Kitchenman lights Luke Bryan with Elation
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Kitchenman had just got the Cole Swindell Down To Earth tour design out the door when Covid hit in 2020, then spent a year working on livestreams and other smaller projects. When he got the call in April that long-time client Luke Bryan was planning a 2021 tour, he was understandably ecstatic.
The LD, who has been designing for Bryan for a decade, had a design in place from last summer’s cancelled tour, a show he thought he’d never see realized. When the decision was made to pick up from where they left off in 2020, however, the design was back on the table. “I had come to terms last summer that that design was dead,” he said, “so I was thrilled when it was resurrected for this year’s tour.”
According to Kitchenman, the tour came together extremely quickly with a short two weeks between final tour approval and rehearsals in Nashville in June. “That’s when the ACL 360i fixtures came into play,” he stated. “We know what we can do with them and know they are reliable. They were also available so we could get out quickly and do shows.” The Proud To Be Right Here tour kicked off in July in Syracuse, New York, and plays mostly outdoor amphitheatres. “It was very much a team effort to pull it off in time,” Kitchenman said.
The design features automated lighting pods full of Elation ACL 360i fixtures, the designer’s sixth year using the compact single-beam RGBW moving effects. The pods fill the space in concentrated beams of color and can be maneuvered to create a wide variety of looks. “Every year we break them out and they’re reliable. They just look awesome when we use so many of them.”
Kitchenman, who is out with the tour as lighting director and also serves as production designer, uses 72 ACL 360i’s along with 8 DTW Blinder 700 IP 4-lites and 14 DTW Blinder 350 IP 2-lites.
Elation blinders have been a staple of Kitchenman’s Luke Bryan designs for years. This year he uses eight DTW Blinder 700 IP and 14 DTW Blinder 350 for audience lighting. Additional blinders are located throughout the rig, which he often uses as a complementary twinkle effect.
