CMC Speaker Spotlight: Butch Allen

From the front seat of a truck to the front of house, Butch Allen's touring journey has been both varied and unusual: backline tech, lighting director, lighting designer, set designer, and production manager.

A smattering of the artists Allen has been associated with over the years include Van Halen, Yes, Def Leppard, Hole, Seal, Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, Garbage, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Gwen Stefani, Eagles, Metallica, Usher, NKOTB, Jennifer Hudson, America’s Got Talent Live, Dancing With The Stars Live, Nickelback, No Doubt, Black Keys, Eric Church, and Glee.

Allen returns to the Live Design Concert Master Classes (The CMC takes place on December 3 & 4 at USC in Los Angeles and includes a ticket to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live in concert in Anaheim) this year on a panel titled: The Blank Page, a discussion with Steve Cohen and Seth Jackson about how designers grapple with those earliest moments in the process: Where do you begin? Where do the ideas originate? Once an idea is approved, what happens next? 
Set design: do you design your own set? How best to collaborate with the production team and artist for creative concerns?

Most Recent Projects:
The Black Keys; Eric Church

Influences: Svoboda, Appia, Musser, Rosenthal, Morse, Cohen, Brickman, Owen, Kandinsky, Ming Cho Lee, Fisher, Tsypin,

First Concert You Saw: ELO, 1977

Favorite Concert Design Of All Time: Favorite concert moment is something I can answer. And the answer is: when the houselights go out.

What Do You Most Like To Do When Not Working:
Cook for my wife.

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