USA – A large complement of Claypaky lighting fixtures hit the road with Mexican pop rock band Maná when the multi-Grammy Award winners launched their North American “Rayando el Sol Tour” in September. The tour is named for the band’s first hit single.
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Maná was founded in Mexico in 1986 and has become one of the most successful rock bands in Latin music history. It has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide and won four Grammys and eight Latin Grammys. The Rayando el Sol Tour kicked off in September in Corpus Christi, Texas and wrapped in Los Angeles in December playing more than 30 dates. Their seven-show LA appearance at The Forum broke the six-night record of Kanye West and The Eagles since the venue opened.
Rayando el Sol covered the musical trajectory of Maná and featured themes emblematic of the band’s history and evolution. Menga Cruz, Lighting Designer and Lighting and Video Programmer for Maná, chose 122 Claypaky Mythos2, 24 Sharpy Wash and 22 Scenius Unico fixtures for the show’s rig, which he obtained from 4Wall.
“I have been working with Mythos since 2015; I think I was the first person to take Mythos on tour,” says Cruz. “I know Mythos so well now, I know all of its capabilities even ultra-fast movement. Mythos is part of my creative process – when I am drawing and imagining the cues for each song I know exactly which gobo I want to use and which effect I want to apply.”
Cruz used the Sharpy Washes on Stage C, a small stage behind FOH, which provided the more intimate moments of the show. “We needed a small moving light with a good wash, CMY and good color saturation,” he says. “With all those requirements there was no other option on the market but the Sharpy Wash.”
Cruz is particularly enthusiastic about the Scenius Unico and recalls his introduction to the fixture. “It was like love at first sight,” he reports. “I saw them at the factory in 2016 and, if it had been possible, I would have taken 24 back home in my suitcase! Scenius Unico is a moving light that is complete and perfect.”
He finds that the fixture “works for everything. If you want to make a cue with more power, more rock ’n roll, the Scenius does it perfectly. If you need something more theatrical, with more definition, Scenius also performs masterfully. For me, it is a giant and amazing hybrid.”
Cruz loves the details of the fixture’s gobos. “It has an animation wheel so perfect that I must be careful not to use it in all songs. And when you think you can’t do anything more, then you start working with the blades. They are so perfect, so precise. Sometimes people ask me what model laser I’m using in a show, and I laugh and say, ‘It’s not a laser, it’s Scenius Unico with its beautiful blades tightly closed!”
Wady Rodriguez shared the Lighting Designer credit with Cruz. Lighting Technicians included Matthew Bloom, Peter Martin, Daniel Teeter, Eduardo Orta and Jorge Caraballo.
