ONTARIO, CA - The Edición Especial concert at Toyota Arena ran from 8:30 to 11 pm, but for Martin Castañon it seemed way faster than two-and-a-half hours. Uber-talented cousins, Arturo Villa and Cristian Valenzuela, who make up the internationally-popular Mexican band, seamlessly wove their way through a dazzling variety of musical moods during their set, calling on Castañon to keep up with an endless stream for fresh lighting looks.
“Time flew on this show,” said Castañon. “Edición Especial’s set list helped to keep the lighting non-repetitive during the night. They would change the tempo through the night, which allowed me to differentiate looks. Some songs were love ballads, and some were fast paced corridos. It was a lot of fun.”
Describing the many variations in the show, Castañon said: “The love songs were where the reds and magentas shined. These songs would get big almost static looks with very slow rotating gobos. It allowed the crowd to enjoy the band, and for the lighting not to be too distracting while they chanted to the lyrics.
“As for the fast-paced corridos, they would get faster movements with beams instead of gobos and a lot more intensity FX with the occasional white strike hits,” continued Castañon. “The colors were mostly driven by the LED wall content as the band had specific colors/content per song. I just followed and matched the LED colors.”
Castañon, who was invited to light this show by JCA Productions, and his L2 Edward Cruz relished the celebration of diverse sounds right along with the audience. Helping him keep pace was a collection of 91 CHAUVET Professional fixtures supplied by Darvik Productions.
Key to Castañon’s vision for keeping pace with the fast-moving concert was Color STRIKE M. He had 33 of the motorized strobe-washes in his rig, flying 18 of the units on truss and positioning the remainder downstage.
“The Color STRIKE Ms were more than enough to make the arena shine,” said Castañon. “We definitely took advantage of the Beam portion of the fixture. This fits perfectly with Edición Especial as a lot of their music has frequent sudden stops and accent moments. Having the beams Swap on our console, would allow me to turn off all the other lights and only punch the beam portion of strikes to accent the quick hits. I also used some of the built-in macros to give the rig a more interesting look during certain songs, by using the plates.”
A beefy collection of Rogue fixtures was also represented in the rig. Included in this mix were 30 R3X Washes (all flown on truss), 12 R2X Washes (eight on the floor, the remainder positioned behind the risers), and 20 R2X Beams (eight on the edge of the downstage deck and 12 on risers).
“The R3X was my main source of color, the show called for lots of Red/Magentas, and the R3X did not fail to provide the rich and deep tones that we needed,” said Castañon. We used the R3X to light the artists on the risers with a CTO and also provide a color wash to the artists downstage as these guys were lit up by spots all show. I appreciate that these fixtures can get really tight to dial in focus and not spill on anything else. They also look good with movement FX when tightened up.”
As for the R2X Washes, they played a critical role in expanding the range of looks needed to reflect Edición Especial’s wide-ranging musical forays. The units position SL and SR were used to side-light the performers in contrasting colors, creating distinctive color combos on the bodies, while those behind the risers back lit the percussion section with glowing colors.
While the R2X Wash added to the variety of the light show, the R2X Beam endowed it with an extra element of excitement and surprise. “They were definitely the WOW factor of the night,” Castañon said of the fixture. “We usually brought them out during bigger moments of the show with pans, tilts, and symmetrical movements. The units on the risers were hidden by an LED riser wrap. The audience couldn’t see them, so when they came on, it was a nice surprise!”
Nice surprises were everywhere at the Toyota Arena during the Edición Especial concert – and that made the time fly for everyone.
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