SANTA DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - The set list changed from night to night. The venues varied from classic arenas to free-flowing outdoor festivals. The rig was never the same from one show to another. Such was life on the Killers’ six-nation Latin American tour, which opened at Santa Domingo’s Óvalo Feria Ganadera on March 27.
Still, even though each show started out under wildly different circumstances, it ended up in the same place -- one best described as a sweet spot of pure rock & roll energy that swept up fans in the moment and resulted in robust sing-alongs that no one wanted to end. As one music critic put it: this wasn’t “just another tour stop; it's a reminder that The Killers deliver the anthems you live for.”
Steven Douglas, the band’s longtime lighting designer, did more than go with the flow on this circuitous tour; he made magic happen with a different assortment of CHAUVET Professional fixtures at every stop along the way. Drawing on his extensive show file, he conjured up a series of looks that fit the music just right on the tour’s ever-changing 18-20 song setlist.
“I have a pretty good festival show file set up now after a couple of years of running this leg of the tour,” said Douglas. This made it simple to scale the show up or down depending on the situation. The band does not play to a timecode or have the same setlist every night, so it gives me the freedom to busk on top of the base cues programmed to cover any gaps that may exist with the locally supplied rig each day. The show is run completely live with a mixture of programmed base cue stacks for each song, with a lot of busking over top of it .
“Our standard plot is four overhead trusses and two side trusses with a floor package,” continued Douglas. “But with the varying nature of the types of shows, the size of rig changed daily. We also had some festivals that were catering to other headliners, so it really made the changes massive. Because of this, I redesigned the show to be less specialist in terms of fixtures and placement and went with a more ‘festival-friendly’ style configuration.”
Although circumstances may have changed throughout the tour, a few things remain constant for Douglas as he lit his iconic client. He worked with the same console and network rack supplied by Christie Lites, which also provided a wonderfully talented crew: Kitty Hoffman, Crew Chief; Martin Kelley, Account Rep; and Russ Benoit, Project Manager.
Another constant on the tour, in addition to Douglas’s inspiration and skill, was that each stop had a solid collection of CHAUVET Professional fixtures, a total of 439 when added all up throughout the run. These included 84 Color STRIKE M motorized strobes and 48 COLORado PXL Bar 16 battens at the Estéreo Picnic Festival in Bogota; 48 Maverick Storm 1 Hybrids and 18 Maverick Storm 3 WashBeams, and 30 Maverick Storm 4 Profiles at Costa 21 in Lima; 12 Maverick Storm 4s and 40 Maverick MK II Spots at the Coca Cola Amphitheatre in Costa Rica; and 107 Maverick Storm 4 SoloWashes and 60 Color STRIKE Ms at Parque Fundidora in Monterrey.
Douglas artfully worked his ever-changing fixtures to reflect his client’s music with a show that featured dynamic aerial effects, and bold color changes. There was also well-timed audience lighting to support special moments, such as when 10,000 voices were raised in unison to shout out the lyrics to “All These Things That I've Done'’ under a starry Paraguayan night. That, like many other moments, was a fitting tribute to the global popularity of this iconic band and the consummate skill of their lighting designer.
About CHAUVET Professional
CHAUVET Professional offers innovative professional lighting fixtures for the production and touring market as well as permanent installation in theaters, hospitality venues, cruise ships, clubs, television and architainment applications. For more information, please visit www.chauvetprofessional.com