Westerberg used 12 Studio Beams (six on the flybar, six on the floor assidelights), a sharkstooth cyc, four six-cell battens, six four-light Moles,three Diversitronic strobes, three half-sphere rotating mirror balls (placedon the floor) and six ETC Source Fours.
Designing for a performer who likes to change things each night meant thatlighting would differ from show to show. New songs would be introducedwithout warning and the play list would be moved around. Westerberg had tobe ready to work on the fly, using Congo jr's hands-on faders toreact quickly and improvise whenever an unplanned song arose.
"Congo jr gives me direct access to my sequences," says Westerberg, "andwith no set song list, I really need to be fast. The Congo jr makes it easyfor me to work as a lighting designer. I can design as I go along,responding to the mood of the music and the intent of the lyrics. This desklets me focus on my art, rather than on console commands. I can concentrateon what's going on onstage instead of having to focus on complicated actionson the console."
No stranger to moving lights either, Westerberg has been designing for 12years, serving as assistant lighting designer at the Stockholm Royal Operaand the National Opera Oslo as well as touring with ballet companies andother concerts. This recent tour bore her signature lighting design style -which, she explains, derives from the European or Germanic school oflighting as opposed to what some call an Anglo Saxon or American one: "Ipaint with big brushes - groups of lights dedicated to certain parts of thestage - rather than choosing to scatter lights individually in a morepointillistic, sieve-like effect." Westerberg measures out large chunks ofspace for illumination. "If you take the colour away, it would be verynaturalistic - broad swathes of light, such as you might find in a dramaticsunlight effect.
The Congo jr's ability to apply times to manual changes allowed Westerbergto paint the band and the set as the music demanded. She could assign a timeto a palette and change the colours in some but not all of the lights.Climactic moments in the music could be met with equal drama in the lightingand then changed subtly as the music again changed. "The Congo jr is so mucheasier than any of the other boards I've worked with. I like the way thisconsole is built up," Westerberg continues. "It's so logical. I can set thetimes for every parameter and not even think about it."
Westerberg owns her own personal Congo jr, which she's taking on the roadagain as the show goes out for an extended six-week tour, startingmid-February. She'll be adding more moving lights to the rig and increasingthe conventional count as well. With the full functionality of the largerCongo and operating the same powerful software, as well as an optionaladd-on Master Playback Wing for more than 40 faders and two LCDs for fullplayback capability and complete control of all masters and Direct Selects,Congo jr exceeds her needs. "The Congo jr can handle any rig," saysWesterberg. "I'll take it with me wherever I go."
(Chris Henry)
