USA - Guitarist and singer/songwriter Gary Clark Jr. is out on his Hyperwave tour in support of his most recent album, JPEGRAW. Bandit Lites provided the lighting for the North American dates, which covered nearly every type of venue, from mobile stages to Red Rocks to Radio City. When assembling the scalable lighting system, designers John Adamo and Robert Fuller took inspiration directly from Clark Jr.’s music.
“We really wanted to try and pay respect to the sonic diversity and range we felt was such a standout feature of the project,” explained Adamo. “We wanted the lighting design to try and reflect what we heard in the music: A combination of strong, defined layers that stand strong in their own right but really shine when woven together.”
The modular rig had a baseline width of 41’ that would need to compress inward or even have entire segments removed so as to compress into whatever trim or load capacity of the venue. Tyler Ladder Towers, was a key part of the big look with eight double hung ladders at the back along with a 20’ circle providing a giant backdrop.
“Bandit’s VP of production Dizzy Gosnell and crew chief Cody Cheatham were able to rethink and redeploy this rig night after night without ever compromising the impact or consistency we were looking for,” said Adamo.
Because the rig was comprised of different layers, it was crucial the chosen fixtures had the capability of both standing out on their own as well as blend in seamlessly with the additional layers of the rig.
Bandit Lites provided Claypaky Sharpy X Frames, Chauvet Color STRIKE M, Chauvet Rogue R2X Wash, Chauvet STRIKE Array 2, Claypaky Midi-B FX, ACME Pixel Line IP, ACME Pixel Line 500 IP, ACME Pulsar S2, Robe Footsie2, Robe Tetra X, VL 3600 Profile IP and two grandMA3 Full consoles for control.
“Fixtures like the Robe TetraX and ACME PULSAR S2 play extremely well together in creating big linear looks while the VL3600s and Claypaky Sharpy X Frames could blend beam, colour, and gobo attributes near perfectly to make the rig appear as if it was made entirely of one type of profile,” Adamo said adding, “We're very grateful that Bandit was able to fulfil the rig with minimal substitutions.
“The level of customer and attention to detail shown by Bandit Lites has been exceptional. Every single person from my account rep Mark Scherer to project manager Matt King to drafter and seemingly rigger-on-call Dizzy Gosnell to the dozens of other folks working behind the scenes have not only been available to assist but have been genuinely invested in the success of our tour.”
