McLachlan’s main positions during the show are center stage, where she will sing with or without her guitar, and at the piano. To uplight her face at the keyboard, Clark has placed two Rosco HQ Light pads with CTO flters to give the cameras and fans a view of her as she plays. “She’s comfortable with the spotlight on her,” Clark says. ›› From ‘Hold On’ to Shine On McLachlan’s introspective songwriting style is to lyrically bare her soul, then reach in and grab hearts with her enchanting, mes-merizing vocal range to go with it. Ballads such as “I Will Remember You,” “Building A Mystery,” “Sweet Surrender,” “Hold On,” “Adia” and “Angel” just cry out to a designer for the appropriate light and shadows to accompany lyrics of holding on to shining on. This range of moods and moments is where her LD Brent Clark shines. A favorite moment is during “Adia,” in which breath-tak-ing beams spread out behind McLachlan at the piano, bathing her and the instrument in a heavenly looking light. Clark describes it as “simple” in its efectiveness. “It starts with two MAC Vipers on the foor behind McLachlan with the Dot gobo as wide as it can go, then as the song progresses the other foor Vipers fade in with the same treat-ment. That’s one reason I absolutely love the Viper; its zoom is amazing. Six (Viper) foor lights can back light the entire stage. I also get some really cool ethereal looks during ‘Fear,’ where the light looks so thin and fragile. The Vipers are amazing; I was still coming up with wild gobo looks at the end of the tour — six weeks in and I was still fnding stuf!” Sometimes Clark holds back the light to let the song shine through. “I was trying to fnd a way to convey the despair in the songs and try not to over-light,” he says. “For example, ‘Angel’ is just fve lights in a CTO — simple; no gags. I was also looking for ways to make songs look otherworldly, like in ‘Fumbling Towards Ecstasy,’ ‘Fear’ and ‘Hold On.’ On those songs, I went asymmetrical, with weird angles and dark colors. For songs like ‘Flesh and Blood,’ I tried to make the light bright and symmetrical, while ‘Song for My Father’ and ‘I will Remember You’ were sparse, with minimal lighting, because they did not need anything to enhance the song. “To me, every song in the 28 or so that got played had its own life or theme,” Clark con-tinues. “I tried not to repeat myself and give every song the respect it deserved. It was challenging but worth it in the end. We tried to make everyone feel at home, warm and in-vited...which I think we did.” At the end of the show, Clark admits that the heart-wrenching songs mixed with the memories of his friend Graeme Nicol made it “a bit of a heavy tour, emotionally. There were nights I would start to well up. Then smile. There were days when I and Jamie Develoo — crew chief and also a good friend of Graeme’s — would look upward and say, ‘Really, buddy!’ and then start to laugh. It was tough, but cathartic. Graeme was always beside me, I think.” McLachlan’s Shine On tour of Canada kicks of Oct. 18 to Nov. 21. Her U.S. leg ran June 20 to Aug. 3. Americas Europe Asia www.etcconnect.com ETC welcomes Vortek Rigging This is a game-changer. There really is strength in numbers. Vortek is now a part of ETC, which means customers now get more choices, bigger savings and double the amount of rigging solutions, not to mention custom hoists available through our new engineering design center. And with the outstanding 24/7 technical support that ETC is known for around the world, this is surely the start of a beautiful friendship. Learn more about this strategic partnership at etcconnect.com . n n n
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