At U2 cover band Hollywood U2’s recent show in Arizona, the group used a bold and colorful lightshow designed by John Garberson that featured a collection of CHAUVET Professional Maverick, Rogue and STRIKE fixtures, supplied by Creative BackStage.
“I was asked to design a stage with lighting and video for a U2 tribute act that kept all of the elements of an actual U2 show,” said Garberson. “The arena-level output, colors and fast movements we got from the Mavericks had a big part in helping us achieve this goal.”
Garberson’s rig included 10 Maverick MK2 Spot fixtures, which were flown on mid-stage truss. The fixture also accented key moments in the show by downlighting different performers with multi-colored specials.
He also used the fixture’s two rotating gobo wheels to cover the stage and crowd in a variety of patterns, while relying on the variable CMY+CTO color mixing system to blend the lighting with the large video wall in the middle of the stage.
“This show was outside, so we used a 4-post motorized roof to fly the lighting and sound,” said Garberson. “We did a bilevel stage: our main stage was at 4’, and we had a 65-panel 6mm LED screen positioned at 6’. We ground stacked our LED screen on the higher deck, because it was safer to do it that way as opposed to flying the system. It really helped having the LED screen being up higher than the main stage. The output of our Mavericks and other fixtures matched the screen to create a big impression on a relatively small event stage.”
Garberson and his team also flew eight of rig’s 28 Rogue R2 Wash fixtures on downstage truss and used them to wash the stage apron and for audience lighting. The remaining Rogue fixtures were arranged vertically on backstage ladder truss to provide a constantly changing color backdrop.
“We relied on color washing to reflect different moods,” said Garberson. “We tended to go with bold color washes like reds for our washes, because of their intensity. This band conveys a lot of the excitement of a U2 concert, and we wanted our lighting to do that too.”
