari*Lite VL1000s, 12 Vari*Lite VL500Ds, four HES DL.2s, eight Martin Atomic Strobe Colors, 18 Martin MAC 2K washes, 10 Color Kinetic Color Blast 12s, two 4ft and one 1ft Color Kinetic Accents, two Reel FX DAC, 132 PAR 64s, 16 PAR 64 ACLs and six Eight-Lights.
Donny Stuart is production manager and Pablo Gamboa tour manager for The ZZ tour. Jeff Archibeque serves as the lighting crew chief, Bobby Dominguez as lighting tech, Mark 'Smokey' Kohorn as rigger and Brad Schiller Catalyst as programmer. Bandit Lites provides the lighting equipment and grandMAs.
(Jim Evans)
