Multi-platinum hit-makers The Goo Goo Dolls recently toured Australia with their Anthem Tour. Formed by John Rzeznik and Robby Takac in Buffalo, NY, in 1986, Goo Goo Dolls have sold 15 million records worldwide, garnered four GRAMMY® Award nominations and nearly a dozen platinum and gold singles combined and seized a page in the history books by achieving 16 #1 and Top 10 hits. As a result, they hold the all-time radio record for “Most Top 10 Singles.”
Lighting designer Dan Hardiman started with The Goo Goo Dolls 15 years ago, and they have kept him busy ever since.
The band gave the video a rest for this tour, which Dan enjoys, and the lighting design focuses on what can easily be provided locally.
“You do have to be svelte when you fly down here; you have to travel light,” Dan commented. “We travelled with the backdrop and everything else supplied locally. Therefore, in a normal arena environment, we could still be sound-checking with trusses on the ground.”
Dan’s main aim with his lighting design was to create a big rock show! The band has multiple hits, so it’s all about the audience’s reaction and the spectacle for those songs while contrasting with creating intimate looks for the acoustic numbers.
A challenging aspect for Dan is the need to create something that can handle an unknown setlist and also provide the band with the variety of looks they are used to.
MPH supplied the rig of 22 x Robe BMFL Spot, 10 x Robe BMFL Blade, 24 x Robe Spiider, 8 x TMB Flare Q, 20 x Impression X4 Bar 20, and 24 x LED Blinder II IP.
“I first used the Robe BMFL range extensively on Evanescence and loved the quality of light for key lighting,” said Dan. “It can be a very flattering front light. As they are reliable and readily available, they seemed the perfect choice for getting supplied locally. They also have sufficient horsepower that even a poorly maintained unit can get the job done.”
Five Robe BMFL Spots are on the upstage floor, with sixteen more spread out on LX1 and LX2. Dan comments that they have a suitably wide zoom range to cope with the differing venue sizes.
LX1 and LX2 also house eight Robe Spiiders, with eight more on the floor between the trusses. Dan used them as his core wash light on Moby last year and was really impressed with their reliability and punch-by-size. So, they seemed a suitable LED wash for these shows.
LX3 out front carried ten Robe BMFL Blades and 24 x LED Blinder II IP. The Blades were chosen for downstage projection and key-lighting, as the shuttering was necessary, especially with the varied venue trim heights encountered on this run.
Thirteen GLP Impression X4 Bar 20 rigged below the backdrop to colour wash it and for some low-level backlight effects on the band.
“They are in DualPixel, High Resolution mode so that they can do colour swipes and waves over the backdrop, but still have the 16-bit Intensity to avoid clunky fades at low levels,” explained Dan. “Most fixtures in this rig have to have dual functionality due to scarcity.”
LX1 also has four TMB Solaris Flare Q+, with four more on the upstage floor. Dan says that Atomics sadly don’t seem to cut it anymore or be available. The Solaris Flare Q+ are used sparingly as a punchy strobe to highlight musical stabs in three to four songs.
On either side of the upstage floor were two MDG ATMe Hazers with a DMX Fan, which, Dan says, worked great despite the aggressive Australian air-conditioning!
Four RJ Lancelot 4k followspots were explicitly chosen, with Dan professing that he loves them.
“They have great optics and sufficient horsepower to run saturated colours if needed,” he added. “They are gelled cosmetically, but the power and zoom range gave us enough flexibility to cope with the varied throw distances. I must also praise how well MPH serviced and maintained them.”
Dan used an HES Hog4-18 Full Size for control, saying that he has loved the Hog way of working since Hog2.
“Its mixture of creativity and powerful programming tools fits in with my mindset and creative process,” he said. “It also suits migrating programming to new fixtures daily … so as far as the band know, they get the same show.”
Dan was impressed with MPH, saying they knocked it out of the park … as the Americans say!
“The crew were hard working and took daily challenges in their stride,” he remarked. “The gear was well maintained and set up for touring (pre-rig truss, etc). I was chatting with the PM earlier today about our summer leg, and unprompted, he remarked that he’d happily have our MPH crew as our US summer lighting crew.”
Dan said the Australian tour was great fun with some long drives and early starts. The crowds were brilliant, and he looks forward to repeating it all in the future.
