The Dead & Company’s recent tour, which featured 2 sold out nights at Madison Square Garden, included a fresh and spectacular lighting scheme; designed by LD Chris Ragan of Raygun Design.
Ragan utilised 24 of Robe MegaPointes, 36 Robe Spiiders, 37 Robe BMFL Spots and 6 Robe BMFL Blades, all of which were at the core of the rig. The tour followed a series of summer stadium shows where Ragan’s rig included 70 Spiiders and 60 BMFL WashBeams, supplied by Upstaging.
The tour trussing configuration comprised a 48ft downstage truss, with 6 overhead trusses mid-stage and a 14ft diameter circular upstage truss. The moving lights were distributed across all of the trusses. There were 12 Robe MegaPointes rigged around the circular shape and frame the stage and the downstage truss had 12 Robe Spiiders for general stage washes and 6 Robe BMFL Blades for key lighting. The circular truss was flanked by 2 16 x 9ft LED walls and at the bottom of these were 6 Robe MegaPointes with 6 more upstage on the deck. Ragan commented: “On top of these basic functions, the prism is fantastic for making kick-ass aerial looks. It’s an incredibly useful and flexible light.”
Ragan’s history with Robe goes back a few years. He’s kept a close watch on the product developments and feels that MegaPointe takes moving light technology to a whole new level. He programmed and operated the Dead & Company show on an MA Lighting grandMA2 console, assisted in the programming process by Jim Rood who also took care of the key lighting and video effects as every show is streamed live online. This set up allowed Ragan to concentrate fully on producing the wild and creative visual psychedelia characteristic of the performance.