Soul-Pop Band Lawrence Tour the USA with ADJ Lighting and LED Video Panels
ADJ Jolt Bar FX linear LED lighting fixtures and VS3 LED video panels created a vibrant and versatile backdrop for the first North American leg of Lawrence’s ‘Family Business’ tour. The heavily themed shows utilized video content extensively, while the on-stage lighting was essential to the production design as well as for complementing the band’s high-energy musical performances.
Fronted by siblings Clyde and Gracie Lawrence, who have been writing and performing together from an early age, Lawrence is an eight-piece soul-pop band comprised of musician friends from childhood and college. The band has gained a devoted following for its high-energy, keyboard-driven sound, which features tight, energetic horns and explosive lead vocals. In support of the band’s fourth studio album, also called ‘Family Business’, the successful 32-date North American tour kicked off in Philadelphia, PA in mid-September and wrapped up in Boston, MA, in early November. It took in clubs and concert halls across 20+ US states as well as a handful of dates over the border in Canada.
Responsible for the tour’s production and lighting design, Emily Miller also served as the Lighting Director out on the road. Having first joined the Lawrence camp in late 2021, after responding to a social media post from the band searching for crew, the tour was Emily’s biggest design undertaking to date for the outfit. Working to the artistes’ clear vision for the tour, the stage design was intended to evoke a retro office building with the Jolt Bar FX fixtures serving a key role both in terms of lighting and the aesthetic design.
“We first used the Jolt Bar FX about a year and a half ago for Lawrence’s 3-day Staycation festival in Brooklyn,” explains Emily. “The band wanted a different theme for each night and our lighting vendor, Squeek Lights, recommended the Jolts because of their versatility. I was really impressed by their brightness and also the pixel control, which is really important for Lawrence. They have so many nuanced elements to their music and often want certain things emphasized, which I can do visually on stage with this level of granular control. So, when I was designing this tour, I really wanted to make the Jolts a key part of the set. The stage design had a retro office look and the LED bars surrounding the two screens, as well as a pair of stage flats behind the drum riser, gave the impression of office cubicles and tied the whole set together very nicely.”
A large linear LED fixture, the Jolt Bar FX offers huge output as well as the creative potential of brilliant bright white strobe/blinder LEDs combined with multi-zone color wash LEDs in one versatile unit. It features a central strip of 112 x 5-Watt cool white SMD LEDs, surrounded on both sides by a total of 672 x 0.3W RGB color mixing SMD LEDs. This allows the same fixture to generate intense white strobing effects as well as vibrant color washes. Both types of LED are grouped into independently controllable zones (up to 16 white and 32 color), which means the unit can also be used to generate strobe chases and other ‘eye candy’ effects. With a wide 116-degree beam angle and immense light output, the Jolt Bar FX will make a big impact wherever it is used.
“I used the Jolts almost continuously throughout the show,” adds Emily, “to create a wide variety of effects. Solid color washes made for bold looks, which I really enjoyed, and animated chases captured the atmosphere of many of the songs. Lawrence also has a lot of very high energy moments and strobe hits really helped to heighten those, you could hear the crowd respond, it really got them hyped up. The Jolts were a big hit on the tour. It felt like at every other venue, the house LD would be impressed by them and ask what they were. The band also loved them, because they liked to see their music interpreted through the LED pixels. From my perspective, I particularly like that they offer so many different mode options. I actually used them in 78-channel mode, which I understand is less common. I really wanted to use their full pixel mapping potential but was limited by the available channels on my board, as I had to be prepared for a variety of different house rigs. So, the 78-channel mode was a good compromise, giving me 16 RGB zones as well as the full 16 cells of white. Finally, it’s also worth mentioning that they were a perfect fit for our budget.”
Video content was also an essential component of the tour, which was the responsibility of Video Production Designer, Nick Proctor, who has worked with Lawrence since 2022. The band had pre-recorded a series of tongue-in-cheek skits, which introduced the different sections of the tour. This meant that at least one display surface large enough to allow the whole audience to view the footage clearly was essential. In the early stages of planning, Nick and Emily discussed a single central screen. However, the tour was to visit a variety of different sizes of venue and some of them would have struggled to accommodate that setup. In addition, the band wanted a traditional configuration with the drummer in the middle and Nick and Emily didn’t want the kit to obscure anyone’s view. They opted for a pair of screens, one on each side of the stage, which were angled slightly to ensure everyone had a great view even in some of the awkward-shaped clubs the tour visited.
Each screen comprised 24 of ADJ’s VS3 LED video panels in a 6 x 4 configuration. They were hung from ground-supported goal post trusses, which were also used to rig the Jolt Bars. Featuring the highest quality LED binning as well as bright, clear output, the VS3 has a 3.91mm pixel pitch (128 x 128 pixel density) and features 3-in-1 RGB SMD2121 LEDs with a brightness of 1000 NITS and a high refresh rate of 3840Hz. It offers a wide viewing angle of 160° (horizontal) / 140° (vertical) and a high contrast ratio of 5000:1, allowing for the delivery of exceptionally vibrant video reproduction. The system also features an innovative magnetic locating system, which pulls together the top of one panel to the bottom of another, allowing a technician to hold the new panel temporarily in place with just one hand while using their other hand to engage the pin-locking mechanism. This means that a single crew member can quickly and easily erect a full wall of panels. On the Family Business tour the LED screens were utilized extensively. They displayed custom visuals created by Nick and were also used for IMAG at certain moments during the show, as well as to display the pre-recorded footage of the band.
“I had literally no issues with the VS3 panels at any point during the tour,” enthuses Nick. “They were as simple as it gets to setup and use, very plug and play. It got to a point where everyone at load-in would want to do the video wall, because there was something therapeutic about slotting the panels together using the magnetic alignment system that makes it super easy to get the setup right every time. For the size of venues we were playing, they went above and beyond in terms of brightness. Wherever you were in the venue, you could clearly see the visuals even with Emily’s beautiful lighting blasting in your face! The resolution was also great, people could see even the smallest details in my content right from the back of the room.”
Both the VS3 LED video panels and Jolt Bar FX linear LED lighting fixtures were essential components of the Family Business tour. The brightness and clarity of the panels ensured that the production’s video content could be seen clearly throughout the crowd, while the versatility of the linear LED fixtures allowed for a wide variety of looks to be created which complemented Lawrence’s varied musical palette. Both units performed faultlessly for the duration of the tour and both Emily and Nick wouldn’t hesitate to use them again on future productions.
Tour
Lawrence ‘Family Business’ Tour (Fall 2024, North America)
www.lawrencetheband.com
Creative Directors
Gracie Lawrence, Clyde Lawrence & Jordan Cohen
Production Designers
Emily Miller & Nick Proctor
Production Manager
Jonny Koh
Video Director & Content Creator
Nick Proctor
Lighting Director & Programmer
Emily Miller
FOH Engineer
Leo Pisaq
Tour Manager
Jordan Cohen
Stage Manager
Mike Wozniak
Lighting Vendor
Squeek Lights
www.squeeklights.com
Photography
Sarah Hess (1, 2 & 5), Matine Kazemi (3, 6 & 7) and Justine Vanderpool (4)
ADJ Gear List
24 x Jolt Bar FX
48 x VS3
1 x Novastar VX6s processor
