Photos by Mike Golembo (@instalembo)
Contrast takes many forms, whether in color, shape, sound or even attitude, and it’s a powerful artistic tool. On their current Good Together Tour, the multi-genre band Lake Street Dive uses varied contrasts to make every show impactful and memorable. Audiences experience diverse color palettes, striking staging and special effects elements, intriguing lyrical themes and an overall attitude that the quintet has described as “joyful rebellion.”
“One of the things the band kept saying during the lead-up to this tour, was that it’s a ‘joyful rebellion,’” lighting director Andrew Froehlich explained. “The album is also all about that feeling: There’s joy, but a little bit of sourness in there. Everything kind of sucks sometimes, but we’re here, we’re living, we’re breathing, so let’s make it better, together.”
From his spot at front of house, Froehlich makes deft and artful use of contrast to enhance the impact of every song and lighting look. It’s a design that intertwines “joyful rebellion,” while keeping everything highly cohesive and visually pleasing at the same time.
In explaining his creative methodology, he described it as “deliberate, rhythmic and punchy,” while taking a tailored approach to each individual song. In the rig for this tour, suiting that style are the five Skywriter HPX M-10 laser fixtures, made by X-Laser.
He said the X-Laser Skywriter fixtures provide just the right dynamic and punch, while fitting into the grandMA3-powered rig seamlessly—and perhaps unexpectedly.
“We never expected or thought we’d be using lasers,” Froehlich said. “But with how easy it was to integrate them with the Mercury firmware, you can just plug in a DMX cable and program straight away with the other lights, it’s really incredible.
“It used to be so inaccessible and expensive and you needed a whole separate tech and controllers, and now everything’s so streamlined and compact thanks to Mercury. We took advantage of that, and created a rig and an environment that lets us make the most of the lasers as impact effect fixtures.
“The lasers are basically guide lights above, with one fixture positioned above each of the five artists in the band,” Froehlich explained.
Unlike many typical implementations of laser lighting, Froehlich’s design has the laser beams aimed downward at the stage rather than outward over the crowd. The beams reach each artist’s spot on stage, providing a more impactful effect than a traditional spot fixture could. With safety in mind, Froehlich aims the lasers with sufficient margin around the performers, who in turn, know to avoid the beams.
Speaking to the overall production design by Emily Cox, Froehlich explained that having the lasers on the tour is a perfect fit for the creative concept that called for a lot of neon, saturated and “retro” colors throughout.
“We were going for a design inspired by James Turrell from the 1970s and 1980s with a lot of retro, saturated colors with smooth lines, clean lines,” he said. “Emily came up with a few different options for us and everyone fell in love with the rainbow-shaped backdrop.”
Revisiting the concept of contrast, the lasers’ sharp, crisp beam effects offer a compelling complement to the soft, smooth, curved edges of the rainbow and its LED strip borders.
“Between the lasers and the pixel-mapped LEDs on the fringes of the rainbow frame, it looks so slick,” Froehlich said. “And adding the [Blizzard] Torrents on the sides and the chevron truss up top helped keep things dynamic and dimensional.”
Seeing all of those fixtures interplay makes for one of the most dynamic and striking moments of the set during the song, “Walking Uphill.” Froehlich explained that the song builds slowly, and he uses the laser “cone” look during the song’s gradual, guitar-only intro. Then, he said, it “slams right into the big first chorus,” allowing the entire rig to shine and creating, “decidedly everyone’s favorite moment of the show.”
No matter which song or look they consider their favorites, concertgoers may be surprised to see lasers on tour with Lake Street Dive. Froehlich said that even crews observing the show during rehearsals told him that they wouldn’t imagine a band like that would have lasers.
“It’s all in the application,” Froehlich said. “The consensus is that the lasers look awesome and have a great impact, and I think as more and more people see what’s possible with Mercury, you’ll see lasers out with more acts, no matter the genre.”
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