BANDIT LITES REVIVES MELISSA ETHERIDGE ON CURRENT TOUR

Bandit Lites is honored to once again be working with Academy Award-winning and two-time Grammy Award-winning American rock singer-songwriter and musician, Melissa Etheridge. Her current tour, titled ‘The Revival Tour,’ features dates throughout the United States and into Canada from mid-June through early September, 2008.

Lighting Designer, David Hamilton is in his fifth year working with Melissa Etheridge. He said that for this tour, they are carrying a lot less lighting than they had previously and the majority of this design is LED-based.

The Tibetan prayer flag set design was created by Tour Manager, Steven Girmant, and reflects Etheridge’s desire to share her life story and spiritual awakening with her audience.

The set consists of five strings of Tibetan prayer flags strung in front of a white cyc and black scrim with 5 to 7 vertical prayer flags on floor stands Stage Right and Stage Left. There are two risers for drums and keyboards. Melissa Etheridge and the guitar and bass have Persian rugs in their positions.

Hamilton said that the lighting and set designs have been kept minimal to both reflect simplicity and reduce power consumption.

“Melissa is widely known as an advocate for environmental issues and we wanted to use as many LED fixtures as we could this time out,” Hamilton explained. “So we have 20 Pixeline 1044 LEDs to use as cyc lights, 10 Elation Impression LED wash fixtures, and 6 Color Kinetics Colorblast 6 LEDs. The only non-LED lights are 8 Mac 2000 spots and 5 Coemar Mini Cycs. The entire lighting rig draws less than 50 amps per leg with everything full on.”

They wanted to go minimal with the number of fixtures and started with a 40 ft. ”E” shaped truss upstage and ended up reducing that to an asymmetric “L” shape with a total of 15 fixtures on it.

“I went with no front truss after using the Colorblast 6s as the only front light on the Ryan Adams tour, “Hamilton added. “They work well for fill light from the floor downstage without being overbearing and they take up a very small footprint, which works well because Melissa uses the entire front of the stage and they help keep it uncluttered. Having only one side truss was a bit of a challenge, but I put 3 of the Impressions on the floor on the opposite side and they cover the stage very well.”

Bandit Business Development Office and Client Rep, Brent Barrett attended the Louisville show and commented, “I was so impressed by the immediate connection that Ms. Etheridge made and maintained with her fans throughout her entire very generous and appreciated 2 hour and 45 minute show.”

Barrett went on to say, “David [Hamilton] has again managed to create and present an extremely tasteful show that compliments the music while not dominating it. Bandit is very proud to have the opportunity work with such a talented artist and quality organization.”

Crew List:

Steve Girmant - tour mgr.
Stephanie Gordon – tour accountant/prod. assistant
Jon Schimke - prod. mgr/monitor engineer
Don Wise – FOH audio
Marcus Douglas – audio system tech
David Hamilton – lighting designer/director
Michael Stanley - lighting system tech
Robie Willard - guitar tech
Chip Carter - backline
Kevin O’Conner is drum tech
Kevin Wegman - merchandise
Nedra Baldori – chef
Randi Brevetz – chef’s assistant
Charlie warren – bus driver
Tom McPhail - bus driver
Hurricane Heathfield - bus driver
Yvonne Herr - lead truck driver
Kerry Howell – truck driver
Jessy Johnson – nanny
Dana Marangelli - nanny