Vari-Lite, Inc. is providing lighting equipment for Aerosmith’s Just Push Play tour that will cover 50 US cities this summer and the rest of the world later this year and into 2002.
Lighting designer Jim Chapman is working with lighting operator and programmer Benny Kirkham on the show. The duo is using “a mixture of the old school type of lighting and the more current type” on the show, Chapman says. The show features the use of the Virtuoso™ console. Fixtures for the show include 84 Vari*Lite® luminaires, 16 VL2416™ wash luminaires, 14 VL2402™ wash luminaires, 26 VL5Arc™ wash luminaires, and 28 spot luminaires.
This marks the second time in less than a year that Vari-Lite has taken part in lighting a major Aerosmith appearance, as the Dallas-based company handled the automated lighting for the MTV-produced E*Trade Super Bowl XXXV Halftime show in January. During that show, Aerosmith performed along with ‘NSync, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, and Nelly. That production featured 180 Vari*Lite luminaires.
Aerosmith’s Just Push Play tour started in Hartford, CT, on June 6. The tour lasts throughout the summer, finishing up in West Palm Beach, FL, on September 23.