Ayrton Magic Blade FXs create dynamic lighting effects for Jack White’s new tour
The former White Stripes frontman currently wowing fans with “Jack White: The Supply Chain Issues Tour” has 82 Ayrton Magic Blade FX fixtures delivering dynamic effects lighting on stage. Matthieu Larivee, who serves as the tour’s Creative Director and Lighting and Production Designer, obtained the Magic Blade FXs from Solotech Nashville.
The North American leg kicked off in Detroit in April and will wrap at the end of August in Kansas City. It then heads to South America with much of the same lighting rig, including the Magic Blade FXs. Each Magic Blade FX features seven RGBW high‐output LEDs that can be individually controlled to create airborne virtual scenery or illuminate sets and performers. It is equipped with a revolutionary FX optical zoom system that has no visible moving parts and a fixed transmitting lens.
The Jack White tour marks Larivee’s first use of Magic Blade FXs for a tour although he has used them on individual shows. “A few lights do some similar things, but they don’t offer the full breadth of effects that Magic Blade FX does,” says Larivee, who is a Creative Producer and Partner at Montreal‐based Luz Studio. “The Magic Blades were the one fixture on the design that I didn’t want to accept any substitutes for.”
This tour has a linear design with Magic Blade FX fixtures mounted on sets of three towers, stage left and stage right, at the outer edges of the stage; additional Magic Blades form a horizontal band that spans the top of the curtain. A flat videowall serves as a backdrop behind the band. “It doesn’t act as a video screen per se,” says Larivee. “We created the video content too, creating a rhythm that doesn’t overwhelm the audience using set extensions and merging virtual lights with physical lights.”
Larivee felt Magic Blade FX would give him “the big look” he wanted to create via set extensions and lighting. “The fact that the Magic Blades have an optical zoom system means I can use them to wash the stage and light the band; I can do chases with every pixel and create starry effects. The way they spin endlessly is great support for some of Jack’s very modern music with wah‐ wah pedal guitar effects. Other light bars that spin are very narrow so they look like EDM or club fixtures. But Magic Blades go really wide!”
ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America.
Photo © Luz Studio
.jpeg)
