The Amity Affliction are currently touring the country with a string of Covid-delayed shows. Lighting designer Ben Kocsis was asked to supply a minimalistic look that stood out from other bands in the same genre.
“When Caleb (Artist Manager) and I were floating ideas for this tour somebody mentioned mirrors and we ran with that idea,” elaborated Ben. “I did some concept renders and the band loved it. We went through a few iterations before arriving at the final design which was tour and truck friendly.
Ben says that he wanted to create something different to what other bands were doing but was still aggressive and punchy to suit the music. However, he has a few things he does consistently for Amity.
“The band likes dark stages and hate front light so I keep it to an absolute minimum,” he said. “I use a lot of sidelight and uplight to light the band which helps keep it moody and broody which suits their music but also lets the fans see them. I also do a lot of heavy backlighting and silhouette looks.”
Ben’s biggest challenge was the fact that this tour got rescheduled multiple times and was very broken up. They managed to do Brisbane back in January which was the first show with this design.
“Then we had Unify in March and now we’re finally finishing the run,” he added. “The stop/start nature of it just kills any momentum you gain whilst on tour and juggling these shows with the other tour I have out at the moment (Short Stack) is hard as I have to change gears very quickly.”
The rig is all floor package with house rigs utilised at each venue. The main focal point of the show is six custom-fabricated mirrors that are 1m x 2m. They’re an acrylic mirror in a welded steel frame surrounded with Pixel LED tape made by Above and Beyond Productions. Ben shouts out to Jeremy Nolan and Luke Thiel who were very accommodating.
“I then have an upstage line consisting of six 2m verticals each with a Sunstrip and a Molefay duet,” remarked Ben. “There are also six Martin MAC Viper Profiles and five GLP JDC1 strobes. This allows me to do big walls of light behind the band that pushes through the mirrors and give effective backlit looks.”
Eight Claypaky Sharpy are dotted around the downstage and midstage lines. These are used in nearly every way possible for effect lighting and Ben even bounces them off the mirrors in a few songs. Eight MAC Aura XB are used for sidelight and eight Martin Rush Zoom Pars for uplight. For the atmosphere, there are four hazers and two smoke machines.
“We also have twelve Flame Jets from Blasso,” added Ben. “These are used in the heavier songs during breakdowns and are super effective. Luke is an absolute pro. We just tell him when we want them used and he makes it happen and nails the cues/timing.”
Creative supplied the floor package and flown rig in Brisbane back in January and Phaseshift supplied the floor package for Unify. ei Productions supplied all of the east coast shows on this current leg,
Novatech is supplying in Adelaide and Showscreens is supplying in Perth.
The show is programmed on Ben’s weapon of choice; an MA2 Light and he is also running a MADRIX 5 server to run the LED tape on the mirrors. There is no timecode with Ben running it all live.
“I have the main cue list for each song with its own page and then I have stacks for blinders/strobes and some additional flash buttons,” he commented. “I spent about a week with a console and my Capture rig pre-vizing the show.
“One of my favourite moments of the show is the start of the song Death’s Hand. It has a slow guitar part and I just backlight the band in a saturated greenwash. It looks super tough and menacing and you know it’s about to get crazy … and it does!”
