Reflections on Reunion Tour after Rendezvous with Brain Surgery
Hooked up to an IV flowing with pain medication, LD John Rossi is recovering from back surgery. He has just designed The Monkees’ 45th anniversary tour and still manages to email back and forth with me to do an interview about this design. It is his first show design since his other big surgery — for a brain tumor — in November 2007. One wonders, can’t the guy get a break? For Rossi, this IS his break: back in to the world of concert design.
“Head”
It was in August of 2007 when he noticed himself getting dizzy whenever he would hop up and down on the FOH riser. He wasn’t hearing shows so well, at least from his right ear. But with loud shows and the rigors of the road, those are common ailments, aren’t they? It was enough to have him seek medical help, and then he got the diagnosis. A brain tumor.
“It was not cancer, but it was going to kill me if not removed,” he says. So he kept his secret and finished work with longtime client, Luis Miguel. His last run of shows were in Las Vegas on the Celine Dion stage at Caesars Palace for a huge Mexican September holiday.
Brain surgery was scheduled. A three-month rehab was on the calendar. And then it would be … back to business as usual?
Except that it wasn’t. The tumor was successfully removed, but there was an unexpected outcome. “The right side of my throat is paralyzed, which means I can only swallow liquids, and I struggle to speak with any strength or stamina. You wouldn’t know it by speaking with me conversationally,” Rossi emails me, “but there is no way I can speak over the volume of a dinner party, let alone a rock show. Additionally, eating liquids only, also something no one really notices, could prove a little tricky on the road.”
Rossi focused for the next few years on his health, and put concert design on the back burner.
When Love Comes Knockin’…
Opportunity knocked recently by way of longtime friend from The Tubes tours, production manager Steve “Chopper” Borges.
“Being asked to do The Monkees design was a bit strange after such an absence — so many things in lighting changed so fast!” Rossi said. “But getting up to speed on some gear I spec’d for the tour, the design process, along with client meetings, vendor interaction and the all day/all night programming process came back like riding a bike.”
The unexpected and permanent outcome of his surgery is that he cannot tour again. But his creative abilities are still there, and as the technology has gone more digital, Rossi demonstrates that he can keep up — designing and programming.
Rossi was not only a fan of The Monkees TV show, but found it ironic that his own reunion back into concert design was for a reunion group.
The tour kicked off in the U.K. in May and hits the States June 3-July 16. The group, who dropped the shtick that had run rampant on their 1960s TV show, reunites three of the four original members: Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz.
The tour also reunites members of the crew. Lighting Director Randy Straka is carrying out Rossi’s design on the tour. Straka is one of Rossi’s longtime associates from The Beach Boys tours, who took over the LD role in 1994.
Listen to the Band
The Monkees mandated a production of “a lot with a little.” Rossi had accommodated such requests in the past with Styx, Kenny Loggins and with Chopper on John Fogerty’s 2004 tour.
The idea was to give the show a “retro” feel, keep the rig affordable, and cue the show knowing there would be a 12-by-16-foot LED screen that would run content during most of the show. Local vendors would be used in most cases.
So Rossi designed a basic package — two trusses of PAR cans — to pick up locally. The universal package on tour contained 8 LED moving wash lamps, 8 LED PARS and a digital console to allow detailed cueing, plus a small package of “extras” that could be hauled around everywhere.
Rossi describes the opener as a “fun bombardment of visuals.” After a musical overture, The Monkees enter onstage with a roar from the fans. “In the archival footage, it is clear just how huge these guys were, with throngs of screaming fans. I wanted to capture that essence — just pull out all the stops for the opening. I usually hold back my lighting looks at the beginning, but it seemed appropriate to let loose from the start. Then we let the music take front and center and find other places to wow everyone.”
Describing his design process, Rossi went with big general washes, with room for individual specials from front and rear trusses. Punch comes from the moving LED wash lights, providing bright saturated colors for a retro feel. (“Plus the patterns created at the source from the array of LEDS reminded me of old Bandstand and Midnight Special shows,” Rossi said.) Additional floor PARs light up chrome, laminate and brass onstage. The LED screen with archival content allowed for a design approach where Rossi could make things look bigger at a modest cost.
The challenge was designing with a small rig. Billed as “An Evening with The Monkees,” the two-part show included nearly 60 songs to program. “I prefer writing shows cue-to-cue, but since there were so many songs and limited rehearsal time, I allowed Randy to operate some sections in a ‘modular’ mode, where he had the layers of the lighting rig at his disposal, and could mix them accordingly, using color, movements and F/X in good combinations without much repetition. It was the only way we could get so much material covered in so little time.”
That was Then, This is Now
With his company DreamALot Studios in Santa Cruz, CA, Rossi focuses on lighting and set design, motion graphics and visual effects content. Content design was something he delved into in the early days of media servers. In 2003, he worked with Chopper to design the visuals for Luis Miguel, including scenery, lighting as well as video content. He toured with it until September 2007, stopping for surgery. He’s now expanding his skills in those areas.
“Everyone is using video content on some level,” he said. “As I reinvent myself, I hope to reemerge in our business as a prominent content designer, with all the touring and live show experience I’ve collected over 30 years.”
As for the future, he hints at a project that he can’t reveal yet. Thinking of the recent past, he reflects on The Monkees’ production rehearsal and some memorable moments, including a conversation with Micky Dolenz. “Monkees fans will have a bit of a surprise when they see the show this summer.”
Email news about LDs to Debi Moen at dmoen@plsn.com.
