Production Designer, Jon Eddy harnessed Claypaky RGB laser source Xtylos’ tight beam and the next-generation compact moving mirror of ReflectXion to provide a unique series of looks for the North American leg of Deftones’ Ohms Tour.
Eddy completely redesigned the Deftones tour, putting the COVID-19 lockdown to good use – experimenting with Claypaky Xtylos and ReflectXion units at home. “I got to spend a few months with each,” he recalled. “I used Xtylos and ReflectXion at Psycho Las Vegas. They looked amazing in the MGM Arena.”
Eddy thought of Xtylos and ReflectXion again when it came time to create Deftones’ 2022 tour. “I was going with a less is more look, sleek and sexy” he explained. “I like using a lot of negative space, and beam fixtures are good for that since I didn’t want to wash out the whole stage.”
He designed an aerial rig composed of concentric diamond trusses filled with nothing but beams and sceptrons. “We used 48 Xtylos. They were our only moving light with eight, sixteen, and twenty-four fixtures on the small, medium, and large diamonds. We also had a couple of follow spots and a washbeams downstage.” Laser projectors mapping rollers upstage added the video element.”
He added: “With Xtylos, I’m able to use blue and red, and they’re as solid as anything I’ve ever had with white or no colour,” he reported. “That’s extremely pleasing for a lighting designer. I love how the light cuts through breakup prisms and gobos and is so saturated – there’s no other light like it!”
Eddy wanted to use a mirror as a god light low on the floor behind singer Chino Moreno and felt this would be “the perfect opportunity to do something different.” ReflectXion bends and shapes light without losing it; the highly reflective unit features up to 99% reflectance without chromatic aberrations.
“ReflectXion was a cool progression from what I’d tried in the past, and it worked great. For some songs, I had all 48 Xtylos hitting a solo ReflectXion, creating one massive prism look, with beams going from the mirror to every corner of the venue.” The effect highlighted songs on which Moreno played guitar, including Sextape, Change and Digital Bath.”
“Everyone asked what that light was, especially when ReflectXion started moving,” Eddy noted. “I had to tell them it’s not a light; it’s a moving mirror – not very many shows have used it yet.”
Eddy also reports that his Avolites console and media server’s Synergy feature allowed him to “program and activate parts of the rig to play along with the video at certain times. I could activate all the Xtylos to play along with full colour and intensity off the mirror.”
Christie Lites Las Vegas provided Xtylos and ReflectXion to Eddy and served as the tour’s lighting vendor and lighting crew supplier. “Xtylos will definitely be a good part of my lighting repertoire now,” Eddy concluded. “I’ve always been big on Sharpys, but now that I’ve had my hands on Xtylos, it will be hard to do a show without them.”
For Deftones’ tour, Ruben Laine worked as Associate Designer and Integrator for renders, video and automation programming. Andy Tinsley was the Production Manager, Ben Wilcox the Stage Manager, and Dan Arnold the Lighting Crew Chief. Luis Herrera worked with projection mapping and ground control of the following spots and dimmers; Casey Waddel, Pepe Salas, and Joe Rich served as L1, L2, and L3, respectively.