USA - Country music group Midland has taken to the road for the Get Lucky Tour with a lighting system provided by long-time vendor, Bandit Lites. The Grammy-nominated group (comprised of Mark Wystrach, Jess Carson and Cam Duddy) recently released their fourth studio album Barely Blue to critical acclaim.
“It’s a whole new tour, whole new look, whole new set, whole new lighting setup and stage plot,” Carson told a Rio Rancho reporter. “It’s just fun to rebuild the set list and the whole, kind of, live experience when you have a new album. You can kind of integrate that into it, but it’s going to be the same Midland energy and entertainment, so it’ll be a fun night of honkey-tonkin’.”
Inspired by the retro rigs seen on various tours, Cam Duddy (bassist for Midland and creative director) sought a PAR can look. Working with production manager Kris Heinold, Bandit Lites client rep Mike Stanley and lighting director Paolo Alfaro, they workshopped various versions before arriving at the current rig utilising Bandit’s FlexRax carts.
“The FlexRax carts have been a game changer,” said Alfaro. “Not only have they enhanced the look that we were looking for, but also the versatility that it has provided and how nicely packed our truck is now. I love those carts. The way you can just roll them onto stage, lay everything out and then at the end of the show, load it out nice and quickly, it has really changed things. Our loadouts used to take anywhere from one to one and a half hours depending on the show, and now we have had loadouts that have only taken us about 35 minutes, which is insane.”
“Thrilled to get another Midland rig on the road,” said Stanley. “It was fun watching this one go from a napkin sketch to coming alive.”
The team chose fixtures that would fit and travel in the FlexRax to streamline transportation, ultimately using Elation CuePix WW4, Elation Seven Batten 42, Martin Atomic VDO Bold, Mega-Lite Circa Scoop LED, grandMA2 Full console for control.
“The Martin Atomic VDO Bolds are amazing,” said Alfaro. “The things that you can accomplish with the fixture are almost unlimited: from being able to make the background do pixelated effects to the centre ‘beam’ giving it a bright punch, adding on to the fixture; you can really be creative, especially in groups, which we have them in.”
The Circa Scoops XL stood out to Alfaro from the previous tour and he enjoyed the creative freedom the pixel application offered. “On this tour, I utilise every single pixel in different ways, depending on what song it is on the set,” he explained.
The WW4 blinders provided additional tungsten looks, while also both accenting PAR looks on slower songs and flashing on higher BPM songs.
“The service from Bandit has been amazing,” said Alfaro. “From getting the fixtures replaced, making sure that all of our gear is up to par, to getting things changed in a matter of 24 hours’ notice because some lighting didn't quite check the box, it has been beyond excellent!”
