ATHENS, GA - Creative sleight of hand is the secret sauce that makes many entertainment experiences click. ACM New Artist of the Year nominee Gavin Adcock taps into this magic when he turns even big arenas into old school honky-tonks through his hard-driving music and irrepressibly gritty stage persona.
On the rising star’s sold-out Need to Know tour, which closed its fall run October 17th at Georgia’s Classic Center Arena, lighting designer Alexander Lehman practiced some “artful deception” of his own to conjure up immersive downhome country looks that fit Adcock’s music like well-worn leather gloves.
“We’re playing a wide variety of venues, including arenas, on this tour with the same rig,” said Lehman. “When we are at the larger spaces, I love adding curtains of light when I can to create the ‘illusion’ that we have more light and gear than we actually have in our rig.”
Helping Lehman convey this impression are 18 CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL Curves and 14 COLORado PXL Bar 16 motorized battens, which, like the rest of his rig, were supplied by Premier Global Productions.
“We had 12 PXL Curves in our flown mid-stage truss and four on the floor in front of our band risers,” detailed Lehman. “The curves truly were what carried the show this time around. They were the staple fixture of the show, creating dynamic, fun looks in high-energy moments, and then giving us soft, gentle looks in the more intimate songs. I really loved using those fixtures on this rig.”
As for his 14 PXL Bar 16 fixtures, which were positioned on the downstage edges, Lehman drew on their flexible output and high (5.8 ° to 47.9°) zoom range to reflect the wide variety of moods and onstage antics embodied in a Gavin Adcock show. “I used the bars as uplights for those softer tunes, but then turned to them for eye candy when Gavin cut loose.”
There were plenty of such high-energy times when Adcock strode the stage and reached out to fans, pulling them into a whirlwind of party energy with his country swagger and pithy observations. When he did, the rig’s 16 high-output STRIKE 1 fixtures and eight Color STRIKE M motorized strobe-washes were there to connect the artist to his fans.
For Lehman, the high-octane tour was pure fun! “I had the privilege of working with a great group of people,” he said. “I couldn’t have done this tour without our PM Keegan Hughes, the guys at PGP - Quiz (Brandon Quisberg), and Joe Birdsong -- as well as my lighting tech Omar, and the rest of the crew. Then, of course, there was Gavin and his connection to the crowd.
“Gavin loves having plenty of moments where we light the crowd,” continued Lehman. “So, we had 12 STRIKE fixtures on our flown torm trusses and the rest on 10-foot towers. Gavin is big on filming videos for social media that show the crowd, and the blinders allowed folks in the audience to shine during sing-along moments.”
It’s easy to see how crowds felt like singing along with Adcock’s catchy tunes. Lehman’s lighting worked seamlessly with a video backdrop depicting country bar scenes to make everyone feel as if they were at their favorite hangout… A bit of sleight-of-hand illusion-making? Perhaps, but it sure was fun!
About CHAUVET Professional
CHAUVET Professional offers innovative professional lighting fixtures for the production and touring market as well as permanent installation in theaters, hospitality venues, cruise ships, clubs, television and architainment applications. For more information, please visit www.chauvetprofessional.com
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