CLEVELAND – Pop Punk Joy! The headline in a local Cleveland music magazine pretty much summed up the mood at the Agora Theatre when Say Anything and Motion City Soundtrack took to the stage at the legendary venue. There may be no better way to describe the pure intensity that the two emo stalwarts having been serving up every night on their 17 city 2026 leg of their coheadline tour, which began in Fort Lauderdale.
The music of both bands is driven by a raw honesty that lies at the fiercely beating heart of this enduring genre. Moving with this energy every step of the way for the Say Anything part of the show is a potent, fast-moving lightshow from Peter Therrien of JDI Productions.
Running his show on a ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 with a PC Wing, Therrien busked his way through the 70-minute set calling on penetrating strobe effects, black outs, fog, and sometimes unsettling light angles to reflect the mood of the music.
“I love busking,” said Therrien. “Do I make mistakes? Sure. Is my show perfect? Probably not. But I like the flow of the lights in this genre more than the ‘produced’ look of a time coded show. Every song in this show’s set has a page built. On that page will be position, color, and intensity. Then on my ChamSys MagicQ MQ80, I use an executor page and all the play/pause buttons to activate movements, color chases, and dimming effects. I also have the new MagicQ Compact Wing, which I absolutely love, where I kept strobe/blinder looks and downstage washing.”
Therrien relied on ChamSys Multi-Emitter Colour Picker to keep his show varied during the set. “I think all LDs reach a point where certain colors provide a vibe on the stage,” he said. “I’m always impressed with the way theatre designers use color. It’s such a skill that I really try and work on — so thank you. Say Anything really is just raw energy and controlled chaos on that stage sometimes. It can be a crazy ride and intense and moody. To me it’s super important those color choices reflect that feeling. I really believe a crowd can be feel that energy.”
“I use color, along with various intensity chases, to change up looks during the show,” continued Therrien. “I’ve also really started changing the amount of front light I use… lot more light from top and behind rather than a ton from the front.”
Given that the show stops at a wide variety of venues, of different sizes and with different lighting rigs, Therrien is always thankful for this console’s versatility. “In general, I’ve always said you can’t beat the ChamSys fixture library,” he remarked. “It’s vitally important when you’re in different places every day. Like I said the new wing is also incredible to have. I’m also not the smartest when it comes to networking but the ChamSys is so easy to just take over house rigs — it doesn’t matter whether it’s the house console or if they run DMX or sACN. You never know what you’re getting on an extended tour like this one.”
Although Therrien and the rest of the production crew might never know what to expect, fans who have turned out for this coheadline tour certainly do — an intense performance in keeping with the tradition of this musical genre, all supported by reliable exciting lightshow.
