Bandit on Joe Satriani

Bandit Lites supplied lighting production and crew for the UK leg of guitar hero, Joe Satriani's "Professor Satchafunklus & The Musterion Rockadelic" World Tour, which has just kicked off in Europe.

The lighting designer is LA-based, Ernesto Corti, who is enjoying his third tour with the band.

The tour primarily played large theatre venues, and the rig was based around 4 trusses – front, back and 2 mid-stage, that were subtly angled into a V-shape.

The upstage truss was used to hang a 33ft wide by 16ft drop of SoftLED cloth, adding a new and interesting dimension to his powerful performance, and nine ColorKinetics ColorBlast 12 LED wash lights were also over-rigged on the top rail of the back truss for stage depth.

The two mid-trusses were made up from pre-rigged sections – chosen for the larger spacing between the two rails. They varied slightly in length - the stage right truss measuring 19ft and the stage left 21ft.

On the front rail of these were a total of 6 Martin Professional MAC 2K Wash moving lights, with 8 MAC 2K Profiles lined up across the back chords. These were joined by 8 Source Four profiles and another 5 ColorBlast 12s.

The front truss was rigged with five 8-lites for audience blinders, 6 Source Four profiles for front key lighting and 5 MAC 2K Washes for general stage coverage.

The lighting package was completed with 6 MAC 2K Profiles on the deck rigged on stands in order to raise them to head height, and 7 ColorBlasts, five across the front of stage and two back lighting the risers.

Bandit supplied a complete motor & rigging package, 2 DF50 haze machines and 3 Lycian 1200w HMI FOH followspots. The entire system was maintained by crew members Nigel Julian and Jonathan Dawson-Butterworth.

The show was operated using a GrandMA console – Corti’s desk of choice. The GrandMA also triggers the Catalyst digital media server supplying all the content for the SoftLED, a lot of which originates from Satriani’s own film and animation artwork.

Corti uses traditional effects like beamwork, movement and colour in a minimal and down-to-earth style, adding atmosphere and emphasis, but always leaving Satriani and his guitar very much centre stage. Corti explained, “It’s a simple, uncomplicated lighting show. With Joe, the idea is always to have fun with the lights.”

He adds that Bandit Lites has looked after him very well, and he was pleased that they were the lighting supplier again after working with them on the last tour.

The Professor Satchafunklus tour is currently booked to run until the end of 2008 and will visit Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, the U.S. and Canada as well as its lengthy stint in Europe.