Automatically Robe for Miranda Lambert

	Miranda Lambert's Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars tour. Photo: Blu Sanders.

Nashville, Tennessee-based production and lighting designer Chris Lisle of Chris Lisle Lighting Design has created an elegant stage look for country singer Miranda Lambert's Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars tour, featuring Robe moving lights supplied by Bandit Lites, also based in Tennessee.

The tour runs for five weekends in the US over October and is based on the concept of playing smaller and more intimate spaces on the touring circuit, allowing Lambert -- known as a great communicator -- to be close to her already loyal audience and reach out to potential new fans.

Lisle has worked with the prolific and successful star since she opened on a section of Keith Urban's 2005 world tour.

At the start of this tour, they chatted about production and stage presentation, for which she wanted something straightforward and eye-catching that was lighting led, and without any major distracting video elements onstage. Something that allowed her music and presence to speak for themselves.

He decided to specify 20 Robe BMFLs Spots, 24 Pointes and 19 LEDWash 600s for his primary moving lights to give plenty of versatility and scope.

The BMFLs and Pointes are spread out along the upstage trusses, with more on the floor for additional drama and different beam angles, while the LEDWash 600s are used to provide the general stage color bases and front washes.

It's the first time that Lisle has used Robe's new signature BMFL fixture on a tour. He and lighting director Craig Richter, who is out on the road with the tour, are both really enjoying creating "beautiful beam moments and sophisticated effects," as well as other scenes combining BMFL Spots and Pointes for texturing and other treatments.

Lisle likes the gobos and the range of effects in the BMFL Spots which are utilized heavily in the show, and, like many, he loves the brightness and quality of the lightsource.

Pointes he used for the first time on Chris Young's latest tour -- which started in 2014 and is still running -- so it was a "no brainer" to have them again on this rig he explained, adding that Chris Young had also been his first experience using Robe in his work.

The medium of lighting works hard in this show helping showcase Lambert's powerful songs, lyrics, and stage presence. Lisle likes to keep it stylish and well defined. His color combinations normally include no more than two hues at a time adding a degree of rawness.

He likes to build a show gradually and help create the bond between the performer and audience, rather than letting lots of "tricks" go in the first few songs, and there are other moments where lighting takes an alternative role completely, imperceptibly reinforcing the performance without anyone really noticing it's present.

"Miranda's music is fun to light and she gives me a lot of creative freedom," he added.

Lisle says he thinks Robe currently has a range of great products with "amazing optics that are ideal for touring."

Joining Richter on the Miranda Lambert tour are Bandit crew chief Tyler Veneziano and lighting tech Cody Cheatham. The production manager is Erik Leighty and Fred Yanda is stage manager.