Tedeschi Trucks Band rolls on with Robe
- Details
Tony has enjoyed an action packed 2023 schedule and TTB is a new client. They reached out to him after seeing some of his other work, particularly the Goose tour earlier in the year, for which he was lighting programmer, working closely with LD Andrew Goedde.
A long-term Robe advocate, when Tony started drawing up the plot, he looked to some of his most trusted moving lights - Fortes, Spiiders and MegaPointes - to help add that special magic and sparkle for TTB’s stage presentation.
It started as a summer shed and theatre tour and crossed over to arenas towards the later US dates, so the rig needed to be scalable and adaptable. Tony’s lighting also had to accommodate a raft of guest musicians and singers, all adding to the general stage dynamic.
With a 12-piece band to cover, he needed some bold and large lighting looks to complement their impressive set-up.
“I decided to effectively ‘wrap’ the trusses around their stage set up, including the floor lighting carts on the deck as well, so it could envelop them on one hand, but I could also have lights shooting out to the audience and transferring the energy offstage,” he explained.
When he showed Susan Tedeschi - a band founder together with husband Derek Trucks - the initial ideas, she loved the essence of the band being surrounded by lights. He also illustrated aspects like the Spiiders’ Flower Effect, which she instantly latched onto, making Spiiders an absolute must-have for the tour!
The 70 Spiiders were arranged in clusters on the mid and upstage trusses, enabling nice arrays of beams and pixels with two clusters of five on three mid stage trusses and sections of 20 fixtures lower down on the upstage trusses, all accentuating the depth and bringing added dimensionality to the stage.
Having the Spiiders rigged in this pattern meant the band could be illuminated and picked up in sections or if they were soloing or engaging in a special moment. They could also produce ACL-style ‘beam technology’ looks, and having these Spiiders in this arrangement just generally facilitated some very cool back lighting.
The 50 Fortes were positioned on the overhead and side trusses and in the floor carts. Tony had used them on the last Goose tour with Andrew, and loved them, choosing them for this project “because I knew I needed a bright, rock-solid fixture.”
MegaPointes were the third essential layer of lighting for the design. Twenty MegaPointes were scattered in between the Spiiders and used for “fun patterns, and extra fire power” he explained.
Lighting equipment was supplied by Gateway Studios & Production Services out of St Louis, and project managed by Mikey Cummings. The lighting crew chief was Sandy Paul, LX1 was Max Mackintosh, LX2 was Chazz Malott, Jim Crandall was LX2 and rigger, with Sarah Jaffee taking care of dimmers/networking.
