Slovenian indie rockers Joker Out recently played a sold-out performance at Ljubljana’s Stožice which was lit by Klemen Krajnc, part of the Blackout design studio.
100 Robe luminaires breaking down as 32 MegaPointes, 64 Spiiders, 19 LEDBeam 150s and 13 FORTES plus a number of strobes and LED floods.
The starting point for this gig was the LED screens when the band chose a direction on this, which was that they wanted a semi-circular upstage screen to define the stage space, he followed on with the lighting. The upstage screen was masked into an elegant semi-circle, and in front of that was a semi-circular truss, with 12 floating ‘finger’ trusses in the upstage / downstage orientation, eight above and two per side, providing the overhead lighting.
They wanted four follow spots for the mobile members of the band and one static one for the drummer rigged on the venue’s own rectangular truss. Initially he’d specified Robe BMFL WashBeams for this, but as lighting contractor Intralite had recently invested in FORTES, they were offered for this gig. “I was super impressed,” Klemen iterated.
Four of the FORTES were located on camera platforms at the back of the arena and fitted with the special handles used as manual follow spots. Klemen ran all parameters from the desk so the operators were free to concentrate on getting smooth movement. Eight more FORTES were rigged on trussing flown in the middle of the venue, used for front and key lighting, with another single upstage centre for back lighting the singer.
The 19 LEDBeam 150s were rigged on the back side of the half-circular truss framing the screen where they were great for piercing beam effects and for pointing up and illuminating the architecture of the finger trusses and of the semi-circular truss itself.
The 32 MegaPointes were divided into two sets of 16. The first set was positioned upstage on the deck with the second on the half circle truss, providing fat back spot beams from this higher position. Three Spiiders were rigged on each of the finger trusses, with another 8 luminaires a side lining the catwalk, plus another 24 on the mid-venue rectangular house truss.
While it wasn’t a massive rig for the profile of the show or the size of the venue, Klemen is very aware that the design was “completely appropriate” and enabled him to achieve all the desired creative goals for the band.
He programmed and operated the lighting himself and enjoyed the show as he does all Joker Out shows for the energy and zeal that goes into their live performance. “They know how to entertain and put on a great show for fans,” he noted, “and it’s brilliant to be working in this environment.”
The half circle truss design made it a little challenging to get some optimal lighting positions, but nothing that could not be overcome by some smart positioning and rigging, explained Klemen. Being a one-day event with very little time for any programming on site, he made the most of visualisation tools and opportunities.
