Chauvet lights Smith & Myers drive-in
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That all came to a halt when the pandemic hit, but on 21 October, Youngblood got to flex his design skills again; only this time instead of lighting metal music, he was working a drive-in show for Smith & Myers, an acoustic side project by Shinedown frontman Brent Smith and guitarist Zach Myers.
Although the melodious harmonies emanating from the mobile stage at the Malco Summer Theatre on that warm Wednesday night were worlds apart from the sort of music Youngblood is accustomed to lighting, he was able to draw on his metallic experience to meet some of the unique challenges of lighting a drive-in concert.
“The promoter and I spoke at great lengths about steps we could take to create a fully encapsulating experience in a setting where the stage is relatively small and the audience is very spread out in cars,” said Youngblood, the owner of Skunk Werkz Productions. “We had delay towers for audio scattered around the parking lot, and had IMAG on three screens to bring the show closer to people.
“From a lighting standpoint, I relied on a concept from my electronic jam band and metal time - that is to have some light on the crowd, some on the stage and some on the band, then keep flipping them.”
Helping Youngblood accomplish this were his rig’s 14 Rogue R1X Wash, eight Rogue R2X Wash and 10 Rogue R2X Spot fixtures supplied from his own Skunk Werkz Productions inventory. “I just rotated out my Chauvet Rogue R1 Washes for the new Rogue R1X Washes and replaced some static COLORado fixtures with the new R2X Washes,” he said. “This was the first time since Covid19 hit that they had made it out of the shop for use in a show.”
Youngblood flew 14 R1X Wash (in White Mode) and 10 R2X Spots upstage on his 3’ x 10’ front truss and 12x18 Back Truss. He also had eight R2X Wash units (White Mode) downstage on 3x 10’ front truss and 12’x18’ back truss. The output from these fixtures had no trouble standing up to the massive (about 70’ wide and 40’ tall) IMAG drive-in screen directly over the stage.
