A Little Rock 'n' Roll

I wanted to write about something other than motorcycles. (I'll get to that next) So I wanted to share about two recent projects I was involved in.

The first was called The Unforgettable Tour When we where first told about the show it was dubbed "the largest Indian rock show to ever come out of India" OK Whatever. Note to self: If someone ever says they are doing a large Indian "bollywood" style show. Believe them. When we fist saw the renderings and lighting plots we surely thought someone was putting one over on us. Not the case. This truly would be the largest gathering of Indian movie/entertainment stars to ever tour outside of India. The lighting design was by two British designers that where very cool guys. The lighting rig consisted of at least 80 moving lights, multiple Soft LED video curtains, and one large video wall in the center. We thought for sure when they saw the price of all the gear that most of it would go away, like it had in other Indian rock shows we had done. Nope instead they cut us a deposit check. Ouch!

Walter and I redrafted the plot so it would be in a format we where used to working with, and got to work figuring out all the data, hardware and what not needed to put this together. When the producers asked if we could provide the hardware to fly in entertainers at two different times we thought we'd heard it all.

The process was a great experience. Kevin Reilly, Walter Holden, and myself all worked on different pieces at the same time. We really utilized the drafting software to it full potential. That was a great experience.

Then came installing the show. We added Greg Kunit to mainly manage the dimmer beach, and a extra pair of eyes never hurts. There where over 70 chain motors, and 9 universes of dmx data for all the moving lights. We got the entire rig in the air, and I had started flashing out the system when we called it a night. The following day we came in early, and I continued ringing out the system. The LD's came in around 12 noon, and saw the rig for the first time.

This was there 3 show on the tour, and it was the first time they had seen the whole rig. So far no one had been able to get the entire system up and running for them. When I told them we had installed it in one day Paul the main LD said "That's normal, 1 day. 1 day for rigging, and 1 day for lighting" When I told him we installed the entire rig, rigging, and lighting in one day the look on his face was the best compliment you can get. "Fuck me" he says. Thanks Paul, we thought so to!

When it came time for the show we had three Grand MA lighting controllers FOH, and 1 GMA light backstage all networked together through a pair of MA NSP's controlling 9 universes of lighting, and 5 universes of MA media servers, and the only thing that connected FOH to backstage was one orange fiber optic cable. This was the most high tech show I'd ever seen. They where truly using the latest and greatest everything on the cutting edge of technology.

When the lights went out and the first entertainer took the stage, and the 15,000 person crowd screemed the scale of the whole thing came into focus. This really was the largest show to come out of India. But when one of the performers flew out over the audience in a steel basket the crowd went absolutely ape shit. To these people it was like seeing The Beatles, Elvis, Madonna, and Barbara Streisand all on the same stage.

When the show was over, and we had packed it up, and put it back in it's three semi trucks the four of us went to a bar in Alameda at 7am, 23 hours after we had started that day. Tequila and Budweiser at 7am. Rockstars.

Here's a link to some online photos. http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/5582382_dpGm3#P-1-12

I have more pic's on my work computer I'll post later.

The other rock show I worked on last weekend was The Outside Lands Festival

Impact did all the backstage VIP, and hospitality tents, and we did one stage. the Sutro stage. That part got handed to me, and I worked with the producers to design something interesting, and cheap. It was a great time. Three days of rock and lighting mainly in the day time. Friday I had Cold War Kids, and Beck, Saturday I closed with Cake, and Sunday Widespread Panic. Only Beck had an LD for the rest I ran the lights. It was a lot of fun, and I hope to get to do some more.

Here's a link to some photos