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CHAUVET Professional Delivers More On moe. Tour

Posted on February 27, 2015
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SUNRISE, FL – Fans never quite know what to expect when they go to a concert by the legendary jam band moe., which is precisely what makes the experience so much fun –and even some might say “addictive.” In 20 years of touring, typically at shoulder-to-shoulder packed houses, the band has never faxed-in a performance. At stop after stop, it delights its incredibly loyal legion of followers (officially called “moe.rons”) with fresh, original performances that never fail to take surprising twists like a 27- minute improvised version of its hit “Timmy Tucker,” or a sudden rocking jam with – of all things – a xylophone.

Well-known LD Preston Hoffman (Pulse Lighting) contributed to this freewheeling feeling of spontaneity with a vivid, exuberant and colorful lightshow that relied heavily on audience-engaging moving fixtures provided by KM Productions in Hicksville, NY.  Hoffman, who has worked as an LD for John Legend, Further and a host of other groups, got a surprise of his own on the tour when he used the Legend 412 moving yoke from CHAUVET Professional for the first time.

“I was quite pleased,” he says of the experience. “I found the Legend 412 units to be a pleasure to use; they were reliable and did exactly what I needed them to do.”

What Hoffman needed the Legend 412 fixtures to do was wash the band and provide a base color that his profile lights could interact with. To accomplish this goal, he used eight of the Chauvet moving fixtures as back wash rim lights.  Featuring 12 Quad-Color RGBW LEDs that are controllable in quadrants, the Legend 412 fixtures impressed the LD with their color rendering capabilities.

“A feature that I am a stickler for these days is color mixing at the source, as opposed to separating the RGB LEDs,” said Hoffman.  “Mixing at the source creates a much nicer light, and the Chauvet fixtures did this very well.”

Hoffman also praised the compact design of the Legend 412 fixtures. “For this show, I very much appreciated the fixtures’ lightweight design, since I was hanging them 15-feet off of a ladder. Being able to one hand a fixture in place is a modern luxury that I certainly appreciate!”

The Legend 412 fixtures, along with the rest of Hoffman’s rig, were put through some strenuous paces during moe.’s US tour. Over the past two decades, the five-member band has built its considerable following through relentless touring, with long improvised sets characterizing each performance.

Lighting on a moe. tour not only has to stand up to the rigors of the road, it also has to deliver plenty of punch and a rainbow of  intense colors, in keeping with moe.’s psychedelic roots. Part of the group’s touring success stems from the intimacy it is able to create with fans. Lightshows on its tours are expected to contribute to this feeling by illuminating the audience in bright vivid colors.

With this in mind, Hoffman included a number of big upper-end movers in his rig. “The Chauvet Legends had the punch to hold their own with the other fixtures,” he said. “Their performance was impressive,. They were clearly the workhorses of my moe. rig.

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