“He said music has color, and the color of music is blue,” said LD Chris Stuba. The design inspiration for Brian Wilson’s summer tour starts with that thought from the Beach Boys legend. Wilson, who is performing with fellow band mates Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplain, presents a welcoming design and programming challenge for Stuba on the lighting console. “Sometimes the bridge of the song starts at the beginning, or the song changes through many time signatures throughout,” Stuba said. “I had to approach programming and running this show differently because of those variances.”
Stuba is enjoying the tour “because it is music that makes you happy,” and he likes working again with production manager Clint Boire, who also serves as audio engineer.
The tour kicked off June 23 in Austin, TX. Prior to that, the band performed a few one-off California shows to promote Wilson’s film, Love and Mercy, and new album, No Pier Pressure. The tour runs to July 26 in North America.
From Boz to Steely Dan
LD Jon Pollak has two longtime bands touring at the same time. This summer he breaks from Boz Scaggs and returns to Steely Dan. He trained Scaggs’ tour production manager Chris Tabarez to run the console as lighting director during that time. Pollak said, “Teaching Chris has been so much fun — he doesn’t have all the baggage, he has a wonderful eye, and it’s great that he’s a clean slate. With Chris, I’ve been served up an angel on a plate.” Tabarez, who spent a lot of time watching the show anyway, said picking up the new skill was “pretty easy.”
Butch’s Plot
After his role as production designer for New Kids on the Block and until his next gig, Butch Allen is busy tending his plot. Not a lighting plot but a garden plot. His recent palette of colors came from his harvest of squash, purple/yellow beans, Swiss chard, haricot verts (thin green beans), radicchio, an assortment of different peppers, herbs, watermelon, tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplants. “I’m a lucky dude,” he said.
Two for the Road
LD Scott Warner has designed two touring acts this summer. He will operate his design with Icona Pop, supporting One Direction, on tour July to September. Meanwhile, because his design for Sublime with Rome goes out during the exact same months, he’s sending out lighting director Aaron Craig to run it.
Future LD for Future Islands
Phil Wienholts, assistant house LD at The ACL Live at The Moody Theatre in Austin, TX, is also the future LD for American synth-pop band Future Islands. He is designing their special 1,000th show taking place July 26 in North Carolina and will join up with the band later September 22-27 for a short West Coast run. This will be his second tour with the band.
Quick Cues
LD Chris Smith is going out this summer with Haim — a pop group comprised of three sisters and a drummer — as they support Taylor Swift’s massive North American tour July 10-Sept. 29. Smith will also fill in some off time with a bunch of one-offs.
Michael Keller is lighting director, running LD Peter Morse’s design for Bette Midler’s “Divine Intervention” tour. (For more info and photos, go to “Wide Angle,” this issue, page 44). Morse also just completed work on the “Move Live On Tour,” featuring Derek and Julianne Hough (from TV’s Dancing With The Stars) and their troupe of 12 dancers. Craig Caserta programmed the show.
LD Chris Lisle is currently in South Africa wrapping up a live DVD shoot for the OneRepublic Native tour. He also recently got a new tour with Billy Currington out the door and is gearing up for a new tour with Miranda Lambert this fall as well.
Ernesto Corti is LD and lighting director for Whitesnake’s Purple tour, so named because they’re playing a few songs from David Coverdale’s time as lead vocalist on two studio albums with Deep Purple, he said.
LD Joel Reiff is touring with Peter Frampton. Now that video director David Davidian has returned to Rush, Reiff says the production become simplified and without video.
After a successful promo run in May for Esperanza Spalding, LD Amy D Lux is out with a new design – carrying an efficient floor package – for her “Emily D+Evolution” North American tour. The LD said it is an interesting project to work on, explaining, “The performance is a funky jazz based concert interlaced with several theatrical moments founded on the underlying conceptual narrative.”
LD Cormac Jackson recently finished a short run with Irish artists Villagers, with more later this year. He’s currently on a festival tour with FFS, a new collaborative band combining Franz Ferdinand and Sparks until September in Europe, with more tba.
Keep Debi Moen posted with your latest whereabouts. Reach her at dmoen@plsn.com.
