PRG provided production support to Limp Bizkit‘s show at the Pearl Concert Theatre in Las Vegas, marking the band’s first U.S. date in eight years. PRG worked closely with Jeff Rials, the lighting designer, to supply a rig that included two dozen Clay Paky Alpha fixtures. The band, back to its original lineup of Fred Durst, Wes Borland, Sam Rivers, John Otto, and DJ Lethal, made a quick detour from its current Unicorns N’ Rainbows tour in Europe and Asia to play the free concert at the 2,500 seat theatre at the Palms Casino Resort as a gift to its fans.
“We had Limp Bizkit back together after an eight-year hiatus, so we wanted to bring it back to the old-school for a minute,” says Rials. “What we were thinking was floor lighting. Wes and Fred were really into the idea. It was something that they had never really done before. So, we went with a ground package.”
“I wanted to bring something else to the table and the Clay Paky lights let me do that,” the designer adds. “They looked amazing and were extremely quiet.” He used 12 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s, 12 Alpha Wash 700s, and one Alpha Spot 700 as his primary units.” I had used the Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500s and Wash 1500s during the band’s Europe dates. “I loved them, so I talked to Tim Brennan at PRG — since he is the Clay Paky distributor — to see what I could get for the Pearl show in the quick timeframe we were dealing with. He got me the 700s which worked great. I think that the Clay Paky Alpha fixtures are the ones to beat right now.”
“It was a kind of a throw-and-go show,” says Rials. “The challenge was building the rig from scratch that day and putting it together in a three-hour window. We also had to then color-balance the lighting since we shot this show to be released on iTunes. I worked with Stan Crocker, who was great to work with; he acted as video lighting director.”
The Clay Paky Alpha 700s “are workhorses,” says Rials. “On other fixtures, if you go from a color spin back to an open white, it can get stuck and you have to reset the fixture. You get none of that with the Clay Paky fixtures. They are engineered very well. I really like how everything snaps very quickly. The dimmer is very smooth — both in and out. I also like that you can make clean color transitions with nothing in between. You can go from a red to a Congo blue and it is no problem whatsoever; the color transitions are very, very smooth. The resolution on gobos is great; really nice optics. The output of the fixture, even with that lamp, is hands-down one of the best outputs of fixtures that are out there right now. The Alpha Beam 1500s I used as wash lights in Europe looked excellent.”
He adds, “I am the head LD for Rainbow Production Services out of New England and whenever we have worked with PRG, it has always been great; it is a great partnership. They have always taken care of us and our company.”
For the continuation of the Limp Bizkit tour in Korea and Japan, Rials is using the ChamSys MagicQ MQ10o console, supplied by PRG. “There are a lot of cool things with the console. I really dig it. I tried it out in London and now I have it in Asia and will take it out with me for the tour in the States. I like it a lot for programming a tour.”
At the end of this year, U.S. audiences will again get a chance to see the band when they tour stateside. “It is Bizkit 2.0,” said Rials, “it is an amazing show. We will also have some design surprises coming out for the new tour.”