Bandit Lites Supplies Billy Strings Tour Designed by Saxton Waller

	"There's a diamond-shaped black skin inside each diamond...giving Saxton an entirely new set of surfaces to light," says Gosnell. Photo: Jesse Faatz

Lighting designer Saxton Waller's latest project is bluegrass singer/songwriter Billy Strings' current tour, which wraps up this week. Waller has returned to touring after a nine-year hiatus. "If I am going on a tour and standing in front of the rig every night, I want to chase magic," he says. "That's what's happening on the Billy Strings tour. We are chasing magic. It's slippery and elusive...but it's worth the chase."

When crafting the original design concepts, Waller turned to nature for inspiration: flowing water, roots, animal forms, crystals, plants, leaves, and steam lit by fractured sunbeams. "There is an organic thing happening -- but sometimes it feels like it is organic from a different planet," he says. "Familiar, but still somehow alien...one of those beautiful accidents that I am now trying to embrace."

The speed, accuracy, and consistency required to rebuild, update, and refocus 140 looks each day are supported by the team from lighting gear supplier Bandit Lites.

"I am completely dependent on the Bandit crew to get the rig built to spec in a timely fashion," Waller notes. "Doors are at 6:30 every night, so I need the rig by 2:30. Every build day has its challenges, but the Bandit crew is always on point and striving to get me the rig on time."

One of the most defining technical breakthroughs on this tour came from Bandit's own Dizzy Gosnell. "Charlie Bryson [Strings' production manager] rang me in the summer to let me know they were going ahead with a new design, and could he send me a current design plot?" Gosnell says. "Opening it up, the most striking thing was the diamond-shaped trusses...how could we maintain the integrity of the design but make them quick to build, truck-friendly, and ultimately flexible for future use?"

The challenge was immense: 72 CHAUVET Professional PXL Curve 12s had to stay mounted in the truss permanently, yet 36 separate 12" sticks would be too slow, too unwieldy, too inefficient to tour.

"Cooking dinner one night," Gosnell says, "I had my kitchen scissors on the counter open. I grabbed another pair, put them point to point, and started drawing before the spark went away, scraping the burnt dinner from the pans the next morning."

This inspired a break through: Treat each half of the diamond like a pair of scissors, hinged to fold for the truck, and open to form the full diamond on show days.

A 60-degree gate connected the two halves. Tyler Truss leg receivers on the outside gave stability and perfect wheel handling. And shortening each truss 7' 6" allowed the diamonds to pack cleaning across the truck. "That stagger alone saved 12' of truck," Gosnell notes. A custom 12" centerline truss, something Tyler did not previously manufacture, completed the design, enabling the PXL Curves to travel safely nested inside. "Tyler pulled out all the stops to build these totally custom pieces in the time frame we had," Gosnell adds.

These diamonds, five of them flown across the upstage, are not just structural pieces. They are visual signatures, surfaces for Waller to paint on. "There's a diamond-shaped black skin inside each diamond...giving Saxton an entirely new set of surfaces to light. When not lit, it completely disappears," Gosnell notes.

Bryson says, "We were up against some real logistical challenges delivering this rig in time, but with Bandit's industry connections and work ethic, we managed to pull it off. There's never a request too difficult...Whether it's a small, annoying detail or a massive show change, it's handled with professionalism, pragmatism, and efficiency. It never feels like a back-and-forth with Bandit. They understand the vision -- it's a collaborative effort to get to the end result." This past fall, Drew Dawes became Strings' production manager, giving Bryson the chance to focus fully on serving as monitor engineer.

"The light show should be a living piece of art, just like the music is," Waller says. "The programming will never be finished...I am striving to make each show the best one yet. The fact that the Bandit team and I produce this rig every day with only three techs and myself is huge."