Well I’m back at the old Sound Stage TV studio at WTTW in Chicago. Familiar building, but boy has the look changed. This is my fifth year doing shows down here, with 3 different directors. This time Bob Peterson is at the helm and the difference is quite noticeable.
After countless shows, someone has finally gotten rid of all the red drape that has dressed this stage ever since I first walked in. That darn red drape could never really be lit solidly in any color…, but red. Now there’s a complete flat grey cyclorama. Lt with cycs and VL washes, it’s a thing of art.
Tom Celner is running the lights thru a Virtuoso. Upstaging brought down a wide selection of Varilite and Martin fixtures. Nocturne supplied a bunch of V9 hidef tiles for me to splatter various video images on them. I use a maxxyz console and some catalyst 4’s. The cats make it easy to split the images between the 10 separate walls I feed.
The Counting Crows are playing tonite. Their LD is Mikey Z, an old friend of mine. We spend the afternoon picking out video content for each song. Then we have Bob look at each clip and give it the thumbs up or down. Bob’s playing nice. I find him a pleasure to work with anytime. He doesn’t yell or flail his arms like many a rooster does while directing the lighting on these things.
Mikey and I start programming the Crows tour next month. I have a lot of similar video elements so this is great for getting us some ideas and a starting point. Plus this is the first time I’ve heard the new songs. Well the show is close to starting so I gotta go. Gotta run the show then head for the airport.
