Production Designer Kevin Lichty reports in on Old Dominion’s No Bad Vibes Tour 2023, with Andre Petrus as Associate Lighting Designer and Lighting/Video Programmer. The winter/spring leg wraps at the end of June, with the fall leg hitting U.S. arenas in September. “We’ll do a few tweaks on the show to freshen it up,” Lichty says. “The goal of the design was to help propel the energy the band plays with each night. No matter what seat you are in, I want the whole audience to feel the excitement as if they are in the front row!”
Paramore, Matchbox Twenty
Sooner Routhier designed the lighting for the 50-plus date run of Matchbox Twenty, in collaboration with Creative Curtis Adams as well as the Raw Cereal team led by Anders Rahm. The Slow Dream Tour launched May 16 in Vancouver, BC, and ends Aug. 6 in Chicago. Routhier also joined forces with Trevor Ahlstrand as Co-Production Designers—working together for the first time—on Paramore’s new tour design. “Such a fun collaboration with a good friend and incredible designer,” she says. The North American arena tour kicked off May 23 in Charlotte, NC running to Aug. 2 in St. Paul, MN.
Machine Gun Kelly
Speaking of Raw Cereal, Cort Lawrence is Production Designer and creative behind artist Machine Gun Kelly’s current run, which kicks off a summer European tour with a brand new production. Raw Cereal’s team includes Video Programmer Austin Schneider and Technical Designer Jacob VanVlymen. Lawrence notes, “It starts with an iconic show at Royal Albert Hall in the UK on May 31, and then hits Europe’s largest music festivals for June and July.” Lighting Programmer/Operator Jake Roeber takes it on the road.
Missy, Tenacious D, Foos
Dan Hadley reports in on a busy May for the L.A.-based LXFC Design team: “In the last handful of weeks I helped Hi-Hat put together a design for Missy Elliott’s appearance at Lovers & Friends Festival in Las Vegas but had to hand it off before rehearsals due to my prior commitment building the new Tenacious D tour in the U.S. and Europe, with longtime friend Breck Haggerty taking it on the road. Tess Falcone was at Lovers & Friends as well, covering Cat West on a Christina Aguilera show. Meanwhile, I attended to rehearsals for the new Foo Fighters tour which started May 24. That will see us bouncing between festivals and sheds, not to mention a club show to open 9:30 Club’s new Atlantis venue—a near-replica of the original 9:30 built next door to the current one. Around the same time the Foos kick off their tour, Falcone programs and operates a few Niall Horan one-offs for Designer Paul Normandale. It’s not a completely solid Foo schedule, though, so Falcone and I can update the Maggie Rogers’ design for summer shows in Europe and the U.S.”
Quick Cues
- Alex Picard is Lighting Operator for the band Lord Huron with an updated show design from Cour Design in June and July.
- Ali ‘Blue’ Siegel returns to Fleet Foxes in June for a continuation of the Shore Tour. “Our visuals are by Sing-Sing and a scaled down version of my lighting and set design [is] from last year,” she says.
- Chris Reade says he’s currently in rehearsals in Nashville for Dierks Bentley’s Gravel & Gold Tour, which starts June 1 in Toronto. He designed the lighting, while Bruce Rodgers for Tribe, Inc. designed the production, with video design from Luz Studio.
- David Davidian is the Show Designer for the Hollywood Vampires tour, which launched May 30. Davidian designed the lighting rig and the video layout, collaborating on the lighting design with Dizzy Gosnell and Cosmo Wilson.
- Ed Warren has designed and is operating Mumford & Sons’ run of headline festival dates this summer, along with a list of other artists. But the “best of all” his lighting projects this summer, he says, is Carhenge, a new permanent installation at Glastonbury Festival 2023 in June. The sculpture combines 24 wrecked cars stacked and arranged in a tribute to Stonehenge, with art, music, and other assorted creativity along with his light show.
- Jonathan D. Martin says in June he is Lighting Director for Carrie Underwood’s Reflection: The Las Vegas Residency alongside Creative Producer/Lighting Programmer Nick Whitehouse and Lighting Designer Brian Vaughan.
- Keith Hoagland was Board Operator for Sir Tom Jones on the U.S. leg of the tour, which ran through May. Production /Lighting Designer is Mark Cunniffe, with Tim Hawkes-as Programmer/Associate LD.
- Landon Bloss has embarked on a U.S./Canada tour “with a pretty fun rig” for country artist Billy Currington.
- Matthew Greer is back out with The National this summer with a new design from Production Designer Michael Brown.
- Nathaniel Beckett, LD for Modest Mouse, says they’re supporting Weezer (LD Brock Hogan, Crew Chief Charles Teer) in June, and co-headlining with the Pixies in August/September.
- Nico Riot recently toured with French pop act Kids Return and was “super busy” on a few fashion shows.
- Rachel Mullen is a Programmer/Lighting Director for Fuse on MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) Psychedelic Science 2023 in Denver. The June conference features artist Melissa Etheridge among the psychotherapists and authors speaking. Afterward, she heads over to Washington, DC to program and design The Legendary Nights XVI show featuring prominent Vietnamese singers at the MGM National Harbor Resort & Casino.
- Sarah Landau is on a European/U.S. tour with Fever Ray—which she designed and programmed—through the summer. Her production design and programming for M83 is touring the world all year with Lighting Director Erin Peters. For the U.S. run, Landau gives special props to Andrew Balzer, Lighting Tech.
- Scott Pearson embarks on his ninth year in June with Kansas, kicking off the 50th Anniversary with Another Fork in the Road Tour.
- Steve Fallon returns to the road as LD with Elvis Costello for a June/July run in the U.S. followed by a European run September to October.
Keep Debi Moen posted with news of your gigs and tours. Reach her at dmoen@plsn.com
