The Church Get Atmospheric With Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Spots

Attending a concert by the Australian Recording Industry Hall of Fame band The Church is described by many as an ethereal experience. That's to be expected from a group whose signature hit is the often-covered and widely acclaimed "Under The Milky Way." Currently touring the US in support of its Further/Deeper album, The Church is remaining true to form, taking fans on an otherworldly journey, courtesy of some spacey guitar riffs that blend 12 string acoustics with electric instruments, surreal vocals and a dazzling celestial-like lighting display from Chauvet Professional's Rogue R1 Spot fixtures, the company says.

LD Victor Zeiser of Squeek Lights (New York) and lighting director Kirby Naylor are using eight of the LED moving fixtures in their touring rig. The positioning of the Rogue R1 Spots has varied depending on the configuration of the stage in the 25-city plus tour, which includes stops at a range for venues from New York to Los Angeles.

At some stops, a few of the units have been put on booms and towers; at others all of the Rogues are flown on upstage truss. In each case, the Rogue fixtures are backlighting the band with searing intensity, contributing to the space traveler effect. "Hitting the band members with intense white light or having these brilliant beams behind them creates an aura around them that goes with what's happening on the stage," says Naylor.

The Rogue fixture's two rotating gobo wheels, one of which is rotating/indexing, with interchangeable gobos, are also contributing to the extraordinary look of the show. "The gobo wheel with a rate fader on the prism creates what I have to say is my favorite look on the tour for the hit 'Under The Milky Way,'" says Naylor. "It really opens up a lot of opportunities to create some interesting patterns."

Featuring a color wheel with eight colors plus white, the Rogue R1 Spot also opened up opportunities to bathe the stage in a rainbow of lush and playful psychedelic colors that reflect the dream-pop style of The Church. The intense output of the Rogues made it easy to wash the stage and surrounding areas completely in blues, purples and yellows, three of the go-to colors for the tour. Adding to the richness of the color on stage was a collection of COLORdash Batten-Quad 6, also from Chauvet Professional, which were used for chase sequences and as blinders.

"There's hardly any other band out there that can put on a show quite as transcendent as The Church," noted one critic commenting on the band's current tour, the company says. The critic added, "The lightshow at The Church's concert is also very atmospheric and goes very well with the music.

Although that lightshow may have seemed magical, it was indeed grounded in a reality, the result of two talented lighting professionals drawing on the performance of some quality fixtures."