"The Auras came into the design pretty late," says Aue, who handled lighting, stage and set design for the tour. "In late summer, Markus Klüsener of Martin Germany approached me about seeing a new product before its official release at PLASA and as I was more than ready to see something new, I said yes. He showed me the Aura and I fell in love with its features right away."
The MAC Aura is the first compact LED moving head wash light with zoom that uses two independent colour systems to produce new 'eye-candy' effects plus functions as a highly capable single-lens wash with fully pre-mixed colour. It was launched at the PLASA trade show in London in September, winning a PLASA Award for Innovation.
"We were all amazed about the fact that it is an LED wash with such a cool beam angle and zoom," Aue continues. "The eye candy was also catchy enough to think about investing and the decision to buy them fell the very next day. Ambion was one of the first companies to order some and as soon as we got the okay for an on-time delivery for the Guano Apes tour, I replaced all the wash fixtures in the original design with the Auras."
The Guano Apes' Bel Air tour kicked off in early summer with a setup that includes a 1.5 x 4m set-piece truss on wheels for easy moving on and off stage. The set-piece holds huge letters in the style of the 'Hollywood' sign and was equipped with an Atomic 3000 strobe and LED PAR lights. With four of the set pieces - the letters A, P, E, and S - Aue decided, due to budget and space (trailer) constraints, to switch from 12 LED PARS and four Atomics to four Auras. "I ended up with a more versatile and easier to build setup," he says.
He also replaced wash lights in the truss and on the floor with Auras (12) and used four more to light banners.
Aue also serves as lighting operator on half of the tour's shows with the other half operated by Christian Maxwitat. The Guano Apes tour is the first time Aue has programmed a tour on a Martin M1 console.
Aue says that he is always curious about new controllers and wanted to give the M1 a try. "We played three shows with Linkin Park over the summer and I had a long chat with their LD, AJ Penn, who was using the M1. I really love the size and weight of the console and the fact that you can take it on a plane. I decided to see what it can do and because live rock shows are the best way to learn a console, Maxi and I decided to take it out on the Apes' tour."
(Jim Evans)
