More than a few touring LDs have been known to say that running their consoles is akin to playing a musical instrument. The comparison works well for them, but this New York-based lighting programmer, designer and director takes a somewhat different view. Rather than seeing his work through the prism of hitting a snare drum […]
Sometimes you have to delve into the past to rediscover ideas that open the way to something sparkling and new. This well-known Nashville-based designer demonstrated that in colorful fashion this summer with his widely praised and much-talked about design for Grammy-winning rockers Halestorm on their 16-city summer tour. Always looking to add a new dimension […]
What’s in a name? Sometimes, just a glimpse of the total picture. Take the annual iHeartRadio Music Festival. Although it’s called a “festival,” this star-studded event is also, at is core, a nationally televised special. Tom Kenny always has this duality firmly planted in this mind when designing the lighting rig for this two-day series […]
On July 1, 1974, this acclaimed designer was asked by his agent, the New York based American Talent International agency, if he would like to go to Canada to help a young, up-and-coming band that had just signed to Mercury Records get started with touring. At first, he was, by his own account “a bit […]
“We are deeply grateful and savoring every nanosecond of this,” Flea proclaimed to fans at the start of one Friday night show on the Red Hot Chili Peppers Global Stadium tour. It’s a safe bet that everyone in the sold out arena knew exactly how the legendary bass guitarist felt. None of them would have […]
Zimbabwean media executive Napoleon Nyanhi knew exactly what kind of image he wanted to project in Vine Live, the video recording session he was putting together in the capital city of Harare headlined by the Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir. It had to make a powerful statement for the music collective with big, bold uplifting looks. […]
His seminal 2013 Madison Square Garden show sold out in 10 minutes. The same year, fans in New England, gobbled up 70,000 tickets for two Fenway Park concerts, making it clear to all that Jason Aldean’s star power shined far beyond the “traditional” country fan base. With their 19 buses and trailers, those shows were […]
Art is the elimination of the unnecessary, Picasso once observed. Although the great artist never tried his hand at lighting design, (imagine what he would have done with color mixing LEDs!), his words aptly describe the philosophy that this French designer has followed when lighting shows for clients like Marilyn Manson, GOJIRA, and the 2021 […]
Embarking on their first full-scale tour since the pandemic, the Black Keys were eager to get back to the basics, eliminating all distractions, and turning out rock infused blues with the free-flowing spontaneity that has made the duo from Ohio one of the most powerful forces in popular music. Patrick Carney, the band’s drummer described […]
Not simply a band, The Pixies can more aptly be seen as a molten force of rock music, one that has not only left its mark on the genre with a string of seminal songs and live performances, but has also influenced myriad other artists, from Kurt Cobain to David Bowie. Although they can rock […]
Multi-Grammy winning superstar Jason Aldean’s 34-city summer and fall tour has been drawing sellout crowds and generating a lot of buzz. Country music fans aren’t the only ones getting excited either. The tour also has people throughout the production industry talking, thanks to a forward-looking set design that draws on artificial intelligence, a massive blow-through […]
Over a million people saw this German designer/light artist’s expansive 15-kilometer long creation marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. No two of them, he believes, internalized its “meaning” in quite the same way. Christopher Bauder is perfectly fine with that. In his estimation, all art, including light art, is meant […]