When you ask Russell Armentrout about how he came to work for Performance Lighting over 28 years ago, he laughs and says, “I was in the right place at the wrong time.” At the time, he was involved in music, but as a drummer, not a lighting designer. When Armentrout joined Pete’s Lights, the company itself was only a few years old. The owner/founders, Douglas and Robert Peterson, formed the well-respected company in July 1985, boasting among their early clients tours with George Thorogood, George Benson and REO Speedwagon. Armentrout came up through the ranks at Pete’s Lights, today known as Performance Lighting, working as a lighting designer and senior crew chief. Today, he is president of the company. PLSN caught up with him recently to discuss his career in the industry and the core of what keeps Performance Lighting’s clients coming back.
PLSN: Tell us about your early days at Performance Lighting and working your way up the ladder.
Russ Armentrout: I was fresh out of school, my band had broken up, and I had car payments coming in; I needed a gig! When I ran into Alex Skowron, who at the time ran lights for one of the local rock clubs, he told me that Pete’s — they were known as Pete’s Lights back then — needed some help prepping for a Stevie Nicks tour they had just gotten. This was 1988, and Pete’s used to spin their own custom aluminum PAR64s. They had a slightly shorter barrel, and they toured better in this ten-foot, twin rail, 9-circuit live bar that they had designed. It stacked well and it was truck-packable. Of course, I didn’t know any of that at the time; just that they needed to build a lot of the things. I ended up in a warehouse until five in the morning putting PAR cans together with this great group of guys. I just remember everybody working and laughing and having fun. It was cool; I was 22 at the time.
I was also driving a truck part-time to make money, so I had a CDL license, and that really helped me get the job. Pete’s had this huge truck at the time — a custom box, so it could fit a four-stack of double row. Mike Mahoney was one of the crew chiefs then, and he said, “Hey, back that truck in the dock, Mister Truck Driver.” So I did. I lined it up square and that was that; it kind of kicked off my career.
When I started in 1988 at Pete’s it was a great fit for me. They were a group of production lighting people doing something interesting and creative. It was just an unbelievable group of guys led by Douglas Peterson, the CEO and founder of the company, working with his brother, Bob Peterson. For me it was, and still is, about the people who you’re with, having fun but working hard and taking care of the gigs you were doing.
Tell us about some of your more memorable experiences at the start of your career.
I’ll never forget my first challenging experience, because I was working as a technician. Originally, all you had to do was lift the rig and execute the show. One day, though, John Bahnick walked in the back with an LCD controller manual, for the old High-End Systems’ LCD controller. He said, “You’re going to run moving lights tomorrow.” John spent the afternoon teaching me how to address and program the controller and next day sent me out to a show at the Chicago International Amphitheatre. That was pretty nerve-wracking!
I think my whole career in this industry has been memorable going back to the first Ted Nugent Whiplash Bash we did; that was amazing. It was probably 1989 or 1990 — New Year’s Eve at Cobo Hall in Detroit, and we had a 300 PAR can rig. I drove the truck there and helped do the setup; that one really sucked me into this as a career. One of my first truly memorable tours was with Jackson Browne. Dave Davidian was the lighting designer and director. He is just an amazing person and that whole crew — they were all true professionals. I really felt fortunate to be involved with them.
What is it about this industry that keeps you going?
I love that every day is different. As much as we try to plan out, schedule and predict, this business is changing every minute. I like that. I think I am attracted to that type of environment. I could never make it in a strict 9-5 corporate environment. Douglas, the owner here, has been great to me. He has given me the freedom to work as I want, and the trust to take care of his clients and the company. It’s been a very good relationship. Who could ask for more?
I first got involved in the industry when it was analog, and just watching everything change has been kind of amazing. It’s an interesting line of work if you’re cut out for it. At Performance, we have a team that is second to none, and we’re very well known in the industry to be very efficient at getting systems up quickly. That keeps us in demand. We’re very seasoned at training our guys, and we’re on top of the need to do all of the prep work. Put your time and energy into prep, get everything on the truck, and you’re going to have a good day. I think it is important as people enter the industry that they are prepared for it to be blood, sweat and tears. Don’t be afraid to work hard — don’t be afraid to get in the truck and get your hands dirty. The hard work pays off, and you get to look back on some great friendships and memories.
How would you sum up Performance Lighting at its core?
We got a call in 1997. They were putting on a concert for the 20th anniversary of Elvis’ death in Memphis at the Mid-South Coliseum, and they were using a West Coast company to supply the lights. For some reason — I don’t remember if they couldn’t get trucks back in time or get it prepped — but we got a call asking if we provide the lighting at the last minute. I looked at the plot and said, “No problem; we’ve got this.” We had a great, really solid crew, and we got the rig up. Then the lighting designer, Marilyn Lowey, walked over and told us that she was really sorry, but she had forgotten about the 32-person choir that would be performing. She wanted know if we could pull the 30K off the upstage and add it to the downstage. I said ‘Yes,’ that one way or another, Hell or high water, we would do it. She left, and we huddled up to figure out how we would do that. When she came back an hour and a half later and her programmer brought up some faders she looked at me and said, “You guys are the Marine Corps of the lighting industry.”
The ironic part about that comment is that Douglas Peterson was a Marine, and Performance is built on a lot those principles — to keep things clean, to be organized, prepared, and to look out for each other. So yeah. Performance Lighting — we’re the Marine Corps of the lighting industry.
