Europe – Clay Paky’s award-winning hybrid fixture, the Mythos, has joined Brandon Flowers on his European tour, with lighting designer Steven Douglas making full use of its multi-functionality for the majority of the show’s stunning looks.
Playing across such countries as Ireland, Germany, Italy and the UK, The Killers’ frontman was out in support of his ‘The Desired Effect’ solo album campaign.
Douglas has been working with Flowers and the Las Vegas-based rockers for over 10 years, building design ideas from scratch for each of their highly successful tours. For Flowers’ run of solo dates, Douglas’ design was centred upon defined beams of light to create an architectural feel, employing six Mythos as the workhorses of the floor package.
“My idea for this tour was to move away from using wash fixtures and to use dark space to accentuate beams,” explains Douglas. “We found a way of lighting the band from a close perspective, thus eliminating the need for wash lights to illuminate those positions. This allowed me to really take advantage of Mythos’ beam and spot modes to create the looks on stage for the majority of the set.”
Supplied by Neg Earth, Douglas also specified some A.leda B-EYE K20s, which he placed on stage around Brandon Flowers’ centre position. The Mythos were positioned on the floor upstage behind the band.
“I was very interested in trying out the Mythos for this tour as we needed to maximise impact with minimal trucking space,” says the designer. “We were touring everything in one truck including backline, set and audio therefore being able to have the best of both worlds out of one fixture made them ideal. Versatility was also in mind when choosing the B-EYEs – they are a great effects light as well as a simple LED wash.
In addition, the Mythos were great as they’re incredibly bright – I had to bring down their output level in a few of the smaller rooms. However, overall they fitted perfectly in this size of venue and never looked out of place in the larger spaces.”
For Flowers’ O2 Academy Brixton dates in the UK, Douglas decided to ramp up the impact with an extra 16 Mythos in a square above the downstage mic position. He also added an array of Clay Paky Sharpys, Sharpy Wash 330s and Stormy CC fixtures.
“For the ‘local’ rig at Brixton, I added a front and back truss, the downstage Mythos box and four side ladders,” says Douglas. “I’ve been using Sharpys and Sharpy Wash 330s for a good while now so I know what I can get from them. The Stormy CCs were brought in as I wanted to try out an LED strobe and they performed brilliantly.”