Lighting Co
VER/PRG
Venue
Various (Tour)
Crew
Lighting Designer & Director: Sandy Paul (Eastern Lighting Design)
Lighting Programmer/Tech: Sandy Paul
Tour Manager: David Klein
Production Manager: Tim Boardman
Gear
1 grandMA2 Light console
1 grandMA2 OnPC + Command Wing
8 Claypaky Alpha Spot QWO 800’s
16 GLP impression X4 Bar 20’s
4 Robe Patt 2017 fixtures
10 PS35 300W clear light blubs
2 Unique 2.1 Hazers
Tour Notes
Grammy Award winner Tori Kelly kicked off “The Acoustic Sessions” tour Feb. 25 at the Fox Theater in Tucson, AZ. It’s a stripped down version of her fall Hiding Place tour. Hiding Place debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums chart, reportedly earning more first-week streams than any gospel album in history.
Designer Insights by Steve Jennings:
We caught the sold-out Tori Kelly “Acoustic Sessions” tour for a solid two-hour show of music, where she made the audience feel you were in her living room for your own private concert. Kelly, at the age of 14 and the help of videos on YouTube, then went onto independently releasing her own EP. She is a singer-songwriter, actress and record producer. She is also a Grammy Awards winner in 2018 for Best Gospel Album and Performance. We talked to lighting designer & director Sandy Paul of Eastern Lighting Design about working with Kelly on the tour.
Sandy Paul says that when he and Tori first discussed the tour, she already had in mind that she wanted it to be an intimate experience but the idea of a living room setting grew out of discussions between the whole team. “It is one of the things I really love about working with Tori. It is very much a team effort that builds these concepts. We all realize it’s a collaborative process and in order to make this show happen it’s about working together. Tori is involved throughout the process but also allows us room to create, and I respect her immensely for that.”
The Austrian curtain idea came from Tori, Paul says. “She sent us photos of stage setups she liked, and among those was this very grand stage with an Austrian curtain. In further discussions it was decided that it promotes elegance but also it is not something that every tour is carrying, therefor creating a slightly different stage look than most fans are used to seeing. RockDrops provided the drapes which were custom sewn for this show. They really pulled through for us on this tour and a phenomenal product to boot. I would highly recommend them for any custom fabric construction. In the world we now live in with an ever growing video presence, it gave us a lot of visual punch without the need for video walls or screens. That is where we ended with the light bulbs as well. High visual impact with minimal amount of setup and storage. Using PS35 Scoop lamps actually proved to be slightly challenging to source at the start because of the phasing out of Incandescent lamps. But it has turned out to be exactly the vibe and look we were going for.”
Paul says that fixture choices were chosen because of reliability but also for trucking purposes. “For this tour Audio/Lighting and Set/Props all have to fit in 1 trailer. So size was absolutely crucial in deciding factors between fixture types. Ultimately it didn’t prove to hinder the show at all but was very much a Tetris challenge to start. VER treated us well for the previous couple of tours so we continued that relationship, providing the fixtures required for this show. Because we started the tour in Los Angeles, it made for an easier experience in trying to get the show out and on the road having the LA shop at our disposal.”
This show is unique in that she is playing a lot of unreleased and currently unrecorded material, notes Paul. “A breath of fresh air for any fan, because these aren’t songs that you can go home and play on Spotify or iTunes. So when you come to the show, you get music that can currently only be enjoyed live. A lot of these new tracks are incredible pieces of music, getting to listen to them every night is as much a treat for me as any fan. I truly am grateful for everything that this tour brings. Working with Tori and her team is not only a wonderful experience but its so phenomenal to watch her grow and for me to be allowed to be a part of that. She is an exceptionally talented and gracious artist and I could not wish for a better environment to create in. Watching her fans and listening to them and their passion for her is a remarkable thing to watch and be a part of.”
More Tori Kelly “Acoustic Sessions” Tour photos from Steve Jennings:
