Papa Roach on tour with GLP impression
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"About two months ago a lighting man was looking for a few shows in Russia and a festival gig in Germany," recalls Kuhn. “Three months later it became Papa Roach’s European tour, while another colleague took care of the gigs in the USA.“
For Kuhn, the band made their decision in his favour after a festival tour of Europe last year. “It just feels good when the lighting is turned on,” says frontman and band leader Jacoby Shaddix. “It’s a lot of fun for me too,” retorts Kuhn. “Performing live, this band is simply full of energy, and meanwhile I‘ve practically become a member of the family.”
Currently Kuhn and Papa Roach are more or less constantly on the move. After a support tour with Shinedown in the USA, playing mainly arenas, in the Spring they embarked on a UK tour, with shows in front of audiences of up to 4,000 people.
Prior to the festival season, the band toured Russia, Eastern Europe and Lithuania, where up to 6,000 flocked into the venues night after night. “It’s never boring,” says Kuhn, who has faced challenges in virtually every location. “In the UK for instance, the doors are too low and you have to think twice about how to get the set on stage.“
And since Kuhn was solely responsible for the lighting, only resorting to helpers and crew in the festival season, this was crucial. “In such situations you learn to appreciate fixtures that are compact, flexible and yet still powerful,” he continues. These characteristics he finds in GLP’s portfolio. “When you are working in the lighting industry, somehow GLP is always on the radar. The impression X4 is the perfect example of what I needed, as they are light, compact, super bright and have great colours.
“With the band’s new record and new tour we also wanted a new look which should be more compact, more intimate,” the designer continues. “Immediately the impression X4 Bars came to mind, which we originally wanted to hang in triangular arrangements in the stage background. But that would have been too time-consuming and so we built five dollies instead on which the 36 impression X4 Bars, and also a lot of JDC1 strobes were installed. Arranged accordingly on the stage, the triangles have again been and in general this version is much more flexible than the original idea, with the fixed triangles.”
Finally, some impression X4 XL are also used on the sides of the stage. “The band does not like front lights so much as they don’t want to be blinded. But somehow I have to keep them in the spotlight - and this works perfectly with the eight side-mounted X4 XL,” says Kuhn, who is at FOH every night, piloting the show from a ChamSys MQ80.
This summer will see the band playing seven festivals. In Germany they played at Hurricane in Scheeßel and Southside in Neuhausen op Eck, while in Switzerland and Austria Papa Rocha have already played Greenfield in Interlaken and Nova Rock in Nickelsdorf respectively.
(Jim Evans)
