Michael Cooper Calls on CHAUVET Professional for Staind's Break The Cycle Tour

	Photo: Jared Gehman

Michael Cooper, longtime lighting designer for the rock band Staind, uses new tools on the 23-city Break the City Tour. "I've been working with the band for a little over 20 years, and this tour is really great because they're playing some songs that they've only played live once or twice in concert," Cooper says. "As Break the Cycle was arguably their biggest album, a lot of songs on the album were on the setlist already, but on this run we're getting the deep cuts. Visiting these songs with today's technology and content capabilities has been very fulfilling."

His PRG-supplied rig includes 26 CHAUVET Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12 motorized battens. He is positioning two of the pixel-mappable RGBW fixtures in the center of each of the 13 sticks of automated truss in his rig, using them to create an impressive variety of looks. "You get a lot of bang for the buck with them," he says. "This fixture is essentially12 lights in one, and having them in groups of two gave me 24 sources on each truss. The different looks and vibes we can pull from these battens are a lot of fun."

The Break The Cycle Tour, which kicked off September 8 at Lakewood Amphitheatre in Atlanta and ends October 19 at the Moody Center in Austin, keeps a consistent look, with small changes from venue to venue. At the center of that look are the 13 automated truss "fingers" in a chevron configuration over the stage.

Using this centerpiece, Cooper worked with Michael Willingham (Staind's touring lighting director, who programmed most of the show), Andy Reuter (video content), and Robert Long (additional design collaboration) to give fans a tightly programmed, widely varied look that tracks the band's range.

"The band and management wanted to add some automation to the design for this year, which I was all for," Cooper says. "After running through a few different design concepts, we landed on this setup. The 13 automated trusses hang from a chevron-shaped mother grid above the stage. The chevron really gives it depth; even though it's not a terribly huge angle, it matches the set on stage beautifully. It's nothing dramatic in terms of trim height, but it does allow for some killer depth once the trusses start moving.

"Video content drove a lot of the automation looks. Sometimes we needed the trusses low and intimate where we could block and frame. Other times we needed them out of the way. 'Suffer' is the best example -- the new content piece is a church; the content even has 'Staind' glass. That look almost writes itself, with the cathedral look in the automation. The long-time final song of the show, 'Mudshovel,' has fully kinetic movement where all the trusses are in motion throughout most of the song."