Moving Lights Restrained for Avril Lavigne Tour

“I have long said that just because the lights move doesn’t mean they have to,” Clark said. He had been tasked with putting together a lighting rig that would complement Canadian pop rocker Avril Lavigne’s new style, while not overpowering her onstage. Instead, he opted to keep things simple and focus on color changes to match the show’s looks to the mood of each song.

Clint Eastwood once attributed his success at acting to his decision to follow a drama coach’s advice. “Don’t just do something,” the coach said. “Stand there.” LD Brent Clark used the Eastwood approach to give Avril Lavigne’s Best Damn Thing tour by not programming a lot of superfluous movement into the Martin MAC rig supplied by Christie Lites.

“Throughout the show, I set a cool look and make it change color to match the song or chase to the beat,” Clark said. With “dancers and a huge video wall” made of Barco’s MiTrix panels, there was already plenty of visual movement on the stage. There was no need to complicate things with “crowd sweeps and random movements.”

“Because video is such a huge part of the show, as well as costumes that I had to color match, the color palette was pretty much laid out,” Clark added. “Basically, the fixtures needed to punch through the massive video wall from both front and behind. Trim for the most part was pretty high so they also needed to wash the stage from about 12 meters.”

The Martin lighting package for the tour’s European leg consisted of 50 MAC 2000 Washes, 20 MAC 2000 Profiles, eight MAC 700 Profiles and 12 Atomic 3000 strobes, each with Atomic Colors scrollers. The rig was a bit larger for the North American leg. After traveling from Canada and the U.S. to Europe, it returned to North America before moving on to several stops in Asia.

All the MAC 2000 Profiles and 32 of the MAC 2000 Washes are located in six truss fingers above the stage. Fourteen MAC 2000 Washes are at floor positions with four on trusses behind the video wall. The MAC 700 Profiles are also on trusses behind the video wall with the Atomic strobes spread on the floor and on towers behind the video wall.

Although Clark doesn’t use excessive movement in his shows, when he does use it, he appreciates quickness. He said his two favorite lights are the MAC 700 Profile and the MAC 2000 Wash, in part because “I love the speed of the MAC 700 Profile head.”

He also spoke highly of its animation wheel. “I have always tried to get MAC 2000 Washes on my tours since it came out, it’s so punchy,” Clark added. “I put the PC lens on it and it is so beamy and strobes so well.

“I do not think one MAC 700 had to get fixed on the tour,” Clark added. “All in all, the gear held up well despite some pretty rough driving all over Europe.”