Professional Lighting & Production - Spring 2018 | Page 19

They’ve racked up eight top 10
U.S. Billboard hits, including three
No. 1s – the most recent being
“Rx (Medicate)” from their newest
release.
Any band that’s been together
and touring for that long knows full
well they’ll end up in a wide variety
of venues in a wide variety of mar-
kets. In Theory’s case, their current
run includes everything from small
clubs to medium-sized halls to
massive festival sites and more,
all with varying house production
rigs. Consequently, the band tends
to tailor its production package to
accommodate any and all of those
venues – particularly when it comes
to their lighting system.
Theory’s LD, Alex Jeffrey, spoke
to Professional Lighting & Produc-
tion in late February from Medford,
OR, just prior to the band’s Portland date early into the tour
to discuss the need for flexibility in his design and the gear
he’s deploying.
SCALABILITY
For this run, Jeffrey explains that Theory is only carrying
a floor lighting and video package sourced through Nova
Scotia’s Tour Tech East. From the outset, the primary con-
sideration in the design and composition of the lighting and
video system was scalability so that, depending on the size
and type of venue they may be performing any given night,
the rig could be deployed in whole or in part as needed to
supplement a pre-existing house rig.
“The tour is going really well – great reception and we’re
actually doing headlining shows in some cities Theory’s
never headlined before,” Jeffrey reports.
Jeffrey has been the band’s LD for six years. He first got
the gig when Theory’s previous LD, a friend of his, decided
to stop touring and asked if he’d want to take it on. Based
in Belleville, ON, Jeffrey also works with Canadian country
band High Valley and designed the lighting for Marianas
Trench’s 2016 summer run. “They were doing a run of ven-
ues similar to the range Theory is doing now in the U.S.,”
he notes.
In his time with the band, Jeffrey has obviously devel-
oped a number of designs for their tours, and ensuring the
rig scales easily has often been the name of the game. “You
can play anything from smaller shows to massive festivals
with these guys, so I’ve always had to keep it workable for
many different occasions and venues because it’s just a floor
package and you never know what you’re going to get in the
room. Last night, for example, I had to use about two thirds
of our video and lighting because of the venue size.”
In some ways, given he’s had to keep scalability and some
similar consierations in mind on past tours, this is an exten-
sion of previous designs; however, prior to this outing, the
packages they took out did not include video components.
“With the new album out, they wanted to step it up and
give their fans a little more for the shows,” the LD says, “so
we took the leap and got into video.”
Jeffrey is using an MA Lighting grandMA2 Ultra-Light
console to control the floor lighting package, house rig,
and video. “I clone in everything the venue has to my show
file, and then run our full floor package and drive the media
server from the desk.”
The lighting rig they have on the road is primarily
comprised of four products:16 PR Lighting XLED 336 Beam
RGB LED moving heads; 12 Elation Cuepix Strip Tri RGB bar
luminaires; four Martin Atomic 3000 208-V strobes; and six
Martin Mac 2000 Profiles.
With the exception of the Mac Profiles, which are located
on the floor in a semicircle around the band for up-lighting
and moody scenes, the remainder of the fixtures are placed
on six upright pipes spread across the stage.
“The 336s are on pipes in between the video panels,” he
begins, “so I’ve got four pipes with three on them and two
pipes with two of those fixtures. They’re mounted straight
up and down and pointed straight at the audience. Then,
interspersed between those are the Cuepix to provide
more light pointed right at the audience.” The Atomic 3000
Strobes are mounted below those fixtures, again pointed at
the crowd to maximize the strobe effect.
From stage right to centre, the heights of the pipes –
“on a normal day” – are 9 ft., 7.5 ft., and 11.5 ft. “I do adjust
the heights depending on the house rig trim, which usually
corresponds with the size of the video wall that day as well,
and sometimes I can only fit four of the six pipes on the
stage because of width restrictions.”
When it comes to what they request from venues, Jeffrey
says there’s no specific lighting rider. “It’s really just what-
ever they can hand me. I’ve got my show set up to handle
anything from a classic par 64 rig to a full moving light rig,
or just LED pars. It’s really whatever the lighting rig of the
day is. I’ve pre-programmed my show with pretty much any
option that can be thrown at me in mind.”
Spring 2018 | 19