LD John LaBriola is out on tour with the Jonas Brothers in support of their latest album, “Lines, Vines and Trying Times.” For LaBriola, this is his third outing with the band in the past two years, with this tour set in the round, with three circles of 360° WinVision LED video screens above the 144’-long diamond-shaped main stage, with two B stages, all built by Tait Towers. LaBriola designed the lighting and video, and travels with the band, running the MA Lighting grandMA console. The tour picks up again this week in Europe, where it runs through the spring.
The main stage includes a pair of lifts that can elevate and rotate the performers in opposite directions, as well as four other lifts for accompanying musicians. Engineered by McLaren Engineering Group P.C, the mechanical effects add even more energy to the pop-rock band’s high-energy performance. For the primary lighting positions, a 50x50 box truss sits over the stage with winches and motors provided by ShowRig of Las Vegas.
“Anything hanging over the main stage is hung from here,” explains LaBriola, who used Coemar Infinity units as his main wash: “I like their brightness and beam shaping, and the color-saturation is incredible.” He also likes the brightness of Martin’s MacIII Profiles, which comprise a major portion of the rig as well. An additional 50’ of truss runs to the B stages with additional positions. Lighting for last summer’s US leg of the tour was supplied by BML-Blackbird Theatrical Services.
“The average trim height is 50’,” says LaBriola. “So coverage was my first and foremost concern. The lighting has to be pretty and animated, but not wash out the band. Because of the type of music and the crowd, the lighting is as bright and colorful as possible. My aim is for each song to have three base colors to keep the show from becoming too bland.”
LaBriola also added as much movement as possible. “There is constant animation,” he points out. The movement keeps the rig from looking the same throughout, and the moving lights include Sycrolite SXB-7/3 fixtures places on pantographs, which move up and down at the perimeter of the show. “There is a Sycrolite at the end of each 50’ section of truss,” notes the LD. “They move down as low as 27’.”
The WinVision LED screen is in three concentric circular sections, measuring 28’, 22’, ad 16’, with the 22’ section used primarily for I-Mag of the band. “The content for the other two sections was stock footage or graphic images I made. The video adds another layer to the look yet is designed not to be too distracting,” says LaBriola, who also programmed the show on the grandMA with the grandMA video processor.
In designing the show, LaBriola had a lot of discussions with tour director Rob Brenner. “I like to show the band renderings along the way,” says the LD, who used ESP Vision as his lighting previz software before rehearsals started. “The Jonas Brothers are very easy to work with,” LaBriola adds. “They have very specific blocking and let me do what I need to do to go to town.”
Jonas Brothers Tour
Selected gear
Lighting
68 Coemar Infinity
18 Vari-Lite VL3000 Spots
60 Martin MACIII Profiles
60 Mainlight MF3’s
52 3kW Atomic Strobes/scrollers
22 Vari-Lite VL2500 spots
9 High End Systems Showguns
9 Syncrolite SXB-7/3
56 Martin Stagebars
37 Coemar LED Par
6 Lycian M2 followspots
2 MA Lighting grandMA consoles
10 DF50 foggers
34 10’ HUD truss
1 4’ mirror ball
Video:
Cameras
6 Sony digital broadcast cameras 16x9
2 Canon 55x1 camera lenses
2 Canon 70x1 camera lenses
6 Studio kits w/view finders
6 Triax camera control units
4 Sachtler V-80 head & sticks
1 POV for wide shot
Air Pack Controls
1 Ross synergy 3ME switcher
1 32" LCD screen -FOH wide shot
Video Engineering
1 Grass Valley video DA tray
8 EQ DA'S
12 Video DA'S
1 Sierra 32x32 audio follow video computer router
1 1740 Waveform/vectorscope
2 Sony 14" multi-format CRT monitors
3 Folsoms
LEDs for Main Screen (Circular LED)
353 WinVision 18mm panels