LD Martin Thomas of Relentless Entertainment Design LLC informed us of a new DVD/Blu-ray release of the Alan Parsons Symphonic Project, Live in Colombia, which was originally performed in Medellín in the late Aug. 2013. While Thomas designed and directed the show, video director David Davidian directed the cameras and cuts live.
“We had a previewing three weeks ago at Alan’s home in Santa Barbara, California, and it is probably one of the most amazing sounding live performance mixes I have ever heard,” Thomas says, of the show, which is also being offered via 2-CD Digipak, vinyl and download. “It’s really phenomenal sounding; some of his best live work yet, in my opinion.”
But lighting is Thomas’ forte, and for this he was tasked with lighting the 70-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra and 40-voice choir for the show, which encompassed a greatest hits collection including “Eye In The Sky,” “Don’t Answer Me,” “Games People Play” and the rarely performed “Silence And I.”
While Colombia might be an extraordinary place to document a performance, Thomas says, “Colombia was chosen for the quality of the orchestra and choir, as well as the exotic locale. Dave and I have some great stories about the advance work!
“The event was broadcast live to the country as part of a month-long celebration of the [orchestra], and we were the only televised performance, as well as the only rock act to perform during the celebration,” he explains.
Thomas noted that this unique gig was not without unique challenges. “I designed the system, and it was to be trucked in from Argentina for the event — a large steel system constructed in the business district plaza of Medellín. A week before we flew, there was a nationwide trucker’s strike, and all transportation was slowed to a crawl. Imports were held at the border, and [the production company] pulled their gear when the promoter couldn’t guarantee them safe passage. The local companies jumped into the pool and pieced together a pretty close representation of the original design, but several of the units were copies/clones of the specified fixtures. All my pre-viz work was lucky for me, as I spent three of the four programming days just trying to build fixtures that did not act like the lights they were supposed to be.
“Add that into a massive error on the local crew’s part of putting the wrong address info into the LED Pars, and final dress rehearsal and camera blocking was a day that I would never care to relive. The fact that the crew was able to get anything there due to the protests was the big reason that I didn’t lose it on the local guys; they were trying their hardest on probably the biggest rig they had ever assembled,” he says.
“Add in that they had to dead-hang a large portion of the show because they could not get enough electric hoists to the site, and any repair work had to be done by rappelling out of the high steel,” Thomas adds. “Well, you can imagine that I was a bit spun up!”
Thomas will tour with The Alan Parsons Live Project through Europe this summer, with special limited dates in the U.S. throughout the year.
For a look at Eye in the Sky from Alan Parsons Symphonic Project, go to www.plsn.me/PLSN-AlanParsons-Colombia.
Quick Cues
LD Bryan Hartley is out again with Megadeth, doing a few festivals in the States before they head off to Europe for the festival season over there. Thinking ahead, he’s also just finished his 2016 design for The Trans-Siberian Orchestra. “(It’s) my 19th design in 17 years with TSO. And as always, it’s very big, with lots of toys to play with.”
LD Ryan Krebs reported in from Freeman Chicago, describing how they lit up “the bean” (a.k.a., Anish Kapoor’s monumental sculpture, “Cloud Gate”) on behalf of the NFL for the 2016 NFL Draft. Between April 28-30, multiple buildings and landmarks were awash with different NFL team colors when that team was “on the clock,” he says. Draft Town had many different components in Chicago’s Millennium and Grant parks.
Jason Rothberg is lighting director on the Lumineers’ Cleopatra world tour, carrying out a new design by LD Sooner Routhier. They just finished a month in Europe and are now on the U.S. leg.
LD Dara Guiney has accepted a new job designing and operating Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals for the upcoming Call It What It Is world tour, which kicks off June 23 in the U.S.
LD Phil Ealy says he’ll be “jumping back and forth” between Kenny Chesney and the Guns N’ Roses reunion tour this summer.
LD Chris Lisle has been busy in recent months putting out new designs for Lee Brice, Chris Young and Sara Evans. “We are busy in the planning stages of a couple of big projects including the Nashville July 4 and the Kaaboo Del Mar festival,” he says.
Lighting director Joey Troup will be on the road with Marilyn Manson this summer, supporting Slipknot.
LD Alex Skowron continues with John Fogerty, touring the U.S. and Canada for the summer and another residency at the Venetian in Las Vegas for the month of September. With June off, he’ll light commencement ceremonies for Northwestern University and later that month fill in on some Sheryl Crow dates for his friend, LD Nook Schoenfeld.
LD Don Weeks is still out with Yes, currently on its U.K./European tour, which wraps up June 1. From July 25-Sept. 4, a U.S. tour will have the band perform “The Album Series,” featuring the Drama album in full, plus Tales from Topographic Oceans (sides 1 and 4) and a selection of their greatest hits. Weeks will run some regional festivals while at home during June.
Lighting director Susan Rose returns to Camp Ringo for Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band June-July 2.
LD Chris Werner and Noah Mitz lit the launch of the new Tesla Model 3 with Full Flood. Other team members on the project included Raj Kapoor (producer) and Tamlyn Wright (production designer) from Silent House. All were partnering with the folks at Best Events. Werner and his team at Chris Werner Design just received some recognition from the Illuminating Engineering Society for projects completed last year. They took home Award of Merit honors in the Illumination Awards for the Peterson Automotive Museum’s interior lighting and advanced lighting controls; and for the Winter Palace (the facade of Saks Fifth Ave. in NYC) exterior lighting and advanced lighting controls. The honors each came from the IES and its Los Angeles Chapter, totaling six awards. Werner says, “I’m surrounded by a small but mighty team. They are the only reason I get to brag about awards.”
Send your summer tour news to Debi Moen at dmoen@plsn.com
