Speed metal band Slayer brought along four other heavy metal bands on its brand-new touring production, Slayer: The Unholy Alliance. The line-up featured Lamb of God, Mastodon, Children of Bodom, Thine Eyes Bleed—and Clay Paky Alpha Spots to shed light and add drama to the spectacle onstage.
Lighting Designer/Director Jason Cain (who also handled video) specified 20 Alpha Spot HPE 1200 luminaries for his lighting rig, saying, “I chose the Alpha Line because of their light weight and bright output. It was also nice to have two rotating gobo wheels, and the fixed wheel as well. I was able to achieve multi layering of the gobos to produce different lighting effects.”
The Clay Paky Alpha Spots were put into a moving light pre-rig that was built by Xtreme Structures. Any concerns Cain had about the lights’ magnetic wheels holding up for two months riding in the auto truss were quickly dispelled. “No worries, the Alpha Spots held up nicely,” Cain says. “For the duration of the tour, none of the Alphas had any failures. The show consists of lots of smoke, and very dark and moody lighting cues. Mostly deep saturated colors, reds, blues, and greens are used throughout the show and gate chases are a constant. I did use the FX wheel on a song titled ‘Hell Awaits’ to help achieve a fire effect. The Alphas lived up to the fast pan/tilt movement, and never-ending shutter chases.”
Dallas, Texas-based Gemini Stage Lighting served as the vendor for all of the lighting, video, trussing, and motors. Backing Cain up in the lighting department are lighting crew chief Dennis Waite and lighting technicians Danny Willet and Jason Wright. After spending two months playing arenas in the United States, the tour is now headed to South America and then Mexico, Singapore, and Japan before arriving in Europe in the fall for the final leg of this year’s tour.
