Production/lighting designer Dale Doucette describes Heart’s touring schedule as “Two week tourettes.”
“During March to November, we do ‘tourettes’ — two weeks of shows in a particular section of the country in casinos and small 3,000-5,000 venues, then we go home. Every day is a different gig. I carry a file of shows and a handful of songs I keep consistent.
“Casinos usually have the newest technology, so I have learned how to use every console out there now and have used lots of new gear. We bring one truck of gear including backline and wardrobe. I usually spec a three-truss rig with 25 to 30 moving lights. I’m weaning myself off of PAR cans on this one and using moving LED heads and movers only.”
While touring, Doucette talks with Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson every day about the lighting. “Like with the Red Velvet Car tour last year, we carried LED screens and had custom imagery for animated videos. When we toured with other bands — Journey, Cheap Trick and Def Leppard — I brought in another element to separate the girls from the boys’ shows, using large Venetian blinds or soft low-res LED panels to add to their set.”Doucette has been with Heart for 10 years now. “They’re like big sisters to me. We’re family out there. It’s fun working with them.”
It makes him happy to see their upcoming introduction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April. “It means a lot to them — they deserve it. They’re coming off a great year, the new record is fantastic, and they played the Kennedy Center Honors playing Led Zeppelin in front of Led Zeppelin. Ann has been called the female Robert Plant. They adore the band and try to include at least one Zeppelin song in each concert. I think they practiced their whole life for that one gig.”
Based in Wilmington, VT, Doucette was expected to follow his parents in the steel industry. But at age nine, he picked up a guitar and formed a band. Then, as a teenager he saw Jethro Tull in concert, and that sparked the desire to design shows. “There was pyro — it was magic. It made me say, ‘I want to do this.’”
In 1975 he became a guitar tech/truck driver in the Boston area. “One day, I needed to pick up lights for a band. The bass player and the LD fought, the LD left, and the bass player said I was the LD.”
His first big gig as an LD was with Boston band Midnight Traveler, which opened for The Marshall Tucker Band in 1979. Other tours soon followed: John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band, REO Speedwagon, Michael Jackson, New Kids On The Block’s five-year world tour, Tiffany’s mall tour, 10,000 Maniacs, Clint Black, Bryan Adams, Kitaro and more.
Though the business has changed since he first got started, touring hasn’t, he says. “Schools now teach you how to be a roadie. But otherwise, touring hasn’t changed. It’s still buses and trucks. Fed-X was the big thing, and the fax machine, and the English guys got email long before we did. Biggest change really is the cell phone.”
Over the years, Doucette has come to admire many of his colleague’s show designs, citing himself as a fan of Roy Bennett, Marc Brickman and Bryan Hartley. “I admire anybody that gets the concept of depth of field, and how too much saturation becomes mud.”
While touring has been good to him, he notes, he’s embarked on his own side businesses during off-road hours. “I own a wood carving business. I’m also turning my property into a winery, an organic gentlemen’s farm, called 4 Friends. I’m growing American hybrid grapes, which have cold hardiness and ripen sooner in the shorter growing season.”
Look for Doucette and Heart in Canada in March, the U.S. in April and more shows to be announced.
» ESA Needs You
The Event Safety Alliance (ESA), a group of entertainment industry leaders who are addressing the immediate need for universal safety standards for live event production in North America, posted the first draft of their work-in-progress, the forthcoming Event Safety Guide, at their website, eventsafetyalliance.org. Chapters for the guide, which are currently being written and revised based on reader review and feedback, will continue to evolve over a six-month span. The website is also instructing visitors on how to contribute to the overall effort. The slogan, “YOU are the Event Safety Alliance,” sums up the role that everyone plays in keeping live event production safety standards high.
» Academy Seeks TV Lighting Interns
Applications are now being accepted for those hoping for a paid student internship sponsored by The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation. The deadline for the 2013 internship program is March 15. The internship encompasses eight weeks with host Team Imagination, Inc. Interns will work alongside lighting designers, assistants and crew to learning the process of lighting television. The internship time frame varies, but is usually May to August. For details contact the foundation at emmysfoundation.org/internship-programs.
» Quick Cues…
The longtime team of LD Stacey LaBarbera and production manager Paul Rogers saddle up again for George Strait’s The Cowboy Rides Away 2013-2014 farewell tour…Production designer Paul Normandale has a slate of tours he’s working on, including Depeche Mode followed by Kings of Leon...LD Martin Thomas is working on a design for Todd Rundgren. “The new release from Todd, titled State, is very electronic in its nature,” Thomas says. The tour will play in limited markets in the U.S. throughout May before going to Europe for the summer…LD Brent Clark, the “media server guy” on the fun. tour, will leave their summer run to design and tour with the Welsh rock band Stereophonics. The band tours U.K./Europe, Australia, Japan and maybe the U.S. in September. He’s been LD for the band since 2005.
Share your news with Debi Moen at dmoen@plsn.com.
