Working with Stageworx AV at Kemba Live, LD Matt King relished keeping pace with Kameron Marolowe’s multi-faceted, fast-moving show on the star’s recent tour, as he supported the music note-for-note with a versatile, high-powered lightshow that moved through a wide range of looks, from small beam effects to broad washes — and just about everything in between.
Helping him accomplish this was a collection of 32 CHAUVET Professional fixtures supplied by 4Wall Entertainment. Included in this mix were 18 Color STRIKE M motorized strobe-wash, 10 Maverick Storm 2 BeamWashes, and four COLORado PXL Bar 16 fixtures.
“Kameron is a very dynamic artist,” said King. “Our show can go from old school country to rock and roll really fast, so I switched between warm and cool white to guide the audience and set the tone for where we were headed. For our opener I used cool white from the tubes in my Color STRIKE Ms to drive energy though big hits and swells in guitar solos and large drum parts. Then as we worked our way down to a calmer acoustic set, I transitioned to warm white and CTO, as it is more inviting and welcomes the listener to lean in and become a part of the music and show.”
King arranged his floor package, so he could move seamless from one look to another. For example, he positioned six Maverick Storm 2 BeamWashes upstage, and divided the four remaining units between stage left and stage right.
“When designing this I wanted to position our floor package in a way where I could use the side storms for sidelight in intros and slower songs, then transition to using them in conjunction with the upstage fixtures for tight beamy looks. By raking the side truss about 35 degrees and using the broad zoom on the storms I was able to achieve diverse looks and keep the show feeling fresh and exciting,” he explained.
The COLORado 4 PXL Bar 16 were positioned downstage of the drum and utility risers, to create tight vivid pixel effects, and for backlighting vocal only moments. “I used the extremely broad zoom of the PXL Bars to create multiple different looks and stay unique throughout the duration of the show,” said King. “I kept our show unique and interesting by using a lot of different pixel effects, zoom, colours and positions. The pixel mapped ring of the Storm 2 BeamWashes was also a very useful tool in creating what you really could consider almost second fixture in the rig. I was able to use it in conjunction with a lot of the other effects on the main face of the Storm 2 Washes or use it as a completely separate fixture in itself, allowing for easy diverse looks throughout different parts of the show.”
Creating a variety of interesting look without repetition in the 90-minute show was a challenge, given the limited number of fixtures in his rig, said King. He gives credit to his team: PM Grant Gibson, monitor engineer Bradley Hasty, 4Wall rep Phillips Harbarger, and Andrew Dingman from Stageworx with helping him meet this challenge.
Together, the team conjured up a variety of looks, including King’s favourite, which came during the rock—almost-metal-flavored song Burn ‘em All, with its explosion of colours and tight zoom. Others might have favored more mellow looks for gentler tunes – such is the magic of Kameron Marlowe’s richly diverse shows.
