As Phish wrapped up their encore with a cover of the Rolling Stones’ Loving Cup, an afterparty at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl served up additional servings of improvised jam and funk, performed by six-piece band, Big Something.
Adding to the atmosphere of the 1,200-capacity venue was a Daniel Thibault lighting design. “I wanted to make this room look its biggest,” he said. “Everything about this band’s sound and stage presence is big.”
Thibault, a partner in Life Is Art Studios, added 20 CHAUVET Professional Rogue fixtures from his company’s own inventory to the house rig, to create the desired immersive atmosphere at the venue. He positioned eight Rogue R2X Beam fixtures in an arch around the band members, and arranged 12 Rogue R2 Wash units around the rig’s beams.
“The R2X Beams gave me a convenient way to create full room looks,” he said. “I was able to immerse even the farthest part of the theatre in light with them. As for the washes, they worked hand-in-hand with the beams to provide a base wash of colour and underlying tone for the rig.
“I often started out songs with only the washes behind the band on, zooming them all the way out to make an enveloping wall of light that set the tone for the song from the first notes,” continued Thibault. “After that I would bring in the rest of the rig as the song built up.”
Thibault kept looks varied and captivating throughout the party by deftly changing patterns and colour combinations, calling forth dramatic palettes to fire the audience’s collective imagination. At one point, when the band played their popular reggae-like song, Bob and Weave, he divided the stage in red, green and yellow sections, evocative of the Jamaican flag.
“I use archetypal colours as a base of my colour picking onstage,” explained Thibault. “Colours stir up certain feelings in all of us. Blue is cool, but can also convey calm feelings of peacefulness. Red is hot but also love. Using this as a base, I listen to the mood of the song and try to pick a colour that will convey that mood. Once I’ve done this I will select a complimentary colour to go with it to use as an accent for parts of the rig.”
After all, associations with colours are “baked into our brains as children” Thibault concluded.
