A packed house raised the roof at TD Garden – and raised substantial funds for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing – at the Boston Strong concert May 30. The five-and-a-half hour show, headlined by top performers in music and comedy, utilized a lighting rig and grandMA2 consoles supplied by East Coast Lighting & Production Services (ECLPS). A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting in North America.
Proceeds from the benefit concert went to One Fund Boston, the compensation fund established to help bombing victims by Gov. Deval Patrick and Mayor Thomas Menino.
ECLPS’ Robert Morrissey worked with lighting designer Butch Allen to build a rig around the company’s inventory of fixtures. He also quickly worked out a deal with Brian Dowd of A.C.T Lighting to take speedy delivery of additional grandMA2 full-size and grandMA2 light consoles, boosting the ECLPS roster.
“Programmer extraordinaire Rob Koenig flew in and worked tirelessly to have the rig all programmed and ready to go and ran a grandMA2 for comedians Lenny Clarke, Steven Wright and Steve Sweeney,” Morrissey reports. The grandMA2 was also used by Jesse Blevins, who lit New Kids on the Block; Greg Maltby, who lit the band Boston; Aaron Swetland for country star Jason Aldean; Ephraim Sosna for J. Geils Band; and Martin Favorite for Extreme. Lighting designer Cosmo Wilson tapped the grandMA for Aerosmith; lighting designer Tom Wagstaff programmed for performances by James Taylor, Carole King and Jimmy Buffett.
“The concert went off without a hitch, thanks to all of the great people who participated in the event,” says Morrissey.