"The band had just released a new album, a very important album that they had spent a lot of time on, and I wanted to make the light show brand new and cutting edge to match the new material," Waful states. "Also, coming in as a new lighting designer for the band, stepping in for an LD who had been with the band their entire career, I wanted it to look fresh and new. We knew it was going to take something extra special to highlight these new compositions."
That something extra came in the form of the Martin MAC III Profile."I was tasked with creating the appropriate visuals to match an epic sounding album," he says. "The fact that this new fixture was released in the same window of time as Mantis was really serendipitous and allowed me to create brand new, cutting-edge visuals to accompany the new material."
Waful was given relatively free reign as far as composing lighting looks for the show (the band was familiar with his work as ex-LD of the band Moe). He has 12 MAC III Profiles in the setup as the lighting centre piece of the show - six flown upstage and six on the deck behind the band.
"Because the lights are brand new, they don't look like other bands' lights, and the newness of that cutting edge technology matches with the band's new material. When fans come to see the band, there is something particular about the lighting, even if it's on a subconscious level."
(Jim Evans)
