Powderfinger, the Australian act that gave us so many classic hits such as My Happiness and Love Your Way are currently touring the country with a huge farewell tour, the Sunsets Tour.
Lighting designer Jeff Pavey has created a rig dominated by Martin MAC’s including forty-one MAC2000 wash and twenty-five MAC2000 profile along with sixteen Martin Atomic strobes. Jeff is also using one of his favourite fixtures – the Studio Due CS4 moving multi-par concept. Eight of these are situated within two pods (four in each) either side of the stage providing dramatic ray beam lighting that Jeff puts to great use.
”I’ve always liked big, beamy pods and as we’re filming a lot of these shows, they are ideal at the side to ‘fill’ camera shots really well,” said Jeff. “Usually side-on camera shots have the band with big black spaces behind them. With this show they fill the stage and also frame it well. There’s a lot of Queen-influence with this band and CS4’s give that classic rock look. I use CS4’s a lot in my shows but I don’t use them like a lot of other people who just want to wiggle them about. I use them for big, bold looks – you’ll never see them move with me! They’re great for getting an asymmetrical look to a show.”
Chameleon Touring Systems supplied the lighting and also manufactured the custom arch that is the scenic highlight of the show. The arch is fifty foot wide and its’ perimeter is lit with sixty Pro Shop LED Pars whilst contained within the arch is a semi-circular video screen. More pro Shop LED Pars are deployed as truss toners and around the drum area.
The brilliance of the CS4’s and the creativity of the Pro Shop LED arch may steal the limelight on this show but it is the MAC2000’s that do most of the hard work. However, as they are always expected to perform well and deliver incredible reliability, they really don’t get much of a mention. They are industry standard fixtures that get taken for granted and just keep on working.
Photos: Troy Constable and Cat Strom
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