5.03.2011

Les Blanks Album Release Show

Photo Credit: Angela Holtzen
It seems that this spring is the season for local Los Angeles bands to be releasing new albums. This past Friday, April 29th, I designed lighting for the band, Les Blank's special performance. This show was held at The Satellite, formerly known as Spaceland, in Silverlake. This long awaited album release called for some specially tailored lighting to enhance the music. My approach to designing this show was to utilize colors from the album cover as well as using complimentary color combinations. With a palette of firey oranges and ambers paired with cool cyans and blues, the look of the show was able to look more customized and appropriate for their range of songs.


Photo Credit: Angela Holtzen
Les Blanks is an incredibly fun band to light since their music has a ton of energy with complex builds and punchy moments. Mid set they bring the momentum down to a more isolated and serious tone with a touch of moody saloon style vibe at times.
Lighting shows at Spaceland is somewhat chalenging since their control console is very outdated and limiting in regards to timing. Thanks to the power of power strips, the additional fixtures I brought to create textural patterns and dramatic shadows were able to be manually controlled. Despite the technical challenges I faced, this show went very well. Hopefully some day I'll be able to light this band again with a set up where I can really do their music justice.

To hear the new album in it's entirety, please visit the website for Les Blanks.
These photos of Les Blanks by photographer Angela Holtzen at Pictures That Rock.


Coming up in May on the 13th and 14th, I'll be back at The Satellite designing lights for The Henry Clay People's EP Release. This is expected to be another exciting show!

5.02.2011

The Damsells & The TC4 Pink Vinyl EP Release Show

Photo Credit: Brandon Priesont
The record release show for The Damsells and The TC4 was held at The Echo on April 15th. For this ultra retro girlie group, I brought in some special hot pink heart templates to add to the fun, festive vibe of the event. Also, to make this night more exciting than an everyday performance at this club, I went with a more glamorous inspired lighting approach.  By using various shades of pink the look could be more varied and by adding a little boost in the intensity of the front light on the ladies, they were able to stand out against a number of musicians on stage that night.

Photo Credit: Brandon Priesont
The Echo has a small stage with a limited number of lighting instruments. The club has mostly LED fixtures which helps to create more variety with color mixing. I also brought in some gels to alter the existing incandescent fixtures. Manually controlling all the instruments via faders and bump buttons  made it possible for the lighting really helped to enhance the songs for this special occasion.



To listen to the record please visit the website for The Damsells & The TC4.
Photos By Brandon Priesont