San Francisco rock band Train is currently headlining its AM Gold Tour—promoting their new AM Gold album—with support acts Jewel and Blues Traveler. Lighting Designer/Director Joel Wojcik marks his fifth tour with the band. He has done some smaller scale design tours with them, but this is the first tour he has been given total control of all the elements. PLSN spoke with Wojcik about the tour’s design.
Fun Retro Lighting Looks
Wojcik thinks word of mouth and being in the right place led to his working with Train. “It’s been five years so far and during that time I feel I have adapted to any of the challenges that have come my way. I like to think I am a low stress person that’s able to step out of the box, sometimes programming with an arm tied behind my back can be kind of fun! For this tour they did ask me to put in a design bid. Right out of the gate I was able to give them something that was 90% ready. We made a few tweaks over the next month, but we ultimately came up with a design and flow that agreed with the artist and all departments. As I was presenting ideas for songs, I stepped into the role of video creation. Over the pandemic I took to learning After Effects—and I still am—and Jasper Graham from Crush Music and I we were able to come up with content for the tour.”
Most of the design conversation was with one of Train’s managers and Crush Music. It all started from square one, notes Wojcik. “All we had to go with was the album title, AM Gold. Going into this, we knew we were going to do a live stream at Red Rocks, so my overall goal was to have elements from most angles to give the camera some depth and also for the audience to have a backdrop if they were off to the sides.”
The main things that carried over were a lot of the Robe fixture types. These are Wojcik’s main go-to, saying he’s used their gear for many years, and they always seem to stand up to anything. As they evolve, each new fixture gets better, he says, adding that “it’s a relief for me and a relief for the lighting crew. For this design I based my gear off of what was in stock. The first version had flag holders depending on vendor or availability, but once we secured our vendor, LMG, it was easy enough to work with what they had to avoid sub-renting. The MegaPointe and BMFL have always been my go-to lights. I have used the Esprite once before when I did a show at the YouTube Theater and was blown away. I have 27 of these in the rig and even though I rarely used them, when I did, they had a big impact with the intensity and zoom that they have.”
The show has six followspot operators using four Robe RoboSpots and two FOH followspots. Interacting with the followspots worked out great, he notes. “I mostly addressed the FOH spots as they were on Pat or split between Pat and any guest vocalist we had, such as when supporting acts Jewel and John Popper of Blues Traveler come out and sing with Pat for some songs. For the RoboSpots I mostly gave them upcoming blocking points of where their player was going so, they weren’t caught off guard. The console had all their intensity, color, and zoom information, so they just had to keep their target locked.”
To match with the AM Gold vibe, the design team was aiming for a yacht rock, disco, Soul Train vibe. Retro, but fun retro. That’s where the Martin VDO Sceptrons came into play. They, along with the gold fasciae for the risers and truss, were the perfect fit to give a neon dance feel. Other fixtures in the rig include the Vari-Lite Showline 640, Elation Fuze PAR Z120 IP, Chauvet Strike 1 LED blinder, and GLP JDC1 hybrid strobe.
Train has used LMG as their vendor for more than a decade and they have always gone “above and beyond” to ensure satisfaction, the LD says. “Coming into this tour, it was a relief to be able to discuss needs and expectations as they were already familiar with how the Train camp works and what was needed to expedite changeovers and work with the other departments to achieve a cohesive load-in and out.”
For many years the LD has been on the fence when it came to using timecode. When he worked with Robb Jibson of So Midwest, Inc.—who was the production designer for Train’s 2017 and 2019 tours—he really helped him embrace the power of it. “Not so much on an execution level, but more that you can now watch over all the elements in front of you and take witness to adjustments or changes you can make either in real time or at a later moment. I still do bumps and accents live, but the base is timecode. Lighting through the [MA Lighting] grandMA is about 70% timecoded. The [disguise] D3 is about 90%.”
The video screens are made up of 183 ROE Visual CB8 LED panels, fed by two disguise vx 4 media servers. “Video is the easier piece to have controlled as these are pretty set in stone once the tour gets through the first week. But we also have some punt images, videos, or just I-Mag that we can throw up there if they change course—and they do.”
Lighting seems to change a bit more based on crowd reaction, time restrictions, or even just changing the segues, so the LD has to be alert to see any signs of where the songs could be going. “I feel I got ahead of the game as the set lists would evolve on this tour. I already had a small pocket of songs that I felt they could do based on previous tours. I also had version A and B for a few songs depending on when they would play the song in the set. I like when pieces of the show are revealed over time and not all one big shebang at the top of the show. So, if a later song would be played earlier I could use Version B that is still effective, but doesn’t reveal all the gags too soon.”
A Mirror Finish
Working with Gallagher Staging & Productions, who built the set was great, says Wojcik. They had many conversations with Chris “Rock” Glatfelter from his first mockups to the final draft. “We wanted something that would be simple to load-in and out as well as have its own personality when nothing was on. The mirror finish helped add depth to the picture with reflections that would occur regardless of where you were. Ultimately, we made some adjustments to sizes to expedite construction and also make the system more ambidextrous if we needed to downsize a truss or if we do a different version for Europe or wherever. We were ahead of the game when we contacted them about this project as they were already swamped with projects. But they made sure that we were given the attention when we had questions or even needed a walkthrough of things.”
Pyro and Fun Effects
For this tour they decided to go with “good old-fashioned pyro,” adds Wojcik. “We have always had confetti and streamers and we have toyed with different waterfalls. We were trying to step it up a bit. Pyrotek was great at helping guide us into the right products.” The new use of Airbursts, for which Wojcik was a big instigator, turned out to be a good call. While the effect is a different one than most Train fans are used to, it still evokes a reaction from the crowd, he notes. “I think everyone thought I was nuts, but it worked out great. We were able to settle on the right amount of FX varied across the setlist with A and B options in case songs were swapped for others. The Pyrotek guys we had were amazing! They took to learning the music and never missed a cue.”
Singer/front man Pat Monahan wants to give the audience a good time, the LD says. At any given show you see families of varied ages, and the crowd participation is ever growing. There will always be the norms when it comes to gags, such as throwing beach balls and T-shirts into the audience. “We are always looking for something new to add that gets an interaction between the audience and the band as well as the audience interacting amongst each other. There are moments during ‘Save Me San Francisco’ that you just stand back and watch the flurry of beach balls being tossed everywhere and it’s just surreal. It’s also daunting as they eventually hit FOH, so you have to keep your guard up.”
Shout Out
The LD says everyone involved deserves a shoutout. “Lighting, video, pyro, and rigging made this happen not only technically but socially. Everyone had a great attitude and personality that made it great to walk in in the morning and proud when we left at night. We were a tour of 91 people, and everyone got along and worked great together. Charles Teer, our lighting crew chief, did an amazing job of keeping things on task and networking this show. He’s solid in every way.”
But if he had to give a special award for services beyond the job, Wojcik says he’d have to give an honorable mention to Video/LED Tech Andrew Jablon. He explains: “During ‘If It’s Love’ we have the social feed iPhone that we record the audience portion that gets uploaded to the Internet and also gets broadcast on the upstage screen in real time. Right before that moment Andrew would place the phone on the front fill for Pat to get. Pat mistook it for an audience phone, took a crowd selfie and tossed it back into the crowd. Without missing a beat, Andrew put down the pit camera and dove into the crowd to retrieve the phone. And he got it! And it was back onstage for the cue.”
“Robe and MA Lighting have amazing solid gear that stands up to everything we throw at it, and I love that. But one of the little creature comforts I now use on every show is the AVLifesavers’ Momentary Intercom Foot Pedal—it’s push to talk. I’m not one to leave my mic on all the time, so it’s great to be able to trigger the mic by foot and not be rummaging around for the button on my pack!”
Train’s AM Gold tour continues further into 2022, including make-up dates from the pandemic and the West Coast fires back in 2021.
Train AM Gold Tour
Production Team:
- Tour Manager: Sam Mitcham
- Production Manager: Sean Henry
- Lighting Designer & Director: Joel Wojcik
- Lighting Programmers: Cale Wetstein, Joel Wojcik
- Video Director: Scott Forbes
- Video Engineer: Kevin Williams
- Video Content Creators: Joel Wojcik, Jasper Graham (Crush Music)
- Lighting Crew Chief: Charles Teer
- Lighting Techs: Matthew Zimmer, Carlton “Hot Carl” Hughes, Talyia Skye “V” Ruby
- Video/LED Crew Chief: Jeremy Colon
- Video LED/Techs: Andrew Jablon, Hector Rodriquez, Daniel Olson
- Media Server Tech: Jean-Luc Williams
- Camera Tech: Michael “Buzz” Buswell
- Production Assistants: Kayla Reid, Megan Rudd
- Stage Manager: Tim Peffer
- SFX / Pyro Techs: Tom Adams, Tim Bruckner
- Rigger: Yader Mena
- Carpenter: Nate Strohm
Vendors:
- Lighting & Video: LMG/Craig Mitchell
- Staging: Gallagher Staging/Chris “Rock” Glatfelter
- Special Effects/Pyro: Pyrotek/Josh Hedge
Gear:
Lighting
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA3 full-size Console
- 23 Robe BMFL WashBeam
- 72 Robe MegaPointe
- 60 Robe Robin LEDBeam 150
- 22 Robe Robin Esprite
- 4 Robe RoboSpot Followspot Control
- 8 Vari-Lite Showline 640
- 12 Elation Fuze PAR Z120 IP
- 20 Chauvet Strike 1 Blinder
- 10 GLP JDC1 Strobe
- 200 Martin VDO 10 Sceptrons (1,000 mm)
- 24 Martin VDO 10 Sceptrons (320 mm)
- 6 hazebase Base Touring Hazer
Video
- 183 ROE Visual CB8 LED Panel
- 2 disguise vx 4 Media Server
Special Effects/Pyro
- 4 Double Barrel Confetti Cannon
- 4 Double Barrel Streamer Cannon
- 3 Silent Storm Confetti Blower
- 8 Quick Shot Gerb
- 12 Durational Gerb
- 17 Airburst
- 17 Gerb Waterfall
More photos by Steve Jennings:
