You can imagine Eric’s face when I walked into the Neighborhood Theatre at 8 pm to set up the lights- 30 minutes into the first set. I have been friends with the cats from the New Familiars for awhile now. I had said I would hook them up on Halloween on two conditions: One, I had extra fixtures; Two, I had extra time. I think he had given up when I appeared. A mixture of both slight annoyance and pleasant surprise, Eric ask what I could do. He was thinking run the pars, I was thinking 6 moving fixtures set up and programmed in 25 minutes. Little did he know the power of 4 years of practice- setting up light shows alone.

Determination blended with knowledge helped me pull off this crazy night. I put all my equipment in the back of the room and mentally prepared myself for the short transition between bands. I knew I had about 15 minutes to get all the equipment wired and placed on stage. So I ran with lights in tow. 3 moving light road cases, one DMX box, one Power box, one fog machine, two light stands: 5 trips from the back of the theatre to the stage. I quickly removed the tops of all 5 road cases. In order to run, I have to press the light directly above my head. By pressing it, I can easy move through an already busy stage transitioning between bands. Once the fixture is up, the strength to maintain its position overhead is minimal. Zipping in and around stage, I managed to get the DMX and fixtures placed. However, I was delayed when I had to grab the resident sound man to help me find the power dedicated for the lighting.

In 14 minutes I had the stage set. I ran the DMX to the back and down the side of the building. I taped all the cable crossing the walkways. In just over 15 minutes, I was ready to start programming. Thank God for presets. I first tapped the buttons on their Leprecon controller to figure out the unlabeled par setup. Without board tape and a marker, I spent about 2 minutes putting them to memory. On my light jockey controller, all my programs are based on 8 stage presets and 8 dance floor presets. I executed a cue on stage then set the movers to preset named Stage 1. As I moved each light into place and saved each preset during the first song, no one noticed anything unusual. I had to wait until the break to program the dance lights. Unfortunately I didn’t clear the fog machine with management who reprimanded me after filling the stage with smoke. Apparently the alarm went off the week before and they had to clear the building.

Quick note to self: ask before you smoke ; )

If you are unfamiliar with programming Light Jockey presets during a show, save your first preset then unselect the fixtures. Double click your next preset then select and move each fixture. Once you have moved all the fixtures select all 6 fixtures and save preset. Now unselect all 6 fixtures and double click the next preset. This way you can define all your presets for your programs without disturbing the stage. If you double click the preset with the lights selected, the lights will move to the preset from the previous show which usually ends up in the worse posible position. Look like you are yelling at the board then everyone will blame the Windows operating system instead of clumsy lightmanship. Free tip: for the first four presets, I keep the moving heads in the same quadrant. For the next four, I place them in the quadrant cattycorner to the original quadrant. This is easy to remember and creates a nice aerial flip between quadrants without blinding the crowd. On each step of the sequence each light can be a different preset, so experiment.

After setting up another show for 13 hours before I even got the this show, I was tired. Neither the bands nor the crowd knew the craze that consumed me the first 30 minutes. Everyone immensely enjoyed the music of Lowry, the Houstons, and the New Familiars. I especially enjoyed the last couple songs when the members of all the bands gathered on stage for a grand finally. The evening was worth every sore muscle, when some of the fans found me in the back to express how that I had turned the evening from a band showcase to a powerful show. If you get a chance join them next year at the neighborhood for amazing music and a great night.