ANTWERP, BELGIUM – Since recent reviews of the Nerdland Festival in Wachtebeke, building on the enthusiasm of nerds of all ages, were universally positive, it was decided a spectacular show at the Lotto Arena in Antwerp would be next. Featuring captivating presentations on scientific wonders, and a captivating visual spectacle, the “Nerdland for Small Nerds” […]
MONTERREY, MEXICO – “We have broken paradigms,” Sergio Lizárraga, leader of Banda MS once told an interviewer, referring to his band’s popularity, which has transcended all expectations to prove that banda music has unlimited appeal in today’s market beyond Mexico. Sold out shows before wildly appreciative crowds from Nashville to Las Vegas have provided convincing proof […]
MILWAUKEE – Some venues just lend themselves to creating evocative looks on stage, believes Glenn Ottenbachker. That’s one reason why the lighting designer from A.G. Entertainment USA was only too happy to take on the project of lighting a shared headline show at The Pabst Theatre recently. Opened in 1895, the Renaissance Revival style theatre […]
Willemstad, Curaçao – Singer Raynor “Raey” Laufer recently performed a song entitled “Kaminda tin Huma, Tin Kandela,” which translated from Papiamentu, the language of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao (the Caribbean’s “ABC Islands”), means “Were There is Smoke There is Fire.” Many were warmed by the glow of the Curaçan artist’s own fire when he performed […]
NASHVILLE – Location, they say, “is everything” in retailing; well, it’s pretty important in live touring too. Just ask Alec Takahashi, the long- time lighting designer for country superstar Thomas Rhett. Lighting the multi-platinum singer/songwriter’s “Bring The Bar To You” tour, the LD could sense the crowd enter different emotional spaces as his client moved […]
The space on a stage is never static in the mind of this Tony Award winning New York scenic designer. It is instead dynamic and alive, something to be molded and transformed over the course of time, with the help of the audience’s imagination (and the work of a lighting designer), to enrich the telling […]
PHOENIX – Rain can play havoc with any outdoor festival. That much is true, but in Phoenix Arizona? The second driest city in the USA (only Las Vegas gets less precipitation), Phoenix has gone as long as 160 days without rain; that happened back in 1972. The organizers of the inaugural Zona Music festival had […]
Willemstad, Curaçao – Fans from Aruba, Bonaire, and as far away as Suriname came to see Grammy winning singer Burna Boy at the Curaçao Festival Center on Friday October 28, but they would have missed much of his supercharged performance if they kept their eyes fixed solely on the stage. World-famous for his rapport with […]
HOLMDEL, NJ – “Heaven looks a lot like New Jersey,” Jon Bon Jovi once said. His fellow Garden State rocker, The Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon, would likely agree with that description, and so too would the fans who filled the PNC Arts Center amphitheater on a blustery October night to hear the band from […]
TOKYO – There are many ways to measure the success of a lighting design. At the top of the list is how well it supports the spirit and flavor of the music being performed on stage. At Kennedy House, an iconic nightspot in Tokyo’s Ginza area, this means reflecting the classic hits popular in Japan […]
BOSTON – Time was on Cosmo Wilson’s mind on Thursday, September 8th, when he lit Aerosmith’s pandemic-postponed 50th Anniversary Concert at iconic Fenway Park. The band’s longtime LD not only transcended time by creating powerful looks that harkened back to the early days of his client’s storied career, he also had called on his considerable […]
Willemstad, Curaçao – The music, dancing, and partying never stop during Hak’e, a Curaçao Summer Festival that’s a highlight of one of the Caribbean’s largest carnivals. By the time summer rolls around, the carnival season is long past, but even so, the partying never stops on the island. This year, the producers of Hak’e Jump-In […]