Lighting Co
Christie Lites
Venue
Various (tour)
Crew:
Production & Lighting Designers: Sooner Routhier, Robert Long
Lighting Programmer: Mike Cooper
Lighting Crew Chief: Paul Reeves
Digital Scenic Programmer: Mike Cooper
LED Techs: Josh Huffman, Dustin King
Projectionist: Ray Martinez
Dimmer Tech: Constance Bedorget
Automation Programmer/ Operator: William Gurski
Automation Technician: Shane Bandy
Pyro Programmer/Shooter: Mike Reinhartz
Flame/Cryo Programmer/Shooter: Jack Kingry
Pyro Crew Chief: Pyro Pete Cappadocia
Production Manager: Patrick Murphy
Tour Manager: Tim Krieg
Stage Manager: Chris Glatfelter
Carpenters: Ethan Merfy, Sean Shebetka
Video Co: Chaos Visual Productions
Staging/Automation: SGPS
SGPS Crew Chief: Angel Aguirre
Pyro Co: Stage & Effects Engineering, Inc.
Gear
2 grandMA2 lighting consoles
1 Catalyst media server
16 Martin MAC Auras
128 Martin MAC 101s
16 Martin MAC III Profiles
40 Martin MAC XB (30 w/beam kit, 10 with PC lens)
40 Martin Atomic strobes w/scrollers
20 Elation LED Pars
24 Clay Paky Sharpys
8 Mini Strips
6 4-lite linear Moles
8 4-lite square Moles
96 Chroma Q Color Blocks
12 Vari*Lite VL3000 Wash fixtures
10 High End Showguns
8 Clay Paky Alpha Spot 300s
2 Reel EFX DF-50 Diffusion hazers
4 Jem ZR33 Hi-Mass fog machines
210 BR-15 tiles
420 WinVision 1875 tiles
Sooner Routhier, production & lighting designer for Mötley Crüe’s 12-date residency at The Joint in Las Vegas, NV in February spoke to PLSN about the shows.
Sooner Routhier:
“My first conference call about the Mötley Crüe shows with the band and management occurred in late November 2011. From November to mid-January, we tossed plots and ideas back and forth until the finals were approved a little over a week before the first show. It was a bit of a whirlwind. The band is extremely creative and hands-on. They typically throw ideas at us straight up to the first show of any tour we do with them. As for pre-production, we loaded into a rehearsal space about 10 days before the first show. Within the 10-day time period, we had to load in and load out of the rehearsal space and load into The Joint. It was a bit rushed but we pulled it off.”
Pyro… and More Pryo…
“Yes, pryo, always! It’s Mötley Crüe! They love gags. And this was a very gag-intensive show. When sitting with the band and discussing the show structure for any tour, they constantly ask, “What are we going to do in this song?” There has to be a huge pyro look, an aerialist, balloons dropping from the ceiling…. you name it…for every song. The main thing we thought about was what each individual band member was going to do as their “solo” act. For example, Tommy had his drum roller coaster, Mick played a dueling guitar solo against himself, Nikki always starts off Primal Scream while getting attacked by pyro, Vince flew from the balcony to the stage for the beginning of “Home Sweet Home.” We also knew that we wanted to get a bit more modern and clean on stage for this show. People expect a dirty, gritty stage for Motley. They expect to see distressed set pieces and asymmetric truss layouts. We knew we wanted to be different. So, video was the main component. We transformed the screens with gritty content from Daddy Van Productions and kept the entire stage clean of scenic elements with a very symmetrical truss layout. The scenic elements were the actors and video on stage.”
Fixtures & Color
“We needed bright punchy fixtures to blast through the massive amounts of light that the video wall produced. There was a ton of video in the show. We needed to make sure that you could still see the beams of lighting fixtures in front of the bright content. In addition to the house Vari*Lites, we went with Martin MAC III, Martin XB, and Martin 101s. They’re all great for rock ‘n’ roll. Quick, with great beamage. We tried the MAC Aura on this one as well. I love the nice saturated color and tight beams you can get with that fixture.”
Video Content
“I love helping with the content portion of any show! It’s probably my favorite aspect of the design process. Charlie Terrell at Daddy Van Productions is the perfect content manipulator for our shows. He understands the design aesthetic that Robert Long (co-production & lighting designer) and I are going for and creates perfect visuals to match. Robert and I always start by figuring out how literal we want to go and what colors will be dominant in each song. We begin the process with Charlie by working with small story boards that we put together in a presentation app for each song we require content on. It’s typically pretty easy from there on out. Charlie understands us. We don’t have too many edits once a song is finished. We’ve been really fortunate to get quick approvals from band members without jumping through hoops.”
A very Brady / Motley moment…
“I had a total ‘when did this become my life’ moment when sitting in the room with the four band members and a camera man to film the intro to the show. The creative team, including myself, Mike Cooper, Robert and Jenocide had helped the band write a ‘Brady Bunch’ style intro script. I was in the makeshift film studio in the venue, holding cue cards for the band to read lines. It was absolutely hilarious to see the band members interact with each other. They acted as if they’d been in this situation numerous times over many years. And in fact they have. They’ve been together rocking out for 30 years now. It had never been more apparent to me until that moment.”
See more photos at: www.plsn.me/motleyextra
