I have been working in lighting on a national scale for almost 35 years, five more if you count regional club bands in the 70’s. I have worked in every sized venue, designing and programming lights for every type act, from hardcore country to the heaviest of heavy metal. I’m not exactly sure where my latest band falls in that category, but I can certainly say they’re never boring.
I love it all and feel privileged to be allowed to do what I do for a living. So now, after all these years, countless miles, at the ripe old age of 60, I thought I had seen it all. But alas, I find myself illuminating the undead, literally. “Here Come the Mummies” are a bizarre and truly independent, eight-piece funk/ rock band made up entirely of 5,000-year-old Egyptian Mummies. Seriously, I would not kid you. So, I suppose, by contrast, I’m actually the young guy on the bus.
About HCTM
For the uninitiated to HCTM: These guys have a one-track mind that is mostly derailed. They play original funk/rock songs, the overwhelming predominance of which are about “ladies” and “getting it on.” Their style has been dubbed Terrifying Funk from Beyond the Grave. According to their rather vague history, they were doomed by a powerful Pharaoh to wander the earth (for deflowering his daughters), seeking the ultimate riff, the one that may allow their spirits to rest after eons of “banging out solid fly grooves, y’all.”
An HCTM show is a two-hour frontal assault on your senses, not to mention your inhibitions. They tear through their set (no space at all between numbers) without a word to the audience, cover a dizzying array of musical styles. They unleash a barrage of innuendo-laden tongue-twisters, all while gyrating their asses off. This music demands a wild, almost frantic flash-and-trash approach to lighting, but the key is to flash and to trash at the precise moments. It’s a sort of orderly chaos, and a fun ride every time.
Shadowy Gigs
Since all is shrouded in mystery with this act, my approach has been to purposefully not light HCTM’s faces “properly.” Of course, the fact that their heads are wrapped in bandages helps my style. This is extremely freeing, since spotlights, or even front light, are not a necessity. Using shadows, darkness and dark saturated color makes this small army of half-dead, part serious, fully erect funkateers come to a lovable and almost threatening life every night.
That the band is truly independent, means budgets (not to mention space in their 16-foot trailer) are incredibly tight. HCTM is dedicated to its presentation and will spend money, but every purchase is analyzed and every fixture’s purpose must be defined. These guys know how to squeeze a nickel ‘til the buffalo s#@ts. And they do it to great effect.
We are working large clubs, small theaters, casinos and the occasional festival. We will perform about 90 shows in 2015. Every show will be on a radically different lighting system. On rare occasions, we get nothing (and like it), and just roll with our floor package. HCTM’s technical rider spells out what we want for lighting, but in the two years I have been here, it has rarely been met. All part of the ongoing struggle of being an independent band vying for the moon, I reckon. Basically, I take what I can get and try and figure out how to make it work in the show. There’s no point in bitching. I have a vivid imagination and can make them look great (in a ghastly manner) with whatever fixtures available.
Random Rigs
Here’s a snapshot from our current three-day run of the disparate systems that I routinely have to pull together. Last night I had eight Martin MAC 101s, six MAC Quantum Pros and six Sharpy clones. Tonight I have 20 Chauvet COLORdash LED Pars and five ETC Source Fours. Tomorrow it will be 120K of PAR 64 and eight HES Studio Spots (or maybe Studio Colors, they were not sure what would be available when I advanced the show a couple of weeks ago).
Thank the gods HCTM carries its own modest floor package consisting of six Elation Rayzor Q7s, nine Blizzard HotBox EXAs, five Blizzard Q-Stick mini strips, 12 Chauvet COLORpalettes, some Par 56 and a bucket load of LED tape. All cost-effective and road-worthy fixtures, I might add. While these lights are common to me, my real saving grace has been the Road Hog I carry.
Speaking of the Road Hog 4. With the modern console’s ability to clone or morph/replicate fixtures, there is more flexibility and freedom than ever before. Of course, the evolution of technology does create its own challenges. For example, I have become pretty adept at building fixture profiles for nameless imported LED pars and moving washes.
I “inherited” this show from two great designer/programmers — Jake Tickle, and before him, Chris Lisle. I am honestly not clear who is responsible for writing the original cues in the show. I have kept the basic show structure, while editing the cues themselves to meet my needs and aesthetics. I keep my color and position palettes to a minimum (less then 20 of each), and my gobo palettes are named after the songs they are used in, rather then what the gobo represents or its position on a wheel.
I recently subbed as LD on another rather large tour, and the desk had more then 100 undocumented position palettes! What is the difference between “big fan” and “fan Big”? There were full gobo wheels for apparently every fixture that had ever been patched into the console. I always try my damnedest to do the best show possible, and if I am executing someone else’s show, to do so as faithfully as possible, but that was a nerve-wracking experience, hoping against hope to get it right!
But I digress. My patch and programming is built around fixture types rather then specific fixtures. I have conventionals, LED Pars, LED wash lights, CMY wash lights, hard edge profiles, “sharpy” types, a system specifically for the dance floor (for the rare occasion I get FOH moving washes) and some scenic LEDs. I seldom see more than 10 of any given fixture, except conventional pars and LEDs, and as far as movers go, it is more than likely going to be six units that hopefully have all their functions intact.
While I am neither complaining nor bragging about my situation, I do have to say, I literally laughed out loud last year when an old designer friend groused on Facebook that he “only had 60-odd VL3000s to work with” at a large festival. That poor bastard!
Working with the self-professed “World’s Premier Undead Funk Ambassadors” is a lot of fun, and a lot of work. I love that for two hours per night it keeps me feeling young, at least until the final blackout. As soon as the time comes for load out, I remember just how old I am. At that point I realize that while I do love this band, eventually I just might have to consider trading it for the world of the living…but not anytime soon.
Thom Roberts has been a Nashville based LD for more than 30 years. From playing clubs with
Eddie Rabbitt to years of lighting big touring shows with Vince Gill and Randy Travis, he shows no sign of slowing down. Especially with this act.
