PORTLAND, ME — Once asked to describe his band’s music, Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia said, “The music is mostly pretty minimalist — it’s just what’s in the band.” Garcia likely would have appreciated creative compass that guides Dave Quinn, lighting designer for Dark Star Orchestra, the legendary Grateful Dead tribute band that has been touring globally for the past 25 years and has performed with original Dead members Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann.

Like the band his client celebrates, Quinn tends to follow a minimalistic path that leads him to some endlessly deep and transformative possibilities that are anything but “simple.” This was beautifully evident from the moment the band kicked off their recently completed 21-city summer tour at Portland, Maine’s iconic Thompson’s Point.

Working with a rig featuring 20 CHAUVET Professional fixtures and no video wall at the sprawling venue, he conjured up some powerfully intriguing looks that drew people further into his client’s magical musical mix.

Dipping into his big creative bag of nuanced tricks, Quinn altered the appearance the entire mood of the stage to reflect each evocative song without relying on dramatic, over-the-top changes. At times, he directed his lights on to the stage’s truss structures, creating geometric shadow patterns, while at other he relied on split beams to elicit a celestial feel.

“I love darkness and the void of light — it helps create the angles and shapes I use to make the stage come alive,” he explained his approach. “Some of my favorite looks are when I’m only using a percentage of the rig. I played with the diversity between a dark and light on stage through this show. I try to use a lot of negative space, and count on the void of light to get looks.”

Varying color combinations also helped Quinn move his lighting smoothly through the music. “I will use cool colors for slower songs, and warm ones for the more intense moments,” he commented. “I will also use white light for big moments, such as a big change in a song coming out of a jam. I like how dramatic the change to all white lights can be.”

Quinn relied on his 16 Maverick Storm 1 Spot fixtures divided evenly between up and down stage,  to create rotating and static gobos throughout the show. “I used the Mavericks to create most of my effects,” he said. “I liked to change things up with different gobos,” he said. “I also change the configuration of fixtures – sometimes our looks are symmetrical at other times they’re asymmetrical.”

A Rogue R1 Wash was positioned on each corner of the stage to create richly colored ground lighting that pulled the rest of the rig together.  “It was important to keep sense of continuity in our productions even as it moved in many different directions,” explained Quinn. It was a statement that many might have made about The Grateful Dead’s music back in the day.