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Lighting shows at Spaceland is somewhat chalenging since their control console is very outdated and limiting in regards to timing.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!