Elation on Foreigner’s Juke Box Heroes tour
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Lighting designer/director Dan Lastovka has kept the old-school look design from last year’s anniversary tour but with significant updates such as Elation Rayzor 360Z LED beam moving effects replacing Arena Par Zoom LED wash lights and a redesigned truss layout. New York rental house See Factor has again collaborated with Foreigner on lighting supply. Foreigner production manager is Steve Croxford.
“This year’s design is an evolution from last year’s design,” explains Lastovka, who has been with the band now for five years. “We split our three longest trusses into six smaller pieces, and turned them 90 degrees into what we call ‘fingers’ that are hung front to back vs left to right. Last year’s design relied heavily on 108 Elation Arena Par Zooms to emulate a classic par can show, both in look and function.
“The 2018 design had the added challenge of moving truss positions from completely flat to nearly vertical and all orientations in between so we had to switch to a moving head vs a static par but still maintain a rich feature set and high fixture density to preserve the original concept.”
Foreigner’s hit list covers everything from ballads to rockin’ classics and Lastovka varies the lighting throughout the show to match the moment. “My favourite look is still the ‘northern lights’ cue from the second verse of Starrider,” he says. “There are dimmer, colour, and zoom effects that comprise the look, and the Rayzor fixtures are fanned out in tight arcs.”
Consistent with the show’s old school look, two Elation Pro FS 15R followspots complete with followspot operators are positioned high in the upstage truss and used as truss spots to follow the musicians around the stage.
Further to the design are Elation SixPar 100s, an LED Par light with six-color LED chip, used to add color to the set up and for truss toning, including on the band’s iconic "4" logo which is fashioned as a circular truss that emerges toward the end of the show. Finally, 6-foot Colour Chorus 72 LED batten wash lights (RGBA) hung from the backdrop truss provide the backdrop wash.
(Jim Evans)
