The production, in support of her 2015 album Art Angels, used a versatile floor lighting and console package from PRG XL Video in Germany as they played venues across continental Europe before shows in Manchester, Dublin, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, Nottingham and Glasgow. For the sell-out extravaganza at London's Brixton Academy, lighting designer Sarah Landau called on PRG XL Video's UK senior account manager Roy Hunt to help add a little additional razzmatazz to an already impressive light show with an overhead lighting rig.
Roy said, "Sarah's artistic and creative reputation is exceptional and the opportunity of working with her on any project is exciting, especially something like this."
With the tour starting off in Berlin, it made sense for the main lighting system to be supplied by PRG XL Video's facility in Hamburg, where account manager Marco Mahl took care of Sarah's needs. Discussing her choice of lighting products, Sarah said, "I needed versatile fixtures that could create a variety of looks with minimal fixture counts. I was excited to try Clay Paky Mythos for the first time.
"I used Martin MAC Vipers for backlighting and projection through the camouflage netting-we needed a bright fixture with a wide zoom and interesting gobos, and they're very reliable. The Robe Robin 300s were a bright, fast wash, perfect for backlighting and with a wide enough zoom for us to use as cyc lights too, I selected four Sharpy washes to provide sculptural side light from the downstage and midstage edges, they were very bright, even using UV filters."
When asked how lighting the Brixton show differed from other dates on the Ac!d Reigns tour, Sarah explained, "Because Brixton is an empty room, I was able to hire in an overhead plot. PRG XL Video supplied Best Boy HP and Robe Pointe moving lights, Solaris Flare LED strobes, Martin MAC Aura LED washes and an RGB star cloth. The star drop added depth and made the relatively small rig onstage look much bigger and added lots of ambience to the 'pretty' songs in the set list."
Sarah has handed over to lighting director Michelle Sarrat as Grimes tours North America, stopping off for two appearances at Coachella festival before the band returns to play a number of European dates in the summer, including a handful of UK shows and appearances at Glastonbury and Latitude festivals.
(Jim Evans)
