Both Modest Mouse and the Pixies were separately touring in 2023, when word between the two camps began flying back and forth about a possible co-headline tour. The Pixies had an early summer North American tour with Franz Ferdinand. Modest Mouse was part of Weezer’s Indie Rock Road Trip tour. But come August and September, the co-headlining tour of the two indie rock stalwarts came together, bringing Cat Power as opening act. The tour also brought designers Dave Morris and Nathaniel Beckett together to create a partially shared rig yet still two distinct designs.
Dave Morris is the Pixies Touring Lighting Designer and Director and works in tandem with Pixies’ Production Designer Paul Normandale of Lite Alternative Ltd based in the UK. The co-headline tour was confirmed while the Pixies were touring in Europe. For their production, they were carrying a floor package provided by Upstaging, picking up local production of a flown rig of 26 Martin MAC Viper Profiles.
Nathaniel Beckett, Designer and Director for Modest Mouse, was likewise carrying a good size floor package—and utilizing local rigs for overhead lighting—provided by Theatrical Media Services (TMS) out of Omaha NE. At first it was thought the formula of using local venue rigs in conjunction with the separate floor packages would continue for the co-headline project.
Laying Out the Rig
Beckett, realizing the Pixies would be closing the majority of the dates until MM reached their huge fanbase in the northwest immediately designed, and had TMS build, custom carts for his floor package to facilitate quick changeovers and efficiently use the stage space. Twenty-four Martin MAC Quantum Wash lights and 12 GLP JDC1s would ride in these carts. “That was brilliant on Nate’s part,” smiles Morris. “Modest Mouse has a large backline setup, and Pixies are fairly specific about how they’re space is laid out; real estate was precious, especially with the different stage sizes of the varying venues.”
By the time Pixies hit New Orleans, Beckett’s hometown, management for the two bands had decided they would tour the complete lighting system including the flown truss lights for the co-headliner. “Nate was kind enough to come to the New Orleans show,” says Morris. “We were able to meet in person which was great. He met the Pixies team at that point, and we were able to have a bit of a chat face to face about how things would go.” “That’s when Dave and I put our heads together on what our flown rig should be,” continues Beckett.”
Pixies have no backdrop or followspots. Their stage vibe is all about backlighting, a lot of atmospherics and silhouettes. “They are not big fans of front lights,” says Morris. Toward that end Morris’ overhead lighting consists entirely of Martin MAC Vipers. “Since he was content with his 26 Vipers in the air,” says Beckett, “I got a bit more say of what to include in the trusses.” He mimicked his floor package and deployed MAC Quantum Washes with JDC1s in the truss, adding six Elation CUEPIX. Downstage left and right were four Elation SIXBAR 1000s.
No Front Light
Morris continues, “Really their ask for no front light just means I have to be a bit creative with some floor spots in the downstage corners which allows a bit of cross light onto the band. We have a simple front truss with either Lekos or some sort of automated spot. I will try to get as much front light on the band as I can for the audience, but within the band’s own comfort level. The band would happily have no front light at all and it’s my job to sneak something where I can. Obviously, the fans want to see the band—that’s why they’re there—so it’s a good fun juggle!” laughs Morris.
“I really like the Martin Quantum Wash,” says Beckett. “Their beam lens rotation affect works well with a lot of the dreamy guitar tones and flowing bass tones of Modest Mouse. At certain times I would put that in. It makes the whole atmosphere of the room kind of wiggle a little bit; more to kind of groove a little bit smoother with the music. I would just drop in a delayed rotation of all the beams, and it would make its own shape on the stage while it was going, and each position would make different angles. It was really unique to dive deeper and deeper into changing the beam rotation with the positional changes and with the positional effects to see both beam rotation and the pixel map on top of it.”
Beckett continues, “The layers and layers and layers of getting into it began to take on their own forms so that I did not need to drop in a gobo at any point. The images really overwhelmed my senses and I suspect the audience’s as well. To top the scenes off, I had a ton of haze on the stage and added pastel color washes. It wasn’t just smoke rolling off the performance area; the feeling of the look saturated the audience as well!”
Keeping Up
Neither Lighting Director uses timecode. Their bands walk on and start rocking; it is their job to keep up. “Pixies have their own unique approach to shows,” remarks Morris. “They make every effort to make each night different, while doing it effortlessly. And that is about the only brief—apart from keeping front light to a minimum—that I do something different each night; jam with them. That is both the challenge and the fun of running lights for them. They rarely have a set list, never do the same lineup of songs two nights in a row. I have moments programmed for some songs that I can call up; even some entire songs programmed but my console is accessible to go along with the accents and changes they move through as the feeling strikes them each night.”
“Modest Mouse really likes to play and interact with their audience,” points out Beckett. “They delve into off the wall themes and such depending on where we are with some songs specific to the region or a past memory from playing the venue once before. Every night is very different, and it can get really interesting keeping up!”
On top of all that is the very nature of the two bands. Their DNA is similar, so they share a common fanbase somewhat, yet their styles are diametrically opposite. The Pixies are moody with great use of negative space. Modest Mouse evokes playfulness and bright palettes. The innate operation of Morris’ and Beckett’s styles enhance the feeling that the audience is seeing two very different shows in the same three hours.
Support Team
Both men acknowledge the successful operation of their shows each night to their amazing lighting technicians and the rest of the touring staff. Morris brought his Upstaging Tour Tech Matt Helmick with him. “Matt had been on the previous two U.S. runs with us,” says Morris. “He was with us again looking after the stage and changeovers for me. He got together with TMS’ Crew Chief Seth Carne and L1 Clark Baechle during pre-prep to assure smooth integration of the two systems.”
Carne looked at each venue during that time and determined 8’ sticks of truss would be needed for different structure configurations rather than the originally speced 10’ sticks. “There were a couple SL320 outdoor stages which are only 32’ wide and some theaters with weight restrictions,” recalls Beckett. “Seth saw we would need to split the mid and up stage trusses due to weight and width restrictions.” One venue only had two points 32’ off center so they “robbed Peter to pay Paul” by shortening the up and mid truss then adding those to the downstage.
Adjustments to the universe’s were needed as well. “Seth realized all this on one of our first days of prep and had the whole rig ready to go for that split. He is an ace of crew chief. He really made every day happen for all of us,” adds Beckett.
“We did not have a single issue, console and integration-wise, the whole tour,” says Morris. Both he and Beckett drove their shows on grandMA consoles. When room permitted at FOH, each set their boards up with a backup grandMA light. Other nights in close quarters they simply loaded their show files on each other’s board, utilizing those as backups. “It was a good, interesting experience,” says Morris. “Modest Mouse is a great band and Cat Power opened the show every night, which was a real treat. It was good to see the three bands together and yeah, a very happy touring camp I believe.”
Holly Russell, TMS account rep for Modest Mouse, attributes that ‘from the top down’ vibe to the band’s Production Manager, Paul Villarreal. “Paul deserves a great deal of credit for mentally preparing the entire Modest Mouse team to walk into this co-headline with the right attitude. Co-headlines can be challenging, especially when the first show is the first ‘everything.’ Walking into those situations with a ‘TEAM’ mentality makes all the difference in the world and sets the tone for the rest of the tour.”
“It was really interesting to see what could be pulled from the rig design,” adds Beckett. “My show is extremely colorful and bright while Dave’s is extremely moody and powerful with primary colors whereas I was wide open with a lot of pixel mapping.”
“The choice to feature these two bands together on a co-headline was brilliant,” Beckett continues. “They have the same fan base, a similar genre of music if you will, yet totally different styles. The audience got two entirely different sets. You can hear cross influences on each other’s sound, but the audience is not sitting through two 70-minutes shows of the same thing. Lighting, of course, totally enhances and guides the audience through the gamut of emotions each band brings out. It really was a great tour. I enjoyed directing my guys, and as a fan of the Pixies got to enjoy their show as well. And I learned a lot from being able to just sit and watch David. It’s great to see another artist do something in a different way.”
PRODUCTION TEAM
Modest Mouse
- Tour Manager: Robin Laananen
- Production Manager: Paul Villarreal
- Lighting Designer/Director: Nathaniel Beckett
- Lighting Crew Chief: Seth Carne
- L1: Clark Baechle
- Assistant Tour Manager: Rocky Tinder
- Stage Manager: Dennis Moroni
Pixies
- Tour/Production Manager: Simon Foster
- Production Designer: Paul Normandale
- Lighting Director: Dave Morris
- Upstaging Lighting Tour Tech: Matt Helmick
- Production Assistant: Mili Foster
- Stage Manager: Paul ‘Chumpy’ Knowles
VENDORS
- TMS: Holly Russell
- Upstaging: Richard Locklin, Josh Wagner, John Bahnick
GEAR
Shared: Flown
- 26 Martin MAC Viper Profile
- 24 Martin MAC Quantum Wash
- 12 GLP JDC1
- 6 Elation CUEPIX WW4
- 2 Smoke Factory Tour Hazer II
- 9 CM 1 Ton Chain Motor
- 4 CM ½ Ton Chain Motor
- 15 8’ Tyler Truss GT Hud Truss
Modest Mouse Floor
- 24 Martin MAC Quantum Wash
- 12 GLP JDC1
- 4 Elation SIXBAR 1000
- 2 Smoke Factory Tour Hazer II
- 2 High End Systems FQ-100
- 1 grandMA3 light
- 2 grandMA3 NPU Large
Pixies Floor
- 42 Ayrton MagicDot-R
- 12 Martin MAC Viper AirFX
- 6 GLP impression X4 Bar 20
- 6 PROLIGHTS ArenaCob 4FC
- 4 Martin Atomic 3000 LED
- 4 Custom Mole Beam w/ 3 CP61 Lamps
- 1 grandMA2 full
- 1 grandMA2 light
- 2 grandMA2 NPU
- 2 grandMA3 8port Node
