The Teskey Brothers and Orchestra Victoria performed together at Sydney’s Aware Super Theatre with lighting design by Sam Carroll.
On the first show that Sam ever did for The Teskey Brothers, their management sent a page or two of notes for each song. It was a general descriptor of the mood for each song highlighting where there were big solos.
“The general takeaway was they were looking for the lighting to follow the musical peaks and troughs with rhythmic hits, big dramatic moments and focus being pulled onto solos,” commented Sam.
With this design, Sam wanted to provide as much of the show he’d developed for the Teskeys over the last few years and adapt it to the larger stage and Orchestra. He also wanted to move away from the three/four horizontal truss setup that they had been using on so many festivals since he’d been onboard.
Whilst adapting the standard Teskey lighting show to work with the orchestra was his biggest challenge, there were quite a few considerations to make the changes not jarring or too intense for the musicians.
The lighting rig was supplied by Intense Lighting out of Sydney who held the booking for Sam for almost a year, as they had had to reschedule the show.
“I’m very grateful that they’ve been willing to work with me,” said Sam. “The show was very well prepped, their team were absolute professionals and have a keen eye for detail. For face wash on the band and Orchestra, I had Martin Encore WRM washes as the quality of light of these was amazing, and perfect for keeping both the band and orchestra visible. Martin Encore CLD were filling the profile role whilst ShowPRO Pluto 4000s were providing the rear wash and finally, ShowPRO blinders were across most of the trusses.”
The way Sam approached lighting the band and the orchestra was reasonably straightforward. He moved the wash lights he would usually have midstage to a deep upstage truss. For the most part, he kept these on a pretty wide focus, to light both the drape and the orchestra. He also added four of the Encore Washes to fill a bit more face light on the Orchestra as well as a single Encore Performance Centre special for the conductor.
The drape was from The Look in Sydney. The band don’t use a backdrop, and with the changes Sam had made to the show for the orchestra, he wanted to add a scenic element to dress up the show.
“Something I learned years ago from the designer Carl Burnett, was the elegance something simple like the right drape can bring to a show,” explained Sam. “The Look made it very easy for me, I called them in search of a silver Austrian drape and they sent me some pictures of it within the hour.”
Sam says that the programming of the show is always changing adding that he has spent a lot of time refining parts of the show he likes and changing what he thinks could be better. Sam was using an MA Lighting MA3 light.
“The show has been evolving over time with small changes,” he said. “In the lead up I spent a bit of time updating songs the band hadn’t played since the show with ICC at the music bowl.
“In terms of the execution of the show, it’s mostly a cue-stacked show. However, I leave quite a few things out of the cue stacks as the timing on stage can sway, or change at a moment’s notice. Mostly this is colour bumps, blinder hits, and the occasional one-shot dimmer effect. I like having a balance between a cue-stacked show, and also busking things over the top, as it keeps the show organic, which fits in with the overall aesthetic that I get from the band.”
