Fall Out Boy
just wrapped “The Boys of Zummer Tour” (sic) co-headlining with Wiz Khalifa,
and once again Clay Paky fixtures were along for the exciting cross-country
ride. A.C.T Lighting, Inc. is the
exclusive distributor of Clay Paky products in North America.
Robb Jibson
of So Midwest, Inc. continued his relationship with the pop punk band, this
time as production designer for the US amphitheater tour. Fall Out Boy released
its sixth studio album, “American Beauty/American Psycho,” this year; it
swiftly became the band’s third #1 album.
An
enthusiastic proponent of Clay Paky fixtures, Jibson specified 68 Mythos for
the tour. Upstaging was the lighting
vendor.
“I’m a fan
of Clay Paky; they seem to really do things right,” he declares. “I had demo’d Mythos but hadn’t had a chance
to use them just yet. The light is
versatile enough I knew if we spec’d them we wouldn’t need much else – no
typical systems of wash, hard edge or effects systems. I put all my chips on Mythos as our only
hard-edged fixture in the show! And they
were as awesome!”
It was
Jibson’s goal to design a well-balanced show where the “lighting and video
played well together.” He wanted to
present the video content in an innovative way and eliminate side IMAG screens,
which Fall Out Boy dislikes. The band
also wants to enter the stage without being seen, and Jibson was challenged to
create a fun reveal.
“I came up
with a guillotine, an LED wall on winches that was 60 feet wide and 12 feet
tall,” he explains. “It acted like a
grand drape would work in a theater and moved up and down to reveal every
act. After a short intro sequence Fall
Out Boy appeared in a blast of smoke the screen flew up!”
Since Mythos
fixtures are still so new to the market most of the lighting teams he met at
the venues did not have firsthand experience with their versatile capabilities.
And using them as followspots? Crazy!
“The first
time George Masek had showed me the prototype Super Sharpy I knew that I had
found the next iteration of the automated key light, which we had done with
sharpies for smaller gigs. So it was just a natural for the Mythos! I had to
fight to use them as follow spots, to rope our fixtures into the spot locations,”
says Jibson.
“I shoved the house spots
out of the way so I could clamp Mythos to the hand rail, set them on road cases
or put them on stands; two more were flown from the side trusses to cover the
drummer position. Upstaging modified the
fixtures to add metal handles on front.”
“People at
the venues were pretty nervous about how a 470-watt fixture could replace a
house spotlight. My Response
‘watch.’ Venue by venue we won them
over. We routinely did 120-, 150-,
180-foot throws for key lighting and gobo patterns using a combination of the
zoom optics and aperture gobos. Even at
the farthest point – 200 feet away from the stage – we delivered never less
than 150 foot-candles. A traditional
spot would deliver about 90, and that’s if Jimmy had changed the bulb in the
last decade!”
Jibson flew
the remaining 60 Mythos overhead where they supplied key lighting and all the
effects lighting. “Using the frost
filter is great for punchy wash looks.
They already have all the goodness that Sharpys have built in for aerial
effects, and their unique color mixing system was really snappy. The lensing system is like a prime
photographic lens with infinity focus.
That made the show look really clean, and that’s what we wanted: clean
lines and clean content.”
Throughout
the tour, which ran from June through August, “Mythos exceeded my wildest
imaginings,” Jibson reports. “I was
super-happy with their reliability, footprint and output. I love ‘em!”
George
Masek, A.C.T Vice President – Automated Lighting, concludes, “It is such a
pleasure working with Robb. You can
never be sure what he is going to come up with, and that is the beauty and
genius of his work. He pushes the Clay
Paky fixtures to their limits and gets results that are exceptional.”
Francesco
Romagnoli, Clay Paky Area Manager for North and Latin America, added, “Mr.
Jibson is a very innovative lighting designer and we love to see the ways he
uses our fixtures. We look forward to
seeing his work for many projects to come.”
© photo Jack Edinger
