Singer-songwriter Bruno Mars has been getting rave reviews for his Moonshine Jungle Tour, which will continue to play dates around the world through March 2014. The tour reads like an inventory of equipment represented by A.C.T Lighting, including a grandMA2 console, Chromlech Elidy LED matrixes, and Clay Paky Sharpy and Sharpy Wash fixtures. All are exclusively distributed in North America by A.C.T Lighting.
“We were tasked with creating a world for Bruno and his band to inhabit,” says lighting designer Cory FitzGerald who codesigned the tour with Roy Bennett. “Bruno has a lot of sounds and pushes past a lot of genres, so he needed an environment that would accommodate all his music. The lighting fixtures help a lot with that. We have 276 panels of Elidy, 42 Sharpy Washes and about 80 Sharpy beams plus two grandMA2 full-size units s – and we’re very happy with the rig.” VER supplied the tour’s gear.
The Moonshine Jungle Tour marks the first time FitzGerald is using Elidy LED matrixes, the first in the world capable of projecting volumetric graphics. “I like them a lot, and they look awesome,” he reports. “The Elidy panels are built into the stage deck and risers – the front side of all the risers and the stage is composed of Elidys, all in geometric shapes. Since they’re transparent, you can shoot through them with fixtures behind them, which is great.”
The versatile Sharpy Washes are “used for everything,” he says. “They’re the main wash for the show, and we have 36 overhead and six on the floor. We built a ceiling, and the Sharpy Washes are so small that they can be recessed in it and still shoot through.
“They also have a great zoom range and can do amazing beam effects,” he adds. “It’s great to have the option to go super wide or super narrow. The fact that they can color mix is a life saver.”
FitzGerald also made room for a number of Sharpys in the rig. “I can’t remember the last time I did a show without them,” he says. “They’re well established and high powered. With prism, frost and gobos I can get a lot of looks out of them. I have them everywhere on the show: overhead, on the back wall of light, on the floor. We even have 14 gold Sharpys on the deck.”
Controlling the full complement of almost 8,000 lighting ‘fixtures’ on the show are two grandMA2 full-size units with 6 npus and “lots of universes,” says Fitzgerald. “We have 16 universes of just Elidy fixtures. We’re running all the video servers via ArtNet; grandMA2 has the ability to scale that big. Although grandMA2 is standard these days for shows, it’s still amazing. It’s working as expected with no surprises. It’s great to have a console I can rely on to handle everything so well.”
Dave Marcucci is the touring lighting director for the Moonshine Jungle Tour.
