Foreigner’s Lighting Designer/Director Dan Lastovka has updated their Juke Box Heroes tour with fixtures such as the Elation Professional Rayzor 360Z LED beam. New York rental house See Factor has again collaborated with Foreigner on lighting supply.
“This year’s design is an evolution from last year’s design,” explained Lastovka, who has been with the band now for 5 years. “We split our 3 longest trusses into 6 smaller pieces and turned them 90 degrees into what we call ‘fingers’ that are hung front to back vs left to right. Last year’s design relied heavily on 108 Elation Arena Par Zooms to emulate a classic par can show, both in look and function. The 2018 design had the added challenge of moving truss positions from completely flat to nearly vertical and all orientations in between so we had to switch to a moving head vs a static par but still maintain a rich feature set and high fixture density to preserve the original concept.”
Lastovka chose the Elation Professional Rayzor 360Z, a compact yet powerful beam/wash luminaire with 3 60W RGBW LEDs and 5° to 50° zoom that packs plenty of punch. 72 of the fixtures hang from the 6, bendable 30-foot finger trusses.
Foreigner’s hit list covers everything from ballads to rockin’ classics and Lastovka varies the lighting throughout the show to match the moment. “My favourite look is still the ‘northern lights’ cue from the second verse of “Starrider,” he said.
“There are dimmer, colour, and zoom effects that comprise the look, and the Rayzor fixtures are fanned out in tight arcs. An honourable mention has to go to the bridge of “Feels Like The First Time” where I was able to use the fixture’s 360-degree tilt to splash deep blue light everywhere to accentuate the dreamscape feel of that passage.”
Consistent with the show’s old-school look, 2 Elation Professional FS 15R followspots complete with followspot operators are positioned high in the upstage truss and used as truss spots to follow the musicians around the stage.
The high-output, medium-throw followspots with Elation Professional Platinum 15R source project effectively up to 150′, plenty of headroom for this application. Further to the design are Elation Professional SixPar 100s, an LED Par light with 6-color LED chip, used to add colour to the setup and for truss toning, including on the band’s iconic “4” logo which is fashioned as a circular truss that emerges toward the end of the show. Finally, 6-foot Elation Professional Colour Chorus 72 LED batten wash lights (RGBA) hung from the backdrop truss provide the backdrop wash.
The 2018 summer tour is the second Foreigner outing for See Factor, who carry a wide cross-section of Elation Professional fixtures. Mark Friedman of
See Factor commented: “Like last year’s anniversary tour, this tour has been a big success. The Rayzors really dominate in the rig and between the effects we get out of it and the price point, it’s been a nice addition to our inventory. The Elation Professional followspots are very effective and bright and look great. They are way brighter than all the movers on the stage, so it really accents the looks.”
