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Concert Lighting Techniques – Know

The Rig or The Show?

It’s a secret kept from the Billy Bunters, but a large proportion of concert lighting is the

product of the unknown. Wrangling a lack of information is the stock in trade for many techs in

the concert and events business. A lot of shows are done on the fly by people who really should be paid more for their talent and creative techniques.

I was recently called in as “house lampie” at a local venue. The band to play that night had all

the usual, sound crew, backline techs but no dedicated LD as such. For lighting, I checked and

 prepared the house rig in anticipation of either having to run the show myself or hand it over totheir regular Tour Manager who was arriving later in the day. A bit of busking programming

done, palettes checked and tweaked, faults sorted.

An hour or so before the support act went on, I’m stood the desk and feel a presence before

seeing the familiar sight of a hand to be shaken, names to be exchanged – the aforementionedTour Manager. Standing there, between the TM and myself, we had the full picture: I’d used the

rig a few times before and had programmed a few pages of subs for busking, he knew the show

and the music, down to the last beat.

The usual conversation takes place, more often in a leaky Kwikform FOH tower as sounds of rain and crowd anticipation filter though the earplugs. I run through the kit, the programming

I’ve done and we discuss who will run the show. He’s not the band’s LD per se and is a bit rusty

on the desk, so having listened to what I’ve created for him work with, he requests a coupleadditional tools to be programmed and we leave the question of who is running the show open

for now.

Show time. I run lighting for the support act, of course. They are OK, pretty dynamic and I busk 

some decent looks together with movement and accents when it’s obvious. I know whereeverything is on the desk, so can play along quite well. Having worked there a few times

recently, I also know the rig well enough to know all those little things that can add up to a good

stage picture, angles that work well and nice balances between fixtures. But I don’t know whatthey are going to be playing or what is coming next The result is good, however.

Time for the main act. TM decides that he fancies running the show and will see how it goes, I

hover to field questions. It goes well, the lighting is obviously a different style, not just because

everyone has different eyes but also because there is a limit to what you can do having only justwalked up to an alien desk and rig. He excels in knowing every song, every beat and every break 

 – dynamically right on the money.

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It started me thinking about the nature of busking concert lighting from different perspectives.

So, why not look at those perspectives and break them down to analyse their strong and weak 

 points?

Knowing The Rig

Give me a rig for a second night, and I will create better lighting than last night. Last year I

was depping for a friend of mine for two days on an indoor festival. His rig was nicely flexibleand the focus good (really can’t over emphasise the importance of a good focus, eh?) – I created

a page of subs for my own use even though he and I use a console in a similar way. The first day

went well, you can feel your command of the stage growing as you get used to the kit and

 programming – after all, this is your instrument. On the second day, I added some of my own“hey, I’ve got time” special palettes and tweaked a few things. Result? Really kick ass lighting!!

So, what’s good and bad about knowledge of the rig and the programming?

• This is your instrument – it’s helps if you’ve played it before. 

• Able to concentrate without thinking about the technicalities of doing stuff – heads up, looking at the stage.

• Understanding of what really doesn’t work with what you have. 

• You have found those happy accidents: good positions or angles, fixtures that catchsomething nicely or colours that work well.

• You have more time to see. 

But

•  Never quite sure what song is coming up, in order to choose colour combinations and nail

them every time. Erk, this isn’t a blue song?• While you can react to dynamics and a lot of music is pretty predictable, you are always

slightly following.

Tactics and Techniques?

Use time you save looking at the desk to constantly evaluate the stage picture, you don’t need to

mentally compute what you are doing so use your energy to keep looking and keep up withwhat’s happening visually and musically. Line up your best base layers (like decent colour 

washes), use them to underscore more complex stuff and to return to when you need to “stop allthat a-wagglin’ and a a-strobin’, like, yesterday!” Always know how to stop stuff like chases andmovements instantly. If you don’t get the beats, do something that isn’t a rockin’ out bump fest,

movement speeds or even shutter chases that are more textural and less beat dependant.

Knowing The Show

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Just like the previous perspective, give me a second show and it’ll be better than the first. In the

world of concerts and events, many shows only happen once and often with little rehearsal. After 

a while you get used to the idea that you all do your best as professionals, what happens happens.But doing a rare show for a second time helps you remember how much better it can be and the

luxury of rehearsing.

• You know the set, you can be ready for the next thing. Colours parked up, specials ready

to go.• Hardly miss a beat and aren’t surprised by a sudden stop (there is nothing worse than

moving lights still moving when they obviously shouldn’t be)

 but

• May be not aware of all the tools available or the capabilities of the rig

• Haven’t tried out different combinations or looks

• You may spend more time looking at the console than the stage

Tactics and Techniques?

Your show is made by hitting that beat, so make sure you have the ways and means to bump like

a demon. Three intensity subs work for me, or split the blinders into two sets. Keep them on your free hand (left hand on many consoles) so you can select and adjust other fixtures while keeping

the beat.

Concert Lighting – Ideal vs Reality

Obviously, in an ideal world we’d all have the rig of our dreams, plenty of rehearsals and

everything would be just dandy. But like we said at the start, a lot of concert lighting is createdusing the only information available. That may be a knowledge of the kit or of the show but

often, it ain’t both.

Geek Out: Lighting Techniques – What submasters were

used?

As an aside and for your interest, here is the recipe for the secret lighting sauce that night. All 

submasters are programmed as attribute only faders (not whole fixtures) to retain flexibility. Arundown of the subs used in addition to the usual fixture selection tools and palettes that would

do the bulk of the work.

Generics

Not may generics in the rig: Front fill light, Specials Intensity (Source Fours with Apollo Right

Arms, position set by palettes), House Lights.

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Intelligent Intensities

Get those fixtures on: Washes, Spots, Scans, PixelLine intensity on individual subs

Make those fixtures chase: Same deal, shutter chase, fader position controls speed.

Strobe: Make some of the rig strobe. Different strobes according to fader position, strobe

released on fader out.

Bump Splits

Intensities, splitting the rig into three sets: For beat bumps and kickin‘ that beam structurearound the roof.

PixelLine: PL intensities, split across 2 bump subs. All together now, Flip, Flop etc.

Movement/Position

Moves with speed controlled by fader position: Circle, Tilt Saw for both Scans and Washes.

Could have used simple Pan Only Saw and Tilt Only Saw and mixed them but it uses up toomany subs on several fixtures types, so Pan Saw was left out for the rig layout in question.

OUT: This is my all time favourite sub and one I use on most concert shows. It’s a position only

Crowd position controlled by fader. Fade in, the heads all move out from their starting point on

stage, fade back, they return. Move position by fader means that you can also do quick moves DJstyle especially with scanners. In this case, there were no dedicated blinders.

So, there you have it. A hand full of subs for a truck full of shows.

What do you think?

During the show, I asked the question on Facebook and Twitter : “Which is more important to

you? Knowing the music or knowing the rig?” which received a range of responses. Somecame down on the side of knowing the instrument well enough to be able to play along while

others suggested that knowing the show was the better option, being able to hit every beat was

desirable.

This is an interactive so let us know what you think. In that situation, would you rather know thesetup or the show? And what are your own approaches and techniques in these different

situations? Come over and put your comments in the box below as usual

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to OnStage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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On Stage Lighting has a ton of stuff like this. You may also like:

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Concert Lighting Programming in 30 Minutes• Band Stage Lighting – Make Your Gig A Concert

• Using Submasters for Busking Band Lighting

• Lighting Design with Moving Lights – A Small Show

• PLASA08 – Show Review

• LDI Trade Show – Live Design and Lighting in the USA

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3 Comments

1.  Peanut :April 30th, 2010 at 12:40 am 

I like to think great lighting is a nice balance between both schools of thought. You can’t

really have one without the other. You can miss an amazing crowd singalong moment

(molefays on 100%!) by not knowing the song, or by not knowing where on the desk the blinders are.

We get an awful lot of bands through the venue where I work, and the smaller ones rarelytour LDs, so I end up doing lights for most of them (to varying degrees, depending onhow much of their ’style’ of noise I can bare….). But on odd occasions, we’ll get a band

through of whom I am actually a fan, and those are the shows I REALLY enjoy.

Case in point – Thrice, a melodic rock band from Irvine, CA, recently played a Cardiff 

date on their UK tour. I hoped and prayed for weeks that they wouldn’t have an LD, and

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when I got to do the show, it was one of those days when you’re really glad you work in

a crappy little music venue!

You can check out videos of the show (and my lighting skills, or lack thereof….) at someguy’s YouTube site:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheBatsMouth

2.  Rob Sayer :April 30th, 2010 at 2:47 pm 

Hi Peanut, yeah a balance would be nice but not always the case, eh?

You sound pretty bold with your Moles tho. Dunno if I’ve ever had the balls to run a set

of Moles at 100% for fear of spooking the genny, tripping the rack or just blowing some

o’ those pesky DWEs.

Molefay Moment !!![crowd] Waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyoooooohhhhhhhh [/crowd]

3.  Lampie The Clown:May 26th, 2010 at 12:01 pm 

Hey Rob, Moles don’t have DWE’s or even FEYs any more. They don’t even come ingroups of 9. They are a hollow shell of their former power draw, and it is sad, but safe for 

the genny.

I spent the first 15 years of my career knowing the rig, but not the band, as happens when

you work for a lighting company. I ran the desk for many opening acts, quite a few club bands, and the occasional headliner.

Rock, and it’s father “the blues” are pretty easy to find changes on if you can count to 4,

and can do it 4 times in a row. Most musicians will telegraph the changes if you watch

closely. If there are two guitar players, 9 times out of 10 the singer will look at the onewho is about to solo, most musicians change their posture just before taking a lead, and

drummers can’t help but tell you the changes. If you can see them well enough, you will

 probably hit the all the major changes. On the other hand, modern jazz is hopeless for getting hints from the stage, and the counts can change without warning.

After 15 years of that, I toured with the same band for 10 years straight, doing about 200

shows a year.

On about half the gigs I got a rig I designed, and the other half were of the “find out whenyou get there” variety. Festivals are a good example, but proper theaters with 6X12s, 8″

fresnels, and a desk that has 8 faders and a go button were also common.

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Knowing the rig but not the band is more fun, because there is less pressure to get it right.

If you miss a solo, or get thrown off by a fast intro to a slow song, nobody is going to get

 bent out of shape. Let’s face it, if the band was concerned about making the lighting cuestight, they would pay an LD.

Knowing the band but not the rig produces better lighting. There may be a few gems inthe rig that you miss, but the audience doesn’t know that, and besides, I’ve never walked

away from a desk thinking I got all there was out of the rig. I settle for knowing I gotwhat I wanted and needed. The lighting should be judged by what the audience saw, not

 by what they could have seen.

Timing of the bumps is important, but timing of the fades and moves are what make thelighting a seamless part of the show. You have to know the band well for that.

Knowing the band also means knowing what they need, and what they don’t. If the lead

singer can’t hit a mark and sing at the same time, you won’t waste lights on specials for him. You’ll put them to better use, and let the follow-spots cover him.

Spot cues are another obvious benefit. You might as well take off the headset if you don’t

know the band. The spot ops can guess just as easily and with better timing than if theywait for a go on your guess.

If I want to have a good time, give me my rig and desk. It won’t matter who’s on stage,

I’ll have fun showing off the cool things my rig will do, and if I’m lucky, most of it will

fit what the band is doing, most of the time.

If the goal is for an audience to see the best show possible, the band needs to have an LD.Just my opinion…

LtheC