Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Jamie started working with the prolific artist four years ago and took over the LD position in 2021 and is also LD for Satriani. For this tour, a completely new lighting design was produced utilizing 22 x Robe BMFL Spots and 10 x BMFL WashBeams, 40 x MegaPointes, 42 x Spiiders and five Tarrantulas together with 8 x FORTE FollowSpots running on 4 x RoboSpot BaseStations.

All lighting equipment was supplied by Felix Lighting.

Jamie also produced most of the tour’s video content and the band risers were part of her scenographic domain, which ensured a harmonious visuality that permeates throughout the energetic set, with Hagar drawing on his immense back catalog from the start of his career to the present, including several classics from the Montrose and Van Halen eras.

Jamie’s starting point for the look and style of the show was the music.

She looked back to the 1980s and early 1990s heydays of Van Halen for reference and inspiration as she really wanted to bring a hint of big-rock-show retro lighting to the stage … achieved – naturally – with current technology.

A large upstage LED screen helped ramp up the visual drama and Jamie’s lighting and video treatment resulted in rich, fully blended scenes, for which she needed powerful and flexible lighting fixtures, which led her to Robe.

Jamie’s research included sourcing and watching 80s and 90s stage performance videos, looking at elements like gel colors, beam patterns, and cueing to get a flavor of how the bands of the day were lit at a time when ‘production lighting’ was starting to make a serious impact.

The overhead lighting scheme comprised five trussing pods, rigged with MegaPointes selected for – among other features – their ability to emulate those massive archetypal PAR can looks that so encapsulated 80s and 90s period stage lighting.

Each pod featured eight MegaPointes surrounding a Tarrantula in the middle. In most venues these were raked for additional depth, and the MegaPointe’s adaptability was further appreciated in recreating some highly effective old-school ‘ACL bar’ looks.

The Spiiders were rigged on stage left and right side torms in a 4-2-4 configuration, and more Spiiders were deployed on the mid and upstage trusses to give the most effective wash coverage.

Jamie reveals that Spiiders are her “absolute favorite” fixture right now.

She also always uses them on Joe Satriani’s shows and comments, “You can get multiple effects out of them including some really intricate and subtle flowing movements that are very cool.”

A row of 16 x BMFL Spots upstage on the floor were chosen for aerial effects and potent blast-through, low-level back lighting, paired with another six rigged overhead on the mid-stage truss.

The FORTE Follow Spots were positioned on the front and back trusses, four on each. The rear ones were used as regular rig fixtures for potent rear highlighting, where they worked nicely with the mid-stage BMFLs, while the front ones excelled at the all-important task of following. Two were dedicated to Hagar, one for Satriani and one for bass player Michael Anthony. The RoboSpot BaseStations and operators were typically located behind the video wall.

This was Jamie’s first time using a RoboSpot system, but she was very impressed with how well and efficiently it worked, and it won’t be the last. She likes having control over the follow spot parameters from the console and thinks they can make shows a lot more dynamic than traditional spots. They are also vastly more practical to tour.

Being involved with creating video content as well as lighting gave Jamie a greater degree of style and color control and continuity across the entire stage, and all the color choices for each look were intentional and thought through, based on a diversity of ideas.

For the song “5150”, the title track of Van Halen’s seventh studio album released in 1986, she unearthed the original album cover artwork and created a modern virtual take on it in video including an onscreen kabuki reveal that dropped to reveal an Easter egg. (The original features an Art Deco depiction of Atlas kneeling and holding a mirror-polished metallic sphere on his shoulders).

Jamie is big believer in ‘less is more’ to make impact onstage, and one of the big joys of working on this tour was using this excellent Robe technology to get that vintage feel she so desired.

She has been specifying and using Robe products regularly in her work for the last three years, commenting, “They are reliable, versatile and very easy to use!”

The Best of All Worlds tour has been an interesting journey and huge fun, and the band are “always a joy” to work with. “It has been a great experience working with Felix Lighting and their outstanding team,” including crew chief Greg Kunit, who also delivered all the CAD and other technical drawings, and lighting techs Justin Souza, Christopher Hassfurther and Jose Baraquio who joined them on the road.

Photo Credit: Greg Kunit