Lighting Co
Solotech
Venue
Various (Tour)
Crew
- LD/Production Manager: Dale Doucette
- Lighting Directors: Gabrielle Scheff (Heart), Dan Cassar (Joan Jett), Larry Morin (Cheap Trick)
- Lighting Crew Chief: Mathieu LaVallee
- Lighting Techs: Erik Phillips, Sam Hooker, Casey Lawson
- Video Co: Solotech
- Video Director: Casey Lawson (Heart)
- Video Content: Mark Devlin (Heart), Nick Militello & Bryan Hartley, IT Factor (Joan Jett)
- Solotech Account Rep: Dean Roney
- Trucking Co: Ozark Mountain Leasing/Denise Henry
Gear
- 2 grandMA2 Full consoles (Heart)
- 2 HES Road Hog 4 Full consoles (Joan Jett)
- 36 GLP impression X4S fixtures
- 32 GLP impression X4 fixtures
- 22 Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots
- 24 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 48s
- 22 Elation ACL 360 fixtures (Heart only)
- 20 Elation Elar Par 180 RGBAW
- 12 Chauvet Legend 230 fixtures
Designer Insights by Steve Jennings
PLSN caught the “Rock Hall Three For All” Tour and spoke with Dale Doucette, the lighting designer and production manager for the tour; along with Gabrielle “Gabi” Scheff, lighting director for Heart; and Dan Cassar, lighting director/designer for Joan Jett. (Larry Morin was the lighting director for Cheap Trick, and the tour’s lighting and video supplier was Solotech.)
Dale Doucette has been in this industry the past 35 years. Doucette had been Heart’s lighting designer and designer for 11 years prior to becoming their PM over two years ago.
Dale Doucette
Lighting Designer/Production Manager
“I had done quite a few shows with Heart and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts over my time, so I knew a little bit in what to expect as far as the footprint on stage for all the bands involved. The rig was open for all to use with the exception of 22 Elation ACL 360’s for Heart’s set, which John Dunn with Elation so graciously donated to us to use, starting in March with a Canadian tour we did together with Joan, which was the prelude to the summer tour.
“We had three great and different lighting directors out this summer on this tour who worked well together. All three were able to make the rig look like three different shows. Adding the ACL 360’s to Heart only gave it a little separation at the end as well. Overall I was very happy with the outcome.
“My thought process going in was to try and get as much as I could for the budget we had. I am a big fan of saying to the vendors, what have you got that no one is using and I will take a bunch of them. So although some of it was older technology, if you have enough of it, it looks big and that was my goal. The rig worked well for all three bands, which was great. Dean Roney and the Solotech guys are old friends from tours past and they have treated me very well in the few years I have used them now. Whereas I may have had some older stuff in the lighting rig, the video wall was newer stuff so we had some give and take there which was great. David Bergeron who has been a crew chief for me a couple of times worked with me bringing the rig concept to life from a sketch on a napkin to a CAD reality.
“Larry (Morin), Dan (Cassar) and Gabi (Scheff), along with the entire Solotech production team made my life easy over the summer. Really, true professionals, all of them. I really enjoyed myself working alongside them and we had fun too, which makes it even better. All three bands got along great all summer which felt good for me. I put a lot of effort into trying to give all involved, the proper respect deserved. It’s not that often you have three Hall of Fame acts on the same bill. They are all old friends as well which helped make things work so smoothly, and it did.
“Gabi being from Boston and me from Vermont, she drove to my house and crashed for the night, and then we drove to Montreal the next day to Solotech’s shop and programed for four days last February prior to the March run in Canada with Joan. We had the whole rig hanging in their warehouse which helped. Dan came in for a few days as well after we finished our time. I decided to use the same rig for the summer after seeing it in an arena setting in Canada which looked big. Dan Cassar did that run with us so he and Gabi at that point both had a show in the can, so it became just a matter of getting Larry on desk and away we went. We came straight into the summer run from doing some UK dates and took one day in Detroit as a production day. Probably could have used two or three, but we got through it.
“I had used Solotech a couple of times prior mainly lighting and video only. Dean Roney and I spent a few years together doing Bryan Adams, 10 or so I think, spinning the planet, he being the sound crew chief and systems engineer and myself being the lighting director and we have remained good friends over the years. I am really impressed by the company spirit and pride that the Solotech staff show on a daily basis. It really is refreshing to an old lad like myself.
“Heart don’t really use haze, as neither one of the Wilson sisters are a fan of it, so Gabi had a somewhat clean looking show all summer long. Dan had to cut back a little as well and Larry had no issues on that front but had the early spot and had to deal with some daylight at curtain venues being as this was a shed summer tour.
“I personally had a great summer and would do it again in a heartbeat, no pun intended. I got a chance to work with a lot of younger guys and gals which seemed to put a little bit of a younger jump in my step as well, which was fun. I think respect was the key overall, everyone respected each other and the effects of that were and are all positive outcomes and it showed. A successful summer I would say, and fun which is a key component.”
Gabrielle Scheff
Lighting Director/Heart
Gabrielle “Gabi” Scheff has worked with Heart on and off in varying positions the past four years. She originally came out as a lighting technician with a small ML package on an East coast regional run. By the end of that month, Dale had her booked in to cover a small runout later that season.
“I came back as a tech again after that, and eventually took over as lighting director when Dale took over the position of production manager. I had been out on another project last year, but had the opportunity to come back as LD again this year and gladly snagged the offer. Having watched Dale’s show and listened in on his spot calls for a couple of years, running a show to his standards was a welcome challenge.
“The “Rock Hall Three For All” tour was an absolute blast. We had three well-oiled machines coming together in one venue, and once we hit our pace it allowed us all to take a step back and enjoy the sense of community around us. It was important for us to make sure that each LD had sufficient time during the day to take care of focus and any programming notes, and the camaraderie that developed in that process was invaluable.
“Each LD absolutely carried their own style, which made it naturally easy to tell the visuals of each set apart. Dale’s style is very linear, trading in big cross-stage positions for mainly tilt-driven focuses that explore the depth of the stage. This also allows bigger ML heads like the Vari-lite 3000’s to move in time with smaller, lighter LED fixtures, and makes transitions between looks incredibly snappy when needed.
“Heart had exclusive use of the Elation ACL 360 Matrix fixtures, which were peppered throughout the rig. This gave Heart’s look a unique edge, the face of the fixture contrasted with the round beams of the GLP X4 and Vari-lite fixtures. The continuous pan and tilt features gave us some powerful movement effects, and the twenty-five individual RGBW cells allowed for some really interesting chases and dimmer effects, providing both subtle and punchy accents to the rest of the rig.
“Heart and Joan Jett initially did an arena tour through Canada with this rig, the Queens of Sheba Tour, in March. Dale and I road-tripped up to Montreal in late February to get this show on its feet. We spent four or five days in the Solotech warehouse with our crew chief Mathieu LaVallee getting the rig itself fine-tuned and programming the lighting and video content. Solotech, the gear and the crew, were outstanding. This year (the Queens of Sheba Tour in March) was my first time working with Solotech. Heart has a long standing relationship with them on prior tours throughout Canada and the U.S.
“Dale has been lighting Heart for years, and at this point has his style with them dialed in, and his vision is strongly represented across the rig, the show timing, and the custom content he coordinated with Mark Devlin. They are down for most anything that appropriately augments the music.”
Dan Cassar
Lighting Director/Designer for Joan Jett
LD Dan Cassar had not worked with Joan Jett & The Blackhearts or Dale Doucette prior to this tour but was definitely up for it. Cassar was given a set list and the video content for Jett’s songs. He spent about a week listening to the music, and looking at the content where he then started making looks that would compliment the video but kept movement to a minimum, until he could see the full rig and feel out how Joan and the band would react.
“The only thing I changed from Dales plot was to trim the video wall and upstage ladders about 4’ higher. I needed to do this because Heart’s backline was onstage and draped behind Joan and blocked a lot of light. I really didn’t have to think about making Joan’s show look different. How Dale made his show look for Heart was always going to be different than mine or Larry’s for Cheap Trick. That was the beauty of it. You had three LD’s using pretty much the same rig and all three shows looked different.
“Once the plot was finalized, having started this on the Queens of Sheba Tour in Canada, I had about a week to draw it into my visualizer, set up my console with all the palettes and started programming all of the base looks for each song. Then I had a day in Montreal with the full rig. Because of timing, I didn’t even meet Dale or Gabi until the tour started. Thankfully Gabi was gracious enough to give me the rig on our first load in night in Abbotsford. After that it was whatever you could get done before doors.
“Dean Roney from Solotech and I have toured together many times, but this was the first time that I was dealing with him as the account rep. and with Solotech as the sole supplier of gear. Dean and the whole Solotech crew did an incredible job.
“One thing Joan just doesn’t like is strobes. It was straightforward, she got onstage on the first day and waved to me at FOH and said ‘This is how we are going to start the show,’ played ‘Bad Reputation’ and then said, ‘This is how we are going to end the show’ and played ‘Everyday People’ and then walked offstage. So I made a walk-on look and a walk-off look, and that was it. She didn’t ask to see any of the looks for the songs that were programmed, which is not what I’m used too, but it was cool because there was zero to change anything anyway. Once we had been out for a while she was always asking how it was going. And would always inform me days in advance of possible changes to the set list which, thankfully, gave me some time to program new songs. Joan and the rest of the band and crew were great to work with. Dale created a pretty great atmosphere that everyone benefitted from. Gabi was a pleasure to work with. Matt was a great crew chief. Gabi, Larry, Fred, Hilario, Billy and Bill made FOH a fun place to be. I would love to do it again.”
More tour photos by Steve Jennings:
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