Copyright Lighting&Sound America September 2007 www.lightingandsoundamerica.com

www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • September 2007 • 71 CONCERTS

The latest product of Howard Ungerleider’s hover in a series of configurations. A set of custom-designed blinders can long-term collaboration with Rush bathe the audience with washes that By: David Barbour Photography: Todd Kaplan equal the intensity of stadium lights. And, this being an Ungerleider show, f the many elder statesmen of lineup of new material (plus some old there are dazzling blasts of lasers Orock still to be found on the favorites) filled with trippy music and slicing through the air. road, Rush arguably presents the video sequences exploiting the band’s The entire design of the lighting rig most contemporary face. Maybe it’s oddball sense of humor. (There are is a complex, multilayered affair, a because Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, onscreen appearances by Rick geometrically sophisticated blend of and Neil Peart have been reinventing Moranis and Dave Thomas, as the curves, squares, and straight lines. themselves musically for more than McKenzie Brothers, plus those little Indeed, the concept reveals how in three decades. Maybe it’s because brats from South Park, paying tribute sync the designer is with the band’s they still have the stamina to entertain to “L’il Rush.’) Ungerleider, whose creative vision. “Each of the S trusses their fans with three hours-plus of wide-ranging career takes in concert is made up of several pieces on fiendishly intricate performances. And touring (his company, PDIFX.com, is hinges—it’s like a snake,” says maybe it’s because of their long-term currently out on tour with Tool), clubs, Ungerleider. “It was only after I came up with it that I found out the name of the album was Snakes and Arrows. I said to them, ‘This is pretty strange— here’s my system.’” Indeed, one suspects, only Ungerleider could have come with this rig, which is distinctive verging on the bizarre. Upstage, two S-shaped trusses make their sinuous ways horizontally across the stage; placed on them is an array of moving lights, making alternate rows of High End System Studio Beams and Martin Professional MAC 2000 Washes, the latter with custom colors. Way upstage, behind the video screens, is a fireplace mesh backdrop, supplied by Cascade Coil of Portland, Oregon, which is lit by a set of Coemar Power Cycs, contributing their distinctively Ungerleider’s pods fly in at odd angles to create unusual effects. bright cyc-light look. Then there are the pods—imposing hexagonal partnership with Howard Ungerleider. industrial shows, and big-ticket structures that hover above the stage, Ungerleider is the production special events, has gotten his hands containing four High End Systems designer and director of Rush’s on a number of new products, which x.Spot Xtremes with custom gobos, current Snakes and Arrows tour; his he deploys to make some startlingly one Mac 2000 Wash, and one Martin relationship with the band goes back original looks. And when he hasn’t Atomic 3000 strobe. The perimeters of to the mid-‘70s. Far from creating the found a new product to suit his needs, the pods are covered with six Color same old looks to enshrine the he’s gone ahead and invented it. Kinetics ColorBlaze 48s, which give greatest hits of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and The basic layout of the show— them their uniquely glittering look. The today, he has proven to be as which is mostly playing outdoor pods are set on Chain Master Vario creatively adventurous as his clients. venues—puts the band in front of three Lift hoists, from Show Distribution; as The result is a vintage band that looks enormous video screens—one each for manipulated by Ungerleider, they and sounds brand-new. Lee, Lifeson, and Peart. Above the come in at many angles, like a fleet of Thus the Snakes and Arrows tour band, a series of hexagonal light pods, UFOs; at other times, they look like combines novel visuals with a solid their perimeters covered with LEDs, the gears of some infernal machine.

72 • September 2007 • Lighting&Sound America There’s one video screen for each member of the band; Dave Davidian controls the media with a Ross switcher.

And we’re only getting started. Controlling the lighting is a pair of the designer, “And I’m using Also curving above the stage in a High End Systems Wholehog IIIs, the something like eight different height modified S formation is a series of love-it-or-hate-it-console that has left levels of lighting.” blinder units—another original a trail of divided opinions behind it. Then again, could it possibly be an conception. “They have three rows of Ungerleider definitely falls into the Ungerleider production without MR16 zip strips placed between rows love category. “We had very minimal lasers? The designer’s company, of ColorBlaze 72s,” says Ungerleider. programming issues,” he says, Production Design International, “I had the MR16s wired, ten bulbs at adding that the board has stood up to supplied a pair of 60W Laserscope a time, so I can do chases with the rigors of the road. YAG units, which cut through the them.” There are also sidelight units, With this rig, Ungerleider is well- atmosphere like a row of sabers, attached to Vario Lift hoists, which equipped to induce what he gleefully meeting the angled downlight from can lower in to provide additional calls “retinal fatigue.” In truth, the pods at perpendicular angles. colorful side washes as needed— something of a first for Ungerleider. I knew it worked on paper. We were This is also a big followspot show, “ with six Lycian M2s plus four house programming and rehearsing at the Hershey spots. The impressive bursts of Center in Mississauga, Ontario, a space with a smoke are created by High End very low trim—so it was hard to visualize. The first F100s and Reel EFX DF-50 hazers. For anyone who’s counting, the day, I was thinking to myself, is this gonna work?” fixtures totals include 52 x.Spot Xtremes, 32 Studio Beams, 37 Mac however, he’s too clever an artist to The video, while not quite as 2000 Washes, ten Power Cycs, 12 do that. Thick bursts of hot colors complicated, is, nevertheless, not High End Cyberlights, 21 Atomic alternate with spectral pod your usual concert layout. There are strobes, 16 ColorBlaze 72s, 30 arrangements, which give way to two sets of media servers playing ColorBlaze 48s, and 24 MR16 startling bursts of hot curving white different roles. Because Ungerleider ministrips, plus one ETC Sensor light. The rig’s flexibility gives him a says LEDS are labor-intensive to dimmer rack and four 400A x 208V seemingly infinite number of angles, program—he’s not alone in thinking power distribution racks. Lighting and he works them for all they’re that—he’s running video through the gear was supplied by Premier Global, worth, creating a nearly inexhaustible Color Kinetics gear, using ArtNet which has offices in both Nashville, procession of looks. “I love having protocol and a series of Catalyst Tennessee, and Regina, Sasketchewan. five different varieties of beams,” says systems. The video on the three 10mm

www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • September 2007 • 73 CONCERTS

Toshiba screens is fed by Doremi the appearance of a pram on a In “Malignant Narcissism,” Peart’s playback devices. (The screens are 11' mountaintop, an unmistakable allusion drum kit revolves to a video display of 2" high; the left and right units are 14' to the film Rosemary’s Baby.” There’s great vintage jazz musicians. During wide and the middle one is 21' wide.) a burst of audience light and three “Summertime Blues,” you can amuse Serving as video director is Dave pods fly in, bathing Lifeson in hot yourself watching stagehands tending Davidian, himself a concert lighting bursts of white light. The McKenzie the three rotisseries located behind designer of note. He’s keeping track of three manned cameras, four POV Each of the S trusses is made up of several robotics (two of them in light pods), “ which provide the IMAG. Then there’s pieces on hinges—it’s like a snake. It was only after the video content, much of it produced I came up with it that I found out that the name of by Allen Weinrib, Geddy Lee’s brother. the album was Snakes and Arrows. I said to them, (Additional material was provided by ‘This is pretty strange—here’s my system.’ the firms Derivative and Spin ” Productions.) Using a Ross switcher, Davidian keeps all the video imagery brothers introduce “The Larger Lee, who, lacking any extensive under his control. “It’s all routed Bowl,” in which pods prowl the backline gear, fills the gap with through Dave,” says Ungerleider. “We audience with green and blue unexpected props (On the last tour, it control the Catalyst, but Dave controls washes. In “Far Cry,” the lyric, “You was a set of laundry dryers.) the switching all through the show,” can almost see the circuits blowing,” Ungerleider says he had eight running four channels of Catalyst cues a searing burst of pyro weeks to design the show and adds, laughing, “This is the first tour where almost everything arrived before the first shows.” He programmed the lighting, working with Tim Grivas, an old hand at High End consoles. Of course, having come up with something so new, Ungerleider had to worry how it would pan out. “I knew it worked on paper,” he says. “But we were programming and rehearsing at the Hershey Center in Mississauga, Ontario, a space with a very low trim— so it was hard to visualize. The first day, I was thinking to myself, is this gonna work?” Clearly it does, thanks to the work Left: Lighting and lasers at work together. Right: Lifeson and Lee jam. of those already mentioned plus Ungerleider’s associate, Matt Tucker; media and four channels of Doremi controlled by John Arrowsmith, the crew chief, Rich Vineyard; and A.J. playback. Davidian also uses a followed by a rainbow spectrum of Seabeck, the laserist; and crew Pinnacle digital effects unit to facilitate colors from the pods and LED members, Greg Haygood, Randy single panoramic screen effects and blinders. “Witch Hunt” features a Garrett, and, on video, Bob Larkin, Bill special colorization effects. dizzying display of smoke, lasers, Quinn, and Nick Strand, and John Screenworks provided the video gear. and pod light. Pyro effects, supplied Fletcher, Chris Sorenson, and Jacques Everything comes together to by Pyrotek, include 18 one-second Richard, who brave the heights each create a parade of wild visuals that gerbs in a chase effect and a day to hang the show. evoke the song’s mysteries without eighteen 25' silver comets with It’s all in the service of another seeming pretentious or overblown. The tail,plus a concussion effect. In “One time-defying Rush tour. The band fun begins with the first number, Little Victory,” a dragon image stays on this continent through “Limelight,” with imagery of paintings, appears to breathe fire; eight dragon September, then heads off to Europe bearing the Snakes and Arrows logo, heads and three fire balls are used in for a month. But don’t worry—Rush flying across the screen, followed by this sequence. will be back. And soon.

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