I recently got an e-mail from the editor of PLSN asking if I would mind covering The Monsters of Folk show for him while he was out of town. Would I mind?! The band has just released its first self-titled album in September and had seen it climb to number 15 on Billboard's Top 200 list. Its members include M. Ward, a personal favorite. Its LD, Marc Janowitz, was a part of the design team for the Blue Man Group, another one of my favorite acts. The tour was wrapping up in Austin, and it figured to be a great show. As the icing on the cake, the gig was at Stubbs Bar-B-Que, one of Austin's premiere music venues, also famed for its food. I clapped my hands together in anticipation and then sat down to write a sober e-mail telling the editor I'd somehow work it into my schedule.
Reaching the Controls
Just before the show starts, Janowitz, who is based out of Brooklyn N.Y., sat down for an interview. He began his lighting career 20 years ago running followspot for "Bowser's Rock n' Roll Christmas" at a small roadhouse in his hometown. "My first experience backstage was in the 6th grade," he said. "Everyone in my English class was required to participate in the school play. I helped assemble flats and then ran a followspot. I had to stand on a chair to reach the controls. I was drawn to the ‘instant gratification' that you can achieve with lighting. I've also been fascinated from that first experience, when I was 11, with the ability to evoke emotion or create a mood with light. I dabbled in every aspect of backstage work, even sound. When I really stopped to examine what was the most fulfilling to me, lighting always came out on top. Even now, when I'm doing set or video design work, it's always with an eye towards lighting."
Janowitz went on to develop his lighting career and now has an impressive list of clients including the aforementioned Blue Man Group, Flight of the Conchords, My Morning Jacket, Fischerspooner, Matisyahu and Street Drum Corps. He said he has also recently had the pleasure of covering show ops for Neil Young and Alice in Chains. But it was Janowitz' work with Jim James of My Morning Jacket that led to the Monsters gig.
11th Hour Changes
Janowitz said, "This band, Monsters of Folk, is a super-group. Each member of the band comes from another band. I didn't really have any experience with the other members except James. It's always a little daunting to discuss ideas and present a design to a group of people you haven't met. You're basically asking them to trust you with their visual – their live image. You want them to commit to spending a lot of money and to trust you that it will be worthwhile. Other than Jim, I don't even think I spoke to any of them on the phone prior to meeting them at rehearsal. All communication was via e-mail."
Janowitz designed the set and lighting rig and rendered it in 3D using Vectorworks. Regarding his creative and design process, he revealed a little secret. "There are several cocktail napkins still lying around with the original ideas. The band had input and, ultimately, final say" on the design. "Fortunately for me, once they saw the first concept, they really let me run with it. As with most designs these days, the accountant had input too," resulting in "a large, almost catastrophic 11th hour change two weeks before rehearsals. My tech and right hand man, Ben Price, also had tremendous input. I knew what I wanted to see but wasn't 100 percent sure how to make it tourable. I wouldn't commit to anything until Ben and I communicated and planned at length. He needed to agree that we could make it happen in a repeatable and safe manner." Janowitz calls Price "The Light Whisperer," and he is quick to point out that his help on the tour was invaluable.
The band and crew rehearsed for four days in October at the Portland Expo Center. "I can't say enough good things about that facility and the people who run it," he said. "They bent over backwards to make Hall D a legitimate and functional production space," Janowitz said, referring to Peter "Punch" Schmidtke and Eddie Parker from Hollywood Lighting Services in particular. "Punch and Eddie from Hollywood Lights came in and provided local support to make the space workable for us. Anyone considering rehearsals in the Pacific Northwest should definitely consider the Expo Center and the Hollywood team."
Flying Buttons
Regarding his programming, Janowitz said, "There were a lot of buttons flying and a lot of faders assigned. All of a sudden, I had a show! Every show is a different entity and each requires a unique approach. For Monsters, there was a page for every song. There was no cue structure. Just a base cue with enough parameter info to get the song started. Everything else, including all intensities, was spread across the faders and buttons. For my own designs, I'm not terribly well organized on the console. I'm much more organized if I'm programming for someone else. I get as much at my fingertips as possible, hope that muscle memory sets in and use the programmer a lot!"
Janowitz was very happy with his choice of lights for the both the look of the show and the overall logistics of the tour. Martin MAC 700 Spots "were chosen for their weight and price," he says. "They really are great lights. I originally wanted a bigger bore fixture and had VL 3000 Spots" from Vari-Lite "in the spec. However, the VLs were a bit more costly and probably overkill for this particular tour. The VL 500D was the only thing I wouldn't budge on. I needed the tungsten source and since the fixtures were in such a prominent location in the stage picture, I needed those color fins right up front. You twist those things in just the right direction, and the whole picture morphs."
Miraculously On Budget
Video Equipment Rentals (VER) out of Los Angeles supplied the gear for the tour. Janowitz noted that Susan Tesh and Dave Osesky, his contacts at VER, were "terrific." He added, "This particular design went through many incarnations prior to a final gear list. The arrangement of fixtures wasn't particularly easy or straightforward in any version. They stayed with me through thick and thin and really pulled off some miracles to keep me on target and on budget. They also have offices all over the U.S., Canada and in Europe. That is a huge benefit when you have limited crew and almost no space to carry spares. Our truck weighed in at 79,213 pounds though half the pack was audio. The driver could only carry half a tank of fuel."
Despite space and weight limitations, the rig was impressive. The show at Stubbs was actually a mirror image of the show in other venues. Stubbs' outdoor space (the only space large enough to accommodate the Austin crowds at this sold-out event) has some idiosyncrasies that Janowitz had to work out the day of the show.
Embracing the Dome
"The Austin gig was a complete punt," he said. "Stubbs has no rigging points. I've been there a few times and have always embraced their huge white space-dome. I hung my upstage profile truss fixtures (11 MAC 700s) on their crank truss, put my six front truss lights on vertical towers, three per side. What a process, getting those to stand up straight. The rest of the overhead rig, the VL 500s that were usually hung to follow our Austrian curtain's contour, was inverted. I put them on the floor and pointed them either through the band or at the dome. I only left two lights on the truck, and that's because I ran out of floor space. I really didn't have to change much programming at all, but it sure looked different.
"I love the gang at Stubbs," Janowitz said. "They are quite accustomed to bands pulling in and having to change up the norm on the fly. They are very encouraging and patient. I think they like the challenge."
First In, Last Out
Janowitz added, "I want to thank Megan (Duckett, president of Rent What? Inc. and Sew What? Inc.), among many others. On the Friday before rehearsals we had no curtain because the previous rental one from a different company didn't pass fire inspection. My PM, Jacob, cold-called Sew What. By Monday morning not only did we have a curtain, but it was way cooler than the one I had originally envisioned."
When asked about other challenges or stories about the tour, he was a bit coy. "Stories? Hmmm, too illicit to reprint," he laughs. "Ha! I wish. Lighting was first in/last out every day and I was one of the two lighting crew. We were doing four and five (shows) in a row. I was too darn tired to get in any trouble."
In spite of the long hours, Janowitz loved the tour and says, "The whole Monsters of Folk ensemble – band, crew and management – what a great team to work with," he said, calling them "some of my newest and dearest friends. Every member of the group was busy on other projects right up until rehearsals. I guess a little faith can go a long way. Ultimately everyone was quite pleased with the results and the audience really got their money's worth."
Out at FOH, I settled in to watch, and Janowitz set up at the console (a Flying Pig Systems Wholehog 3 plus a wing). As expected, I was in for a treat. I had heard the band described many times as laid back, an adjective I had thought (up until I saw what Janowitz did behind the console) would be sort of difficult to express through lighting. The three-hour long set moved from big numbers with the whole band to more intimate songs with only one or two of the artists performing. Janowitz painted them with pools of light to one side of the stage or another.
"Sometimes the band is laid back," Janowitz says, "but sometimes they just rock the @#$% out. When I was pitching the design to them I said that I had carefully structured the design so that the most intimate and solemn moments of the show can seamlessly morph, adapt and grow into Monster moments."
The band members were not the only one who bought into Janowitz' vision – most of the audience did, too, myself included. I enjoyed the lights and the music, and had my fill of Stubb's Bar-B-Que too. And I fervently hoped that the PLSN editor was having a good trip out of town, because he missed a hell of a show.
CREW
Tour Manager: Gabriel Gonzalez
Production Manager/FOH: Jacob Feinberg
Production Designer/Lighting Director: Marc Janowitz
Lighting Tech: Benjamin Price
Lighting Company: Video Equipment Rentals (VER)
Account Managers: Susan Tesh, Dave Osesky
Assistant Tour Manager: Sean Foley
Merchandiser: Kimberly Bierley
GEAR
Lighting Console: Flying Pig Systems Wholehog3 + Wing
17 Martin MAC 700 Spots
17 Vari-Lite VL 500Ds
8 Vari-Lite VL 3500 Spots
4 Coemar 4' Striplite LEDs
14 Coemar Parlite LEDs
4 Martin Stagebar 54s
2 Reel EFX DF50 haze machines
2 Base hazer
2 TMB Pro-Power racks
92' 12" box truss
40' 20" box truss
3 CM 1-ton chain motors
9 CM ½-ton chain motors
4 CM ¼-ton chain motors
