Indie groove band Goose’s Dripfield U.S. summer tour united the passion and talents of two lighting professionals – Andrew Goedde and Tony Caporale – who with the assistance of some Robe Tetra2 moving LED battens among other lights, have created a unique, eye-catching look as the band delights fans across America.
Indianapolis-based Goedde has worked as Goose’s LD for four years and also owns a busy lighting rental business. When he and Caporale – well known for his ground-breaking lighting work with Billie Eilish among others – met randomly at a Goose show, they hit it off as friends and realized that a design collaboration would be the way to go for this project.
“Two minds can be better than one,” they both echo in unison, and in this case, the creative results are evident onstage with Tony having worked on programming, bringing his vast fund of experience to the party, and Goedde continuing his great rapport with the band as their lighting designer and touring with the show.
The Tetra2s were a joint decision made by both Goedde and Caporale as they started listening to the new album. “The music was the starting point for the design, and very soon we knew we needed a moving LED batten to emphasize the vibe of the album,” explained Goedde, “and the Tetra2 stood out to us the most!”
Caporale comments that while there are numerous LED batten fixtures out there right now, the Tetra2 “stands out” with its flower effects and other cool features, which together with the excellent zoom “enables us to produce a full range of dynamic design effects, and believe me, we are having had a lot of fun with them!!”
“There’s no other batten that has that amazing zoom and we do some crazy stuff with it,” confirms Goedde.
On the U.S. tour, the 16 Tetras are an integral part of the floor package, positioned upstage on the deck on pipe-and-base stands each angled at 20 degrees to get a quirky look.
The fixtures are programmed with numerous fluid and kinetic effects to get the specific ‘drippy’ aesthetic that Goedde and Caporale wanted, and they are one of the defining visual elements. “We have some very cool ‘digital symmetry’ looks with opposite angles of the Tetra2s chasing in and out, and that 20-degree rotation on the stands really adds to the visual impact and intrigue!” says Goedde.
Aware that Tetra2s are also becoming a bit of a design trend right now, programming was detailed and thought-through as they were determined to use them imaginatively and in “fresh and diverse ways,” says Caporale, “and that’s exactly what we have done.”
“Sometimes new effects will come out of nowhere,” added Goedde, who is impressed with the ability to transform Tetra2 pixels into razor-sharp slimline beams that still cut through fog and atmosphere.
Goedde joined Caporale in Nashville as they pre-vizzed the show in Capture and worked through all the songs, which the band can and do play different every night of the tour. “You simply have to be prepared for anything!” noted Goedde.
Three days of production rehearsals in Pod 2 at Rock Lititz saw some concentrated programming sessions on the grandMA3 console. Goedde runs a Goose show with the flow of the music, but this tour saw a drive to get slightly more structured, so 16 songs are now cue-stacked, and the rest are improvised as they play. “It’s great to have a hybrid showfile that supports both MOs, so I still have the freedom and spontaneity of the jam / live ethos!”
Working alongside him on the road is lighting technician Danny McDonald, who is also a master welder and was instrumental in constructing the angled pipe-and-base stands for the Tetra2s. With a nationwide shortage of kit as multiple tours and live events go ahead post-pandemic, they were lucky to be able to even source the Tetra2s, and that was thanks to Patrick Bellino at Main Light Industries, the principal lighting vendor.
Both Goedde and Caporale have previously used Robe products in their work. “It’s been extremely inspiring to watch the company grow and move forward,” commented Caporale, who reckons that Robe became established as a major player as it brought legendary fixtures like Pointes, MegaPointes and the ubiquitous BMFL series to the market.
“When I know there’s Robe on the rig, I know it’s rock-solid,” said Goedde, who loves BMFLs and Spiiders, adding that these fixtures are great for festival rigs. He loves all the Robe pixel fixtures and all the multifunctional products.
Goedde also has a soft spot for the little Spikie, which also has a multi-color flower effect. “The more flower-power the better.”
