DUBLIN – A Grammy winning icon who has sold over 100 million albums, Slash is renowned for working magic on the guitar. But the former Guns N Roses member is not only a master at playing his six-string, he’s also a true guitar connoisseur, with a personal collection that numbers over 100 instruments.
Not surprisingly, Slash was very selective about the guitars he chose to play on his current The River Is Rising tour, but when it comes to picking which fixtures to include in his lighting rig, the decision is largely in the hands of Keith Hoagland.
The highly regarded Nashville-based designer and programmer has been traveling with Slash, Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators on their 40-city-in-24-countries tour. Vendors vary from place to place, but Hoagland works hard to ensure that the CHAUVET Professional Color STRIKE M is always in his rig.
“I put it at the top of my list,” he said of the fixture. “The Color STRIKE M serves a dual purpose for me. It gives me great colors and coverage as a wash unit. Then, when I want to turn things up, it’s a powerful strobe. All this without taking up a lot of space on stage.”
Color saturation and intense strobing were both brilliantly evident as soon as Slash and friends took the stage at Dublin3 Arena on March 28. For close to two minutes, the stage was bathed in deep saturated blues as eerie music played in the background. Then, it erupted in brightness as intense beams and strobe poured out onto the crowd.
A dozen Color STRIKE M fixtures were part of the fun. So was Hoagland who ran his cued (with some punting) show from his FOH position. “I feel I am playing alongside of Slash and the band, trying to accent and bring out different nuances that they are playing,” he said. “This has been a clean slate giving me full freedom be creative. They really wanted me to be able to make this my own project and allow my creative side to present them in visual terms.
“This music really pumps up the crowd, just like it gets my creative juices flowing,” continued Hoagland. “It’s also been great working with this crew, from our PM, Tim “Quake” Mark and TM Cheryl Hall, to all the other staff members, it truly is a family vibe out here. And, of course, the best thing is that I get to take a console and create a plot and hope that each city can produce that plot in what gear I have spec’d.”
In most cases that gear list will include the Color STRIKE M, thanks to a lighting designer who, like his famous client on this tour, is very particular about the “instrument” he plays.
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