After recently expanding its inventory with a large complement of Claypaky Scenius Unico and Mythos2 fixtures and MA Lighting grandMA2 consoles, Elite Multimedia Productions has provided a portion of that equipment to Cole Swindell’s nationwide Reason to Drink Tour. Both brands are exclusively distributed in North America by ACT Lighting.
The country singer/songwriter kicked off his headlining tour in Allentown, Pennsylvania in February and wrapped the first leg in Los Angeles in April. He resumed the tour a month later in Austin and will continue to play dates across the country through September. Nashville-based Elite Multimedia is the production provider for lighting, LED, video and IMAG video support.
Production Designer James “Mo” Butts deploys 16 Claypaky Scenius Unico and 24 Mythos2 fixtures for the tour along with an MA Lighting grandMA2 full-size console and 2 NPUs for lighting control. His design for the show, in which video plays a key role in the storytelling, depicts Swindell’s evolution as an artist from playing cover songs at a college bar to becoming a country superstar headlining arenas.
“The design really seemed to come together organically starting with a complete redesign of our previous rig to expand out to the 48-foot wide stages,” said Butts. “We then looked at what production elements had been most successful on our past tours and morphed [them] into a much larger stage design.”
The show features a 40 x 20-foot LED wall that displays one big look or as many as six different areas of content designed to give each song a unique look and feel. IMAG from seven cameras is integrated into the content instead of occupying side screens.
The lighting rig is outfitted with many of Elite Multimedia’s brand new fixtures, including Claypaky Scenius Unicos and Mythos2. Lighting Programmer Andre Petrus, who has toured with Swindell for years, uses the fixtures to support the story of the artist’s creative journey.
Elite Multimedia acquired Claypaky Scenius Unico for its superior optics, great horsepower and best-in-class colour saturation. Claypaky Mythos2 is regarded as a workhorse instrument with a wide range of features and functions. Both hybrid fixtures demonstrate their versatility on the tour where they showcase not only Swindell but also accommodate support acts Chris Janson and Lauren Alaina.
The company’s new MA Lighting grandMA2 full-size console and 2 of its NPUs were chosen for the tour as the industry standard for lighting control.
Kyle Lovan is the Lighting Director for the Reason to Drink Tour with Andy Reuter the Video Content Creator and Meesha Kosciolek the Production Manager.