Hard rock band Shinedown has just wrapped its biggest stage show to date on The Revolution’s Live Tour, already their second headlining North American trek of the year. Lighting design was by Mitchell Schellenger, with Carter Fulghum out on the tour directing a rig that included effects from Elation Professional SEVEN Batten 72™ linear LED lights. Lighting supply was by Bandit Lites.
“Revolutions” kicked off April 1 in Spokane, WA and toured throughout the U.S. before wrapping May 7 in Knoxville, TN. The acclaimed quartet, hailed for their high-octane live shows, are touring in support of their new album, Planet Zero to be released July 1. The six-foot-long SEVEN Batten 72 strip lights lined 20-ft sections of automated truss that moved into various configurations throughout the show. As the truss angled into different positions, kinetic lines of light moved to form varying shapes and different looks, which Fulghum says made for a great effect. “One of my favorite looks was something we called X Wing,” he explains, “where some of the trusses angled up while others angled down. The effect was to create a look that mimicked the form of an X-Wing Starfighter from Star Wars. It was a great look and one of many.”
Custom effects
The SEVEN Battens were used to help set the mood throughout the entire show, including interludes between songs when they were used as audience lights. Although known for their hard driving numbers, the band achieves a variety of sounds and plays a number of slower ballads as well. “It runs the gamut and therefore we needed a flexible light that could adapt,” Fulghum says, explaining that they used the color-changing linear effects for strobe looks, chases and hits, glow looks and accents. They even accessed the fixture’s 10 zones to create big or small squares of ever-changing light. “We got a lot of use out of them for sure. We custom made all the effects and with the RGBAW+Lime+UV engine there was lots of color choice.”
Other SEVEN Batten fixtures were used from a vertical truss position behind a video wall to light band members from the back while a pair of units placed under grated staging on the downstage shined up to light the band from below. Fulghum, who has been touring with Shinedown since 2012, says he had several people come up to him after the show to comment on the strip lights. “It’s one of the major lights in the rig and although there is a lot of ambient lighting, they cut through in a big way and really got noticed. In fact, there were times when I had to dim them down they were so bright.”
Bandit Lites
Bandit Lites has counted Shinedown as part of the Bandit family ever since owner Michael T. Strickland heard the album Leave a Whisper in 2003. Fulghum has been working with Bandit for years and says the advice and support he gets is first rate. “Over the years, Client Rep Brent Barrett, Jake Tickle (tour support) and owner Michael Strickland have been very active with advice and have always been very supportive.”
The Shinedown rig is now heading back to the Bandit facility in Nashville, where it will be revamped – still with Seven Battens. It heads to Daytona Beach later in May for Welcome To Rockville 2022 where the band headlines May 21 alongside Guns N’ Roses and Rise Against. Shinedown then heads to Europe for a string of festival shows in June before returning to the States for more shows in July.
Photos: Sanjay Parikh
