"Rebelution is on a roll, drawing big crowds, and riding high on the charts; so there's a lot of excitement surrounding them," said Gribbon, the group's LD, noting that its Count Me In album debuted at No. 14 on the general charts and topped the reggae list. "We wanted bright, colorful high impact lighting to convey this uplifting feeling."
Kevin Mignone of KM Productions (Hicksville, NY) provided Gribbon with fixtures that fit the bill. "Kenny wanted a lot of brightness and good color rendering in a compact fixture that excelled as a wash, chase and eye candy effect," said Mignone. "This is exactly what you find in the Chauvet Legend 412."
Lighting intensity is a natural for Rebelution, which had a No. 1 Billboard Top Reggae Album hit called Brightside of Life. For Gribbon's part, though, designing the lightshow for the 2014 Rebelution tour was about much more than brightness. If there was one thing at the heart of the LD's design it was immersing the stage in a rich palette of hues to evoke the group's warm feel good sound.
"The design of the backdrop and stage and lights was a collaborative effort with all crew and band's ideas coming together," said Gribbon. "As far our vision for the design went, we considered color mixing one of the most important aspects of the show. We wanted colours to draw you in just like the music does. I was really impressed with the colour mixing of the Legends. Another feature that really stood out about the Legends for me was the quickness of the pan/tilt."
Gribbon points out that the quickness of the Legend fixtures was essential to having the lighting keep up with some of the "wonderfully crazier moments in Rebelution's music" which as the LD points out is freewheeling, ranging from soulful to carefree to hard-edged, while never failing to surprise audiences with unexpected sounds like snazzy horn interludes.
"Rebelution fans are passionate; and they love the group's flare for taking its performance to new places," said Gribbon. "Going to these concerts is a big part of their lives. I wanted to reflect this in the design, which is why I had a big Rebelution logo visible on the stage backdrop. I used truss towers and t-bars to create an oval look on stage to focus on the logo. Of course everything was dramatized by the lights. We didn't just want to light the performance; we used the lights to create an experience for the audience."
(Jim Evans)
