Accompanying the band throughout the year has been a powerful lighting rig made up of Martin MAC 2000 and Atomic fixtures. The rig, designed by legendary LD Marc Brickman, is left in the capable hands of Ben Richards for the tour.
Lighting supplier Ed and Ted's Excellent Lighting of Oxnard, California supplied the Martin equipment for the North American legs, while in Australia, lighting was supplied by Bytecraft Entertainment through Martin Pro's distributor, Show Technology. Neg Earth took care of the lighting needs on the European leg. "Mark and the band's drummer, the artistic director in the band, came up with the physical design of the show," explained Ben. "However I'm allowed to be creative too. I take the physical design of the show and create the cues all the way through with input from them both. Of course, we can't re-create the whole show on every continent but I redesign the show to make sure it still has the same drama."
Lighting for the North American leg features MAC 2000 Profile, MAC 2000 Wash and Atomic 3000 strobes. While the original leg featured MAC 2000 Profiles surrounding six customized soft boxes, on the latest leg these have been moved to truss elements with six 12ft truss sections carrying three MAC 2000 Profile apiece. Some 10 MAC 2000 Wash are located on the floor with eight more flown vertically. Eight Atomic 3000 strobes complete the look. The shows in Australia were not the full production; it missed the video element and LED screens, but Richards made sure he had the Martin MACs, including 18 MAC 2000 Profile and 16 MAC 2000 Wash fixtures, described the brightness from the MAC 2000 Wash as "amazing".
(Lee Baldock)
