Elation Lighting on Bowling for Soup How About Another Round 2016 UK Tour

	Bowling for Soup How About Another Round 2016 UK tour. Photo: Chris Barber

Lighting designer Jon Smith turned to an Elation Professional lighting package of ACL 360 Bars, Platinum Series moving heads and Cuepix blinders for Texas pop punk band Bowling for Soup's How About Another Round UK tour in February. The tour, basically an encore tour to the band's farewell tour of two years ago, sold out at every stop with crowds of up to 3,500 fans.

Smith has worked with Bowling for Soup for the last five years but took the reigns as lighting designer for the first time on this tour. "My idea was to create a pub on stage, an idea that the band really liked," he said. "We used lighting effects and had customized beer barrels that shot out flames. It was a unique set that made for an intimate pub feel." Smith worked with set builder Mair Burgess to put the set together, using local businesses and suppliers to create the touring show.

Although the band hails from the US, they have always made a bigger splash in the UK. After a farewell tour of the UK two years ago, the band decided to have "another round" after more than 20 years together. The tour started in Glasgow on the first of February and ran for 15 dates.

Smith chose to use the Elation ACL 360 Bar moving head batten in the setup, Elation's 360-degree rotation, narrow-beam LED effect light. "It creates a real variety of different looks," he said. "I liked the idea of using it for static uplighting and downlighting color for the pub, to light up the beer barrels for example, and then used movement when a song would start."

The ACL 360 Bar is a versatile moving head batten with seven individual 15W RGBW LEDs that produces a tight, 4-degree beam from each lens. Combined with fast movement and continuous 360-degree pan and tilt rotation, it opens up for a number of fresh, high-energy effects. Smith placed eight ACL 360 Bars in the air on truss, with four mounted on base plates and four more on the floor. "It's a great light. I like the solid flat beam, the color and movement. I also used the strobe and ran chases with them. It was a real rock 'n roll show so I kept to rock 'n roll looks," he said, stating that if he gets the chance to use the fixture on an EDM type show then he'll be able to use more of its effects.

The Elation lighting package also included eight Platinum Spot 15R Pro and eight Platinum Beam 5R Extreme moving heads. Initially, Smith says he wasn't sure the beams would work for the show but the powerful fixtures added a strong visual element from both a truss and floor position. "The beam fixtures were great. The prism on them looked great and I liked the different looks I could get using spot and beam fixtures together," he said.

Mounted behind the band and used to light the crowd or for chase effects were Elation Cuepix Blinder WW2 white LED blinders with Cuepix Blinder WW4 lights added on certain shows for extra punch. Housing two and four 100W warm white 3,200K COB LEDs respectively, both the Cuepix Blinder WW2 and Cuepix Blinder WW4 give a bright, high-density output that mimics the look of an incandescent source.

Lighting supply for the tour was by live event equipment hire company MusicMann of Walsall, who Smith has used many times before and who also handled trucking duties on the Bowling for Soup tour.