Production/lighting designer Bryan Hartley is also touring for his eighth year as the LD on the East Coast leg. Lighting director Dan Cassar, now in his fifth year, handles the West Coast run. Both tours started 1 November.
Hartley likes to design in new products with each new production. He believes this is the year for Showgun to shine: "I love them, they're awesome. It's a good quality moving light but three times as big," Hartley says. "There's nothing else like it out there."
The rig features 10 moving pods, with a Showgun positioned in the middle of each pod as its centerpiece. Another four Showguns hang on audience trusses over the front-of-house area. The Showguns' main purpose is for key lighting.
"I love its colour mixing, strobing, lighter weight, LED ring, brightness and solid beam - plus it plugs in just like a normal moving light," Hartley says. "We have so many LED products on this show, so the Showgun with its recognisable LED ring fits right in and looks great. This is a heavy metal show, so rather than do the multi-coloured Christmas thing, I'm using all solid colours."
Wholehog 3 is now his console of choice, which he's used on tours with Motley Crue, Supernova, Marilyn Manson and just recently Velvet Revolver. "I've been using Wholehog 3 software for over a year now and it's all good," Hartley says.
It's a big show. The Wholehog 3 console is not only controlling a lot of lights and LED products, it's also triggering the laser show. High End Systems' Brad Schiller helped out during rehearsals, setting up the Wholehog software that sends MIDI commands to the laser controller to fire off those cues in the show.
(Jim Evans)
