"Phish is a jam band. There's no set list and you never know what song is coming next, so you have to pay attention," Kuroda explains. "We need to programme the lighting so we can grab anything very quickly. So I have the grandMA2 broken up into two worlds: one is a punter mode than runs on the fly and follows the music as it goes, and the other is a cue stack. Sometimes we're changing cue times by hundredths of a second, and the grandMA2 gives me the flexibility to respond to these complicated requests better and easier than anything else."
Kuroda runs the show from one grandMA2 console while Giffin makes adjustments and resets on his desk. "The way Chris runs Phish is very impressive, triggering things on the fly, dozens of cues all the time," Giffin points out. "When other lighting designers have to improvise like that it's more random, but Chris carefully thinks out every single move in terms of timing. With grandMA2, that kind of precision comes naturally. Its new preset-based effects engine allows me incredible control. Chris comes up with very specific effect ideas and I can build exactly what he's looking for right there on the fly."
According to Giffin, the grandMA2 has been "rock-solid stable" during the Phish summer tour. For Kuroda, adjusting to the new grandMA2 "was a lot quicker than I anticipated," he says. "I'd recommend the grandMA2 to anyone."
Upstaging provided the grandMA2s for the tour. MA Lighting is exclusively distributed in North America by A.C.T Lighting.
(Jim Evans)
