In their fifth studio album “Tumbleweed,” the popular jam band BIG Something evokes a haunting sense of moving through a desert. It is an image that fits the aura of this road savvy group of six musicians who have crisscrossed not just the desert but dozens of other landscapes as well, performing in venues from […]
It’s been said that a lighting designer’s work is always in the moment. Like the rising sun or a shooting star, it dazzles, impresses, inspires…but in the end it can never be held on to. While it’s impossible to freeze a designer’s work in time, good photography can capture at least some of its essence, […]
Back in the late 1530s, Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries that had been familiar fixtures on the English landscape prior to the Reformation. Most of the stately buildings were destroyed, their material scavenged for other purposes. But one survived thanks to the intervention of Augustine Steward, Mayor of Norwich, who convinced the king to deed […]
Theatre may, as some believe, offer an “escape from reality” that gives people a new (and hopefully wiser) way of looking at their real lives when they return from their brief sojourn into the imaginary world depicted on stage. Like all worlds, however, even the invented one of theatre must be marked off by space. […]
Early in his career (and theirs), this Pittsburgh-based designer toured with GWAR as their LD. Still on the brink of stardom, the future metal icons and multi-Grammy nominees made extra money by opening for themselves under a different name — something they were able to do since they performed in costume. Lighting both “groups,” Warner […]
The idea of being a concert lighting designer wasn’t on Alex Kay’s mind when he showed up for work one night in late 2010 at a Cleveland nightclub. Kay was a DJ, and a spot-on good one at that, with a flair for mixing music and handling house lighting rigs. His path for rising in […]
Carts are powering down the fast lane when it comes to lighting live music venue tours. The development of more compact, but powerful, LED fixtures and other advances in lighting technology have made it possible to put together a bright, flexible and endlessly interesting lightshow on four or five pre-cabled carts. Now that cart-based shows […]
When planning for their current tour in support of their sixth studio album, Attention Attention, hard rock masters Shinedown told their lighting designer Carter Fulghum that they wanted more saturated colors and darker looks than they’ve had in the past. It’s easy to see why. With its raw gut-wrenching songs about struggle and redemption, the […]
When discussing his acclaimed work in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with us, this Olivier Award winner jokingly referred to himself as a “Darkness Designer.” Indeed, it would have been impossible for anyone who saw Pyant’s lighting design for the 2013 Sam Mendes-directed musical not to marvel at how he wielded dark space like some […]
How did Richard “Nook” Schoenfeld get his trademark nickname? The answer remains shrouded in mystery, even after our extensive interview with the Parnelli Award winning designer. Without sharing too many details, though, he did allow that growing up he had two friends named Richard, and not wanting to “be like anyone else,” he adopted his […]
Frank Sinatra was once described as “the best friend a songwriter ever had.” It wasn’t just Old Blue Eyes’ vocal qualities that stood out, it was also his uncanny ability to go beyond singing a song, and actually extract the meaning out of its lyrics as he turned them into music. We don’t know if […]
When describing his lighting design for the second leg of superstar Romeo Santos’ Golden Tour, Bruce Rodgers of Tribe, Inc. says, “It’s all about scale and simplicity.” The “scale” part is readily apparent to anyone who catches a show on the 18-city tour that began in September. Dominating the area over center stage is a […]