Bandit and Brian Wilson Hit the Road for Summer Tour

	Brian Wilson in concert with Bandit Lites

Bandit Lites is providing the lighting for music legend Brian Wilson's summer tour, where he and his band, featuring Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin, continue to play the greatest Beach Boys and Brian Wilson songs.

Lighting designer Chris Stuba looked to Wilson's own music for inspiration in creating an elegant looking show. "I love the man and I love the music," said Stuba. "His band is one of the best out there working today."

Stuba utilized Philips Vari-Lite VL500D fixtures as the main wash, with VL3500s as key lighting in addition to four the floor with Martin Professional MAC Auras to light the drapery. MAC Vipers provided backlighting and VL2500s were used as "shin kickers."

"The VL500D is still my favorite wash fixture," explained Stuba, "and while it does have some limitations in the blue and green range, the red range and the tungsten all make up for it. It is very fast, and its coverage works really well for me. I feel tungsten is still a beautiful source and I love the way the dimmer ramps."

The main challenge for Stuba came in the form of sheer volume of material to program for, as Brian Wilson's collection include more than 400 songs (including more than 20 Top 40 hits). Bandit's vice president, Mike Golden, facilitated preprogramming for Stuba, and opportunity Stuba called "invaluable."

"Even though the songs are usually just a couple of minutes long, they are not like anything else I've programmed before," said Stuba. "They are beautiful, complicated, and unique as Wilson is."

"I always thoroughly enjoy working with Chris Stuba and this tour was no exception," said Golden. "It was truly an honor for us at Bandit to join him in lighting this legendary artist. Clint Boire (production manager / front-of-house engineer) was excellent to work with and the show looked and sounded absolutely incredible."

"Bandit always delivers," added Stuba. "The personnel and the gear are always fantastic and the support is always over the top. Thanks to Mike, Dizzy Gosnell, project manager Don Lockridge, and director of TSD Jake Tickle. And of course the touring team of Kurt Kalivoda and Jimmy Hatten, as they made for an awesome team. They made me look good every night. Oh, and we did have a lot of 'fun, fun, fun!'"