Berkeley Dent, Jason Pastel, Trevor Creany, Dustin Lee and the team at 81 Productions demonstrate the unifying power of music with the launch of The Space Shop Sessions, a series of five livestream concerts, each featuring a different Roanoke band, and each supported by a different hometown business.
Taking place over a two-month period, the sessions helped feed the local appetite for live music, while also providing gigs for some of the region’s favourite groups, and giving businesses a chance to engage directly with customers.
Helping the 81 Productions team create a flowing series of distinctive, colourful looks that reflected the personality of each band in the livestream series, was the company’s “virtually all Chauvet” livestream studio rig, anchored by a collection of Rogue R1X Spot and R1 Spot fixtures. Arranged in different configurations depending on the band, the Rogue units expanded design possibilities on the studio’s 24ft by 20ft stage.
“Flexibility is obviously critical in this type of project when you have this many bands playing in the same space,” said Pastel. “The Rogues are ideal in this case, because they are such workhorses that will take you wherever you want to go.”
When Virginia Electric took to the stage for a session, Pastel went with more stylised looks with ambers, magentas, purples and greens playing off against one another. “One of my favourite looks occurred when we had only our downstage R1 Spots with the nice magenta and dotted gobo on the band,” he said. “Then when we got a nice hit, I’d bring the rest of the rig back in to finish with a bang.”
For The Half Moon band section of the Space Shop Sessions, Pastel’s fellow lighting designer, Creany immersed the stage in bold monochromatic tones to create an evocative, other-worldly aura.
Capturing the shows on video with their camera and editing work were Luke Hayes and Bobby McMahon. When the last s how in the series was over, Berkeley Dent looked back on The Space Shop Sessions videos and noted: “Everyone on our team pulled together to make this happen. We enjoyed doing something to support our local music community.”