Lighting Company
Brian Lights LLC
Venue
Various (Tour)
Crew
- LD/Lighting Director: Brian Lareau
- Production Manager/FOH Engineer: Noah Almekinder
- Stage Manager: Alex “Beef” D’aurelio
- Set Designers: Mandy Lee, Ann Slote, Matty Vogel
- Content Creation: Ann Slote, Matty Vogel
- Tour Manager: Alex Feld
- Flower Wrangler: Sarah Duffy
- Brian Lights Rep: Brian Lareau
- Set/Staging: HeHir Fabrication/Will Hehir
- Video Company: Nationwide Video/Zach Sadler
- Soft Goods: Rose Brand/Brandi Vold
Gear
- 2 Avolites Pearl Expert Pro Console
- 6 Martin MAC Viper Profile
- 12 Chauvet R2 Wash
- 8 Philips Showline SL Nitro 510C
- 7 Elation Pixel Tape 16IP
- 2 Elation Pixel Driver 4000
- 1 Ultratec Radiance Hazer
- 1 Christie Crimson WU25 Projector
- 1 ArKaos Grand VJ XT w/KlingNet Mapping
- 1 QLab for Projection Playback
Designer Insights by Steve Jennings:
MisterWives Resilient Little Tour
Lighting Designer/Director Brian Lareau and Noah Almekinder, MisterWives production manager and FOH engineer are both from Rochester, NY. It was Almekinder who brought Lareau on board for MisterWives’ LiveDream event that was filmed at RIT’s Magic Center soundstage last year during lockdown. “Everyone meshed so well on that project that when planning began for the Resilient Little Tour, Noah reached out again to discuss design concepts, and asked if I’d be interested in joining the tour as LD,” says Lareau. “That decision was the easiest part. Once we had some final set renderings, the challenges of bringing this show to various sized venues became apparent.”
Singer Mandy Lee is incredibly talented and has an endless wealth of design ideas, notes Lareau. “I don’t have any idea how Mandy’s able to maintain that energy level on stage from the first note to the last. There are only a couple of down tempo songs in the set, but even those are workouts on the vocal side, so she really doesn’t get any break in the set at all. Mandy will put together a storyboard of what she wants the production to look like, and our goal is always to bring her concepts to life as accurately as possible. Her ideas are frequently complex and require creative solutions. We had the space to utilize rear projection on the LiveDream, but given the venues on this run, that simply wasn’t possible.”
Ann Slote was brought in remotely to work with the singer on the set design, as well as producing renderings and creating content. “The biggest task was figuring out how to incorporate video, while only projecting from the stage floor onto a sizable set piece, and still leaving enough room for the band to perform. Once that was done, we got to work putting together a lighting package that would be impactful and able to fit in the minimal spaces we had left over on some of these stages. There was no room for any lighting set carts or prerig trusses, so I selected fixtures that would be scalable to every situation. Mandy also really wanted a border to the set piece, so I added in some of the new Elation Pixel Tape 16IP to attach to the arch, and the lighting design was done.”
For overall lighting design, Lareau says they discussed matching colors to specific content pieces, as well as deciding which songs would make use of the Pixel Tape. “Aside from that, I was left on my own to choose how to light the show. As we had previously worked together, I already had a good sense of what Mandy was looking for on the new songs I hadn’t lit before. We had a few days of preproduction/rehearsals to get everything dialed in, which was critical to the show’s success. She and the band were able to focus on their performance while Noah, Stage Manager Alex “Beef” D’aurelio, and I worked out any potential issues on the tech side. Content Creator Matty Vogel was on site with us, making any necessary video edits to be sure everything was timed correctly and developing more content as the show evolved.”
Because Lareau and Almekinder were both in Rochester, they were able to get together in Lareau’s shop to attack a large portion of the lighting and video checklist before they ever arrived at rehearsal. “We had time code triggering the video content, which ran on one MacBook for the projection and a completely separate setup at FOH to drive the Pixel Tape mapped in Arkaos with KlingNet. The lighting portion is completely busked live and I also have the Pixel Tape patched to the console via Artnet for the songs that do not have any video component. It took some time to get everything talking on the network in multiple IP ranges, with separate protocols, down a single Cat6 line. Frankly, I’m amazed any of it works,” Lareau says.
They then had to take all of these elements and venue specs to Will Hehir, MisterWives’ bassist, who fabricated the set piece. “He designed and welded the arch so that it could travel in multiple pieces and be assembled and torn down in short order,” Lareau explains. Flower wrangler Sarah Duffy and Mandy spent a couple days getting the flower arrangements together, and the final stage layout came together exactly like the initial renderings. “The flowers really took the set over the top to complete the look, adding so much color and depth,” the LD notes. “It’s been one of my absolute favorite designs to date, and I hope the concert goers love it as much as we do!”
More Misterwives photos by Steve Jennings:
