Lighting Company
4Wall Entertainment
Venue
Various (Tour)
Production Team
- Lighting Designer, Programmer & Director: Alex Saad
- Production Manager: Alex Grant
- Tour Manager: Leesa Ellem
- 4Wall Account Reps: Jonathan Daroca, Larry Mikalishen
Gear
- 1 High End Systems Full Boar 4 Console
- 1 High End Systems Hog 4 Wing
- 2 High End Systems DP8000 Whole Hog Processor
- 20 Mole-Richardson Molefay Quad Fixture
- 8 Chauvet Strike M Strobe/Wash
- 16 Chauvet Maverick MK3 Wash
- 4 Pre-Rig Truss
- 1 48-Way Dimmer System
- 1 48-Way Distro Rack
- 2 Reel EFX DF-50 Diffusion Hazer
Designer Insights by Steve Jennings:
Alex Saad
Lighting Designer, Lighting Programmer, Lighting Director
Alex Saad’s first tour with Midnight Oil was in 2019, then Covid came, and most shows were cancelled or postponed. But Midnight Oil, known for their powerhouse live performances, managed to perform a few shows in 2021, and they are back in full swing for 2022, infusing energy into their songs and performances.
Saad notes that, from the outset, he has been serving as the lighting designer, programmer and director all at once. In Australia, he notes, it’s very common to be the all-in-one package. “We don’t have as many resources, personnel or money to split amongst people. Generally, a package is worked out pre-tour on designing, and then you run it. The ‘Resist’ album has been in the pipeline for a while. The band are very much concerned about environmental issues that are happening. I remember them playing songs from the album in gigs back in 2019! With the band’s energy, I like to light them from the back, front and sides, and it’s all about moments and scenes. The hardest part is not going full on early in the set. I also have a less is best policy, every light doesn’t have to be used in every song as sometimes, one light is more powerful than a hundred.”
Saad says the band are definitely involved in how the show “feels” over the whole set list. “There is definitely patterns and sections where the direction changes. They don’t get into the nitty gritty of technical stuff, but encourage up and downs. Sometimes, I have to sit on my hands, as I am not doing a ‘light show,’ thats definitely not the aim. I’m there to set a scene for the song. The first priority is to always see the whole band and because the energy comes from everywhere, you want to see it all. For a couple of songs, I’m shifting the focus towards drums, or guitars, or keys especially during key moments.”
Saad notes that the bands set list changes every show from a list of around 200 songs. “I don’t run the songs the same because they may play a song early in the set or late—and they want to keep, say audience lights off until later in the show so that same song will change cues. I have a busk page, for when we do some one-off songs but do try to have something for every song they do. A few songs have a cue list that runs start to finish, but generally I have multiple cue lists on faders per song. Every song is manually operated, there is no timecode, no triggers, you just have to know the songs, and even then they add bits here and there, depending on how they are feeling.”
In Australia, the band were doing arena and outdoor runs with two trucks of lights and one truck of video. Coming to the US, Canada and Europe leg they are playing indoor venues which all have house rigs of some sort. “We didn’t have time, money or space to be bringing in a full concert system everyday, so generally we would be using house lights, racks and stacks everywhere. We carry backline, consoles, and a floor rig that comes in on the day. The floor rig is designed to be set up by myself, as I don’t have touring techs so it needed to be easy but still appropriate for what the band needed.”
Saad says that because of the heat from the lights, he insists on carrying 20 Molefays quad lights. Not LEDs, but the old DWE lamps that actually have heat. “I focus most of these at the band, do some shadow work, the band love the warmth that comes from them along with the temperature and color. The band are not particularly keen on LED lamps, the harshness of the lamps can be a problem, they actually want to feel the heat! I normally use JDCs and B-Eye 20s, but here I was offered the Strike Ms and MK3s, which I like for the fatness of the beams and they definitely flood out quite a lot too, but they keep their intensity.”
Saad has been a Hog console user for years. He was hanging around Meteorlites in the UK by accident when the first Hog1 came out, but didn’t really get into them until the Hog2 and then the Hog250/500/1000 came to Australia. “Over the years I’ve seen the Hog platform grow to be a full powerful system. I just think who ever is operating, they want to be operating on a console they like. In saying that, I just wish High End/ETC would make a Hog console with more that 10 faders on its full size boards. When other consoles have 30 to 60 faders on their console as a standard, it’s a bit harder turning up with just 10 and a wing and a prayer.”
More Midnight Oil Resist Tour photos by Steve Jennings:
