Patrons of the Belly Up Aspen club were saved from one of those over-hyped, usually annoying “re-launches” as the creatives behind the live music venue decided to take the scenic route to their redesign. “We spent a year redoing the club,” says club LD Adam Skapple, adding that he always had a vision for the club, but the day-to-day demands on his time made it only possible to do it piecemeal. “I’m the only LD here, and the amount of shows we do is incredible — in the past five months, the club has been closed less than seven days!” he laughs.
It’s an industry case study suggesting that, in the high-pressure, high-stakes world of nightclub redesigns, perhaps “slow and steady wins the race.” The club was opened by Michael Goldberg in January 2005, and is an all-ages club that holds a modest 450 people. It is mix-used, with DJs doing the entertaining when live bands are playing. But there are a lot of great bands that play Belly Up, bands that certainly sell out larger clubs. Flaming Lips, Citizen Cope, Shpongle, Rufus Wainwright and Jane’s Addiction are just of a few of the acts that have come through lately.
“I’ve updated pretty much every aspect of our venue,” states Skapple, noting that his first change was to replace the club’s bigger, older fixtures with “a small fixture that had CMY and zoom. I went with Elation Spot 300 Pros.” Then he added a 30-foot wide LED screen lining the back of the stage. This is run through an ArKaos GrandVJ with a Livid Ohm64 controller and touch screen.
“We have 12 Altman Spectra PARs for wash lights, and a ChamSys MagicQ 200.” The setup also includes 21.5W RGB lasers from Laser Production Network controlled with Pangolin QuickShow via another touchscreen.
From Austin to Aspen
Skapple was hired in October of 2009, but hails from another hip town at the beginning of the alphabet: Austin. He had been doing lights for small clubs and bands when he got hired by the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey quartet to light them. “After some more research, they didn’t a have a budget for a full lighting system, so they asked me if I knew video projection, and I said, ‘Sure!’” he laughs, confessing that while he had little experience in video at that point, it immediately became an educational priority. “I learned on the job and continued doing shows for them as well as some summer festivals.
With an evident affinity for bands with four-worded names, he next went to work for Sound Tribe Sector Nine. There they were looking for a tech to work with their LED screens, and once again he learned on the job.
The opportunity to be LD at the Belly Up was intriguing enough for him to accept and move his wife to the snowy mountains of Aspen. “They were doing over 300 shows a year, and the lighting rig needed some work,” he says. “They had some Mac 550s that I cleaned up and refocused, things like that, but about four months into the job Michael [Goldberg] was like, ‘what do you want to do?’”
Lighting, Video, Lasers
Skapple had some ideas. First, he opted to jettison the old projectors, which he never felt looked that good, and to bring in some LED screens. Working with Bryan Knutson, who owns Brown Note Productions out of Louisville, CO, he brought in a 34-foot-wide screen that literally wraps around the back stage and also the DJ booth, in a cohesive manner, and gives a 3D look to that section of the room. Skapple credits Knutson for his work in helping to set it up and dial it in.
The next big decision was to bring in new spots. Skapple narrowed it down to Elation and Clay Paky, but went with the former. “We wanted something not too overpowering for a 450-person room, but had color mixing, zoom, and iris features. A lot of smaller lights don’t have those features, and we got a great deal on them.”
Using an upcoming New Year’s Eve event as a motivator, he looked to incorporate a better media server and went with the ChamSys MagicQ 200 Execute. “It’s really intuitive and interfaces beautifully with our ArKaos media server.” Then, with the end-of-year party quickly approaching, he moved to get lasers. While others said “not enough time,” LaserNet out of Miami came in and set him up with a touchscreen to activate laser displays. “While it was Dec. 12 when we contacted them, they came in and did a great job. They set up mirrors, helped map out the layout — it was a great experience.”
Also in the mix are eight Martin MAC 101 LED moving head wash fixtures. “They are amazing lights. I’m floored with them — the colors are beautiful and, once again, since I’m the main guy setting them up, instead of moving around 55-pound profiles every day, I’m moving these 10-pound fixtures around, and that’s way better.” Also, since the Belly Up stage is a modest 25 by 30 feet, he can squeeze them into tight spaces and light the band better.
Goldberg gets out and comes back inspired, Skapple says, pushing him to do more. “I think he’s really trying to make it have a mini-shed look.” The club, he adds, is still evolving. “When I’m not doing a show, I still change it up. But it’s a great place, because we get amazing bands to play here.” Skapple adds that he believes the quality of the production the house can provide keeps these acts coming back rather than going to bigger houses.
A self-made designer, Skapple credits PLSN with inspiring and educating him. “When I first got into lighting in Austin, I was working with a guy who always had a stack of PLSN magazines right when you walked in. When I first saw it, I thought, this is the greatest thing ever!”
Gear
Lighting, Video, Laser Control
1 ChamSys MagicQ200 Pro Execute w/ external 17” Elo Touchscreen
1 Arkaos Grand VJ, 1 Arkaos Media Master Pro
1 Livid Instruments Ohm64 Controller w/ 15” Elo Touchscreen
1 Pangolin QuickShow w/ 15” ELO Touchscreen
Upstage Fixtures:
8 Elation Design Spot 300 Pro fixtures
8 Altman SS-PAR-100 Spectra PAR LED fixtures
3 ACL Bars (4 × 250W)
4 Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes
Downstage Fixtures:
6 Elation Design Spot 300 Pro fixtures
4 Altman SS-PAR-100 Spectra PAR LED fixtures
4 PixelRange PixelLine Micro W micro-battens
4 ETC Source Four PAR 64 (575W)
6 ETC Source Four Ellipsoidal w/iris (575W)
Floor Support:
6 Elation Design Spot 300 Pro fixtures
4 PixelRange PixelLine 1044s
2 Martin Wizard Extremes
8 Martin MAC 101 fixtures
Additional Details:
1 ETC SmartPack 12 x 1.2kW dimmer packs
2 Le Maitre Radiance Hazers
2 LED curtains (1- 5.2’ x 28.6’, 2- 2.5’x 10’); 25 mm pitch
2 LaserNet Full Spectrum RGB 3W lasers
