Goose’s US summer tour, Dripfield, united the talents of two lighting professionals – Andrew Goedde and Tony Caporale – who with the assistance of some Robe Tetra2 moving LED battens among other lights, have created a unique, eye-catching look as the band delights fans across America.
Indianapolis-based Goedde has worked as Goose’s LD for four years and also owns a busy lighting rental business. When he and Caporale – well known for his ground-breaking lighting work with Billie Eilish among others – met randomly at a Goose show, they hit it off as friends and realised that a design collaboration would be the way to go for this project.
“Two minds can be better than one,” they both echo in unison, and in this case, the creative results are evident onstage with Caporale having worked on programming, bringing his vast fund of experience to the party, and Goedde continuing his great rapport with the band as their lighting designer and touring with the show.
Tetra2s were a joint decision made by both LDs as they started listening to the new album. “The music was the starting point for the design, and very soon we knew we needed a moving LED batten to emphasise the vibe of the album,” explained Goedde. “Tetra2 stood out to us the most!”
Caporale commented that while there are numerous LED batten fixtures out there right now, Tetra2 “stands out” with its flower effects and other cool features, which together with the excellent zoom “enables us to produce a full range of dynamic design effects, and believe me, we are having had a lot of fun with them!”
Goedde echoed: “There’s no other batten that has that amazing zoom and we do some crazy stuff with it.”
On the US tour, 16 Tetras play an integral part of the floor package, positioned upstage on the deck on pipe-and-base stands each angled at 20°. The fixtures are programmed with numerous fluid and kinetic effects to get the specific ‘drippy’ aesthetic.
“We have some very cool ‘digital symmetry’ looks with opposite angles of the Tetra2s chasing in and out, etc., and that 20° rotation on the stands really adds to the visual impact and intrigue,” enthused Goedde. “Sometimes new effects will come out of nowhere.”
Goedde and Caporale pre-visualised the show using Capture software in Nashville. An additional three days of production rehearsals in Pod 2 at Rock Lititz saw some concentrated programming sessions on an MA Lighting grandMA3 console.
“It’s great to have a hybrid showfile that supports both MO’s, so I still have the freedom and spontaneity of the jam / live ethos,” Goedde noted.
Working alongside him on the road is Lighting Technician, Danny McDonald – a master welder who was instrumental in constructing the angled pipe-and-base stands for the Tetra2s.
With a nationwide shortage of kit as multiple tours and live events go ahead post-pandemic, they were extremely lucky to be able to even source the Tetra2s, and that was thanks to Patrick Bellino at Main Light, the principal lighting vendor.
“It’s been extremely inspiring to watch the company grow and move forward,” commented Caporale, who reckons that Robe became established as a major player as it brought legendary fixtures like Pointes, MegaPointes and the ubiquitous BMFL series to the market.
“When I know there’s Robe on the rig, I know it’s rock-solid,” concluded Goedde.
