DUBLIN — Pinch me! Robbie Cunningham, Oisín McCaffrey, and Ross McNerney might very well have uttered these words to themselves given all that has happened to them of late. Less than two years ago, the young Irish trio had day jobs and were singing (often just for pints!) at local pubs. Today, as Amble, they are one of the hottest music acts around, with a chart-topping album, 115 million global streams, and appearances at international festivals like Boston Calling and Austin City Limits.

Their meteoric rise, however, is no dream. Amble’s warm, open, engaging blend of folk and rock, with some old-fashioned Irish storytelling thrown in for good measure, is the real deal — and it’s winning them fans the world over. In December, the band marked a new milestone when they capped off a tour with their first headline arena shows, three at Dublin’s 3Arena, and one at Belfast’s SSE.

Setting the stage for these pivotal shows in Amble’s burgeoning career was a deeply engaging Steven Douglas lighting design that celebrated the band’s rise, while, at the same time, also evoking a sense of intimacy in keeping with their pub-club roots. Key to helping Douglas achieve this balance was a backdrop that feature a proscenium video screen and a central upstage wall line with a collection of lighting fixtures anchored by the CHAUVET Professional STRIKE 4 and STRIKE 1, which, like the rest of the rig, were supplied by Just Lite Group.

“We wanted to move away from the convention of a large upstage rectangular screen for this show and have the focus to remain on the musicians and the music,” explained Douglas. “However, I was aware that in large arenas for their first time headlining we also needed to fill the space, so the band felt like they belonged there. So, I devised a video proscenium to fill the space that surrounded the band. For the audience at the front this screen would only be in their peripheral vision, so they’d remain more engaged with the band. Then the further away you got from the stage, the video would come into play as needed.”

The imagery on the proscenium video screen changed throughout the show to vary the looks and moods that reflected the music. Sometimes the screen was turned off completely, leaving only the wall of fixtures to illuminate the stage and audience. At other times various images were shown, including those of the Irish countryside created by Brian Kenny at Lightscape in Ireland.

Douglas positioned 27 STRIKE 4 fixtures on the back wall and had five additional units on each of the three overhead trusses, as well as 16 on the front truss and eight on the floor. Over 20 STRIKE 1s were interspersed on the wall with the STRIKE 4 fixtures.

The warm lighting from the wall fixtures enhanced the welcoming atmosphere of the show. “We started with a basis of an amber-white palette,” said Douglas. “This created the inviting tungsten-like look that was called for by the music but moved into more saturated colors as the show progressed.”

In addition to the STRIKE 4 and STRIKE 1 fixtures, Douglas had eight Color STRIKE M motorized strobe blinders positioned in front of the band riser to provide him with an effective and aesthetically pleasing tool to use for directing attention on the stage.

“They were great for moments where I needed to isolate the three performers on the downstage for moments during the show,” he said of the fixture. “The STRIKE M gave me a nice rear wash of color to cut the stage size down for the more intimate moments when we focused on the trio itself.”

The four arena shows just before Christmas came after a 10 city UK tour for Amble, with a rig for the smaller shows admirably supplied by Adlib, but it was the Dublin and Belfast arena shows that set the stage for 2026, which is already seeing the band booked for an extensive Asian and Oceania tour.

For Douglas, the Irish shows were a bit of a whirlwind. “Big thanks to project manager John McGuinness as well as Paul Smith and the entire crew,” he said. “I did a couple of days of pre vis and then they loaded in on first show day with no preproduction time and got up and working in time for soundcheck on day one.’

Douglas adds that he and the entire team were eager to have this show click to perfection, as it was Amble’s first arena show… but as everyone around this gifted band knows, it most certainly won’t be their last.