Stone Sour may be the opening act on the U.S. leg of Ozzy Osbourne’s No More Tours 2 tour but the American hard rock band is making an impression with the help of LD Scott Warner and a dynamic wall of colour.
On the road since late August with The Prince of Darkness, Stone Sour has made a unique opening act impact with a “huge wall of overwhelming colour” made up of multifunctional Elation Professional Paladin LED effect lights supplied by Bandit Lites.
“I knew coming into this tour that I didn’t have access to LEDs and with Stone Sour, I need to have my colours flash quickly,” said Warner, who also serves as the tour’s lighting director/programmer.
“I could’ve done a pod of small moving heads, but with the number of fixtures, the Ozzy tour was giving me, who’d see them? So I took the original pod idea that was used on our previous tours and decided to go with a wall of bright LED fixtures that would hold their own to what was given to me by the Ozzy tour.”
Warner created 4 upstage pods of Paladins, versatile hybrid luminaires with zoom that can function as a bright blinder or strobe, powerful wash light, or, because of its multiple pixel zone control, pixel map and eye candy looks.
Each pod contains 9 fixtures in a 3 x 3 matrix for a total of 36 units that play a prominent role in the lighting design. With Stone Sour performing a varied setlist, with heavier rock numbers from its most recent album, Hyrdograd, intermixed with mellower favourites, the versatility of the Paladins shines through.
“The beam is incredibly bright and the zoom is amazing,” the designer commented. “It has great dimming as well. This rig goes in and out super fast, and my crew chief Adam McIntosh does a fantastic job.”
Driven by 24 40W RGBW LEDs that produce a blistering 990 watts of power, the Paladin produces intense effects with RGBW colour mixing that gives a full spectrum of colour options, including high-impact white light.
Warner uses the fixture’s manual tilt adjustment to aim the Paladins upward (to avoid blinding the audience) and zooms them out for fantastic blinder effects. The Paladin is also IP65 rated for multi-environmental use, a feature the designer values. “We do mostly outdoor shows so there is no need to wrap them in plastic if it’s raining,” he said.
Warner, who recently used Elation lights on shows with Icona Pop and Erika Jayne and has only been with Stone Sour since April, says he specs Elation gear as much as he can and values the support he gets with the lighting manufacturer.
“Jean Lariviere, John Dunn, and Eric Loader at Elation are a pleasure to work with. Whenever I need something, they don’t hesitate to help.”