After reaching internet fame, teenage artist, Jacob Sartorius went on tour in 2018. The tour was lit by Lighting Director, Lenny Sasso who came up with a futuristic concept with help from Chauvet Professional’s Épix Strip Tour and Chauvet Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures, supplied by Squeek Lights.
Sasso, who lit Sartorius’ first headlining shows in 2015, came up with the futuristic concept that featured intersecting patterns of light wrapping around a diamond-shaped configuration of risers and cool colour schemes to evoke images of cyberspace.
Sasso arranged the linear fixtures in a matrix-like formation, filling the upstage area with light while creating a mesmerizing high-tech look. “I knew that I wanted to wrap the band in Épix Strips,” said Sasso. “It was just something that I kind of dreamt up. After several different designs, this was the one I landed on. It all revolved around the placement of the risers in that diamond style, which was something that we had done on Jacob’s original tours. Wrapping the fixtures around the upstage side of the risers pulled it all together.
A total of 32 Chauvet Épix Strip Tour fixtures were used in the wrap-around design. Hung on eight 10-inch vertical pipes and 12 8-inch horizontal pipes, the Chauvet Épix units displayed light and video content run from a laptop with Resolume software. Also arranged on the pipe structure were eight Chauvet Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures, each with five individually controlled moving heads. Drawing on the versatility of this fixture, Sasso added a myriad of “futuristic vibe looks” to his upstage display.
“Because of the layout of the FX-Bs and how their light crisscrosses, they give us a lot of geometric patterns. They also make the room look larger, regardless of how I arrange them,” said Sasso. “We got some nice ‘spaceship’ looking positions that I loved from the FX-B fixtures.”
Adding extra colour and depth to Sasso’s light show, alongside the aerial effects, were six Chauvet Rogue R1 Wash fixtures arranged across the deck near the risers. “We get great colours out of the wash fixtures,” said Sasso. “With Jacob, I definitely tend to lean more towards cool colours. Recently I’ve tried to keep a very pastel colour feel going in his shows, but I’ll also do some looks that are specific to certain sections of songs that’ll completely flip the texture of the vibe. For example, with his song Hit Me Back, I keep the look very natural with a blues and purple feel, but when the song hits the bridge everything flips to a very stereotypical red, gold, green reggae feel. It comes way out of left field and takes the audience completely by surprise, which of course is my goal.”
