Matt Calabrese goes Rogue on Kung Fu tour
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“Designing for Kung Fu is a great experience, where things never repeat themselves,” said Calabrese, as he finished a gig with the band at the legendary Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, where they opened for more. Helping him navigate his way through his long and winding tour schedule is his consistent and reliable ground package of Rogue R1 Spot and COLORdash Batten-Quad 12 fixtures from Chauvet Professional.
“The festivals and venues where Kung Fu plays vary greatly in terms of the size and shape of their stages, as well as the quality of their house rigs,” explains Calabrese. “I take each show as it comes and rely on my ground package to provide a solid foundation for the look I want to create.”
On the current Kung Fu tour, Calabrese is traveling with four Rogue R1 Spot and three COLORdash Batten-Quad 12 fixtures that he purchased from 4Wall Entertainment. This ground package fits in the trailer with the rest of the band’s gear, yet it provides the colour, movement and output Calabrese needs to create the looks he’s after.
“My ideal situation is to set the R1s on road cages and crank stands and use them to augment the house rig,” says Calabrese. “Many times, the R1s will be my main workhorse, so I place them at two different heights to maximize the coverage. In venues that don’t allow haze, I’ll position the Rogues off to the side or out in front, so I can project interesting gobo patterns on the walls or even directly on the band. Since I have a small floor package, I need the Rogues to cover a lot of bases. They are great for aerial effects, cyc looks, and for silhouetting the band, as well as lighting up the audience.”
Calabrese usually positions the COLORdash Batten-Quad 12 units in front of amps and tilts them toward the band. “This looks great in the haze as a solid wash for silhouettes,” he adds. “It looks even better when we run a chase through the pixels. In some venues, I’ll use them to uplight the back curtain, or I’ll clamp them straight to a stand and use them as blinders.”
(Jim Evans)
