Squeek Lights and Ben Jarrett Light Coheed and Cambria Tour with Elation's PARAGON

	The songs take place inside an epic sci-fi world. When playing live, that story is echoed on stage by atmospheric lighting, LED graphics, and full-size set pieces that help build a universe around the music. Photo: Sarah Hess

For the recent US leg of Coheed and Cambria's 2025 tour, lighting designer Ben Jarrett, of Squeek Lights, made use of Elation's new PARAGON moving head as his primary spot fixture.

The PARAGON M played a central role in shaping the visuals while supporting the band's unique Amory Wars narrative, including the dramatic lighting of a full-sized inflatable character on stage. (The Amory Wars is a comic book series, co-created by band member Claudio Sanchez; each Coheed and Cambria album covers a chapter in the saga.) New Jersey-based Squeek Lights, a one-stop shop for stage lighting in the area, provided all lighting, video, and rigging for the tour.

The co-headlining tour with Mastodon, which ran from early May to June 8, showcased 34 PARAGON M fixtures, 24 mounted in two striking three-stick chevron truss arrays over the stage, and 10 on the downstage truss for frontlight.

"They've been amazing," says Jarrett, who fulfilled several roles on the tour. "No issues at all. It's a great little light, small enough to fit cleanly into GT truss and powerful enough to cut through a full video wall with ease."

The designer tapped into the PARAGON's multi-functionality, using the fixtures as spots, gobo projectors, and mid-air beam lights. He praises the fixture's 37,000-lumen output, high build quality, and IP54 rating. "It's very bright; we're getting more output than a 1,000W discharge fixture. We've been indoors, outdoors, and in dusty fields -- six weeks in, and they've handled it all."

Jarrett's design supports both Coheed's storytelling and the high-energy concert experience. The production includes "Blind Side Sonny," a towering inflatable character with spiked armor and illuminated eyes, which is central to The Amory Wars. Jarrett uses the PARAGONs' dual rotating gobo wheels, animation wheel, and advanced framing shutters to highlight Sonny with animated light play, while avoiding spill on the 20'-high-by-40'-wide LED wall behind him.

"Sonny is as important to light as the lead singer," the designer says, adding that he designed the entire rig around it. The inflatable reaches 28' high and sits center stage beneath a chevron of PARAGONs that can illuminate it from any angle. "Having the full suite of gobo and animation tools gives me the flexibility to bring him to life," he adds.

Jarrett explains that Coheed and Cambria's songs take place inside an epic sci-fi world, each album another chapter in an ever-evolving story. When playing live, that story is echoed on stage by atmospheric lighting, LED graphics, and full-size set pieces that help build a universe around the music.

The lighting design occasionally ties directly into The Amory Wars narrative. For example, Jarrett colors one classic track, "Everything Evil," in hues of yellowish green that recall its 2002 album art. Still, he notes that the overall design is more about creating atmosphere and impact, providing a dynamic backdrop to the band's latest studio album, The Father of Make Believe, released in March. PARAGON is Elation's new flagship series of LED profile luminaires and represents the culmination of years of development and feedback from lighting designers, the company says. Squeek Lights was among the first US rental houses to invest in the series, recognizing the fixture's potential early on. "PARAGON really checked all the boxes for us," says Squeek Lights managing partner Victor Zeiser. "It's an extraordinary fixture. It includes a number of cutting-edge features, and its versatility as a multi-purpose light is very attractive. It does everything we need it to."

In addition to the PARAGONs, the Coheed rig features 32 Elation Cuepix 16IP blinders lining each truss -- RGBA color-mixing blinders that Jarrett has used on past tours. Mastodon's opening set is supported with a separate package that includes Elation SOL I Blinders designed by LD Eric Price.

Jarrett reports that the PARAGONs performed great on the tour. "This tour demands a lot from our lighting package, and the PARAGONs have delivered night after night."

As Coheed and Cambria prepare to extend the tour through Europe and into a summer leg with Taking Back Sunday, the LD confirms he'll continue using the same PARAGON setup.