August Burns Red with Rogues
- Details
USA - In 2007, August Burns Red blazed a new path when they put a new twist on the metalcore sound. A decade later, the Grammy-nominated quintet marked this milestone by kicking off 2017 with a celebratory coast-to-coast Messengers 10-Year Anniversary tour. The group plays its bold upfront Messengers album front to back on this tour, treating its audience to an unbroken succession of musical peaks.
Creating a non-repeating variety of exciting looks for this tidal wave of sound without being over the top presented a challenge to lighting designer Victor Zeiser of Squeek Lights. It was one he is meeting with help from a collection of Rogue R1 FX-B and Rogue R1 Spot fixtures from Chauvet Professional.
“In my view, every single note doesn’t need a cue to go with it, even in metal music,” said Zeiser. “So for this tour, I set out to create a show that captured the energy of the music, without being visually overwhelming and exhausting to the audience. At the end of the show I want the crowd to be exhausted from moshing too hard, not from being blinded by strobes for 75 minutes.”
The Rogue FX-B fixtures in his rig were critical to achieving a rich variety of looks, says Zeiser. “They were a tool I could use to create a bunch of different looks that are all exciting and really capitalise on the evocative moments in August Burns Red songs, without being trashy,” he said. “Our show is really based around the unique looks that I can only get out of the FX-B fixtures. When you’re able to hang eight compact fixtures and get 40 beams of light to fill your entire space, it’s really an amazing thing.”
Zeiser complemented his eight Rogue R1 FX-Bs with an equal number of Rogue R1Spots. “The two fixtures play very nice together,” he said. “The R1s create a nice layer of light for the FX-Bs to pop though with their multi-faceted looks. Together they create a very full and powerful impression. Gobos from the R1s play off nicely against the beams of the FX-B. We also create some great moody moments during the show with just the Spots on.”
(Jim Evans)
