Incubus World Tour 2004

US West Coast rockers Incubus are nearing the end of an extensive world tour that saw the band in Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Europe before returning to their home turf in the States. Touring in support of their latest studio release, "A Crow Left of the Murder”, the road-hardy band has been one of the most popular alt-metal bands of recent years and their live shows have evolved right along with them.

Lighting design is by Joe Paradise who has worked with the band since 2001. The lighting package is made up almost entirely of Martin fixtures and is supplied by Bandit Lites (Bandit UK for European leg). Bandit has taken care of the band’s lighting needs for years.

Incubus Maxxymus
Joe switched to the Maxxyz lighting console for the tour while Anthony "Geddy" Kordyjaka handled the Maxxyz programming. “I’m finding out that I can do things a lot easier with the Maxxyz,” Joe commented. “Merging features, updating cues without loading them, updating multiple cues, selecting and deselecting instruments, the Fx engine - it’s endless what you can do. That’s what I’m enjoying so far. And there are the little things too like the belts for the attributes - especially pan and tilt. I love to have them on belts instead of wheels. That’s a small thing but when you’re updating 30 focuses a day it’s pretty handy.

“Also, I really like the macros. Being Windows based you can type in the cue number or cue name and it comes up. It did take me a short while to get used to what faders I needed to have up, and entering hard values, but I’ve also found that there are advantages to that too.

“During the show I’ve never had a problem with it. I’ve done a couple hundred shows on it by now and I’ve never had to go to the backup console.”

The look
Unlike past tours, the band opted for projection over video. As a result, Joe uses the stage as a large canvas for big beam looks, saturated color frames or pastels, simple combinations and eye-catching gobo work.

A clean stage layout is decorated in a mixture of MAC moving heads and Atomic strobes, all split between various trusses and the floor. Each of four movable back towers holds an Atomic strobe and MAC 250 profile spots (with custom gobos). A front truss features MAC 2000 Profiles (with custom Apollo gobos) and MAC 600 washlights while each of two circular trusses holds MAC 600s. On a stair step truss hang MAC 2000 Profiles, MAC 600s and Atomics with a downstage truss of MAC 2000s, MAC 600s and Atomics. Additional MAC 600s and MAC 500 profile spots are located on the floor.

“The MACs are real reliable,” Joe states. “For the amount of use they get the fixtures are hanging in there like troopers, they always have.”

A fiber optic curtain runs the length of the stage powered by Martin FiberSource QFX 150 fiber optic illuminators fitted with custom colors. Joe uses the twinkle wheel to great effect. He comments, “I love the QFX, they rock. There is a song that graduates from vibey to just crazy and on it I use a five-step stack, changing color and speed until it’s full tilt. It’s a great look.”

Jem hang time
Joe runs Jem smoke effects and Jem AF1 fans off of the back up desk. “The ZR 33 foggers, I love them,” he states. “We had a problem in the past keeping a proper amount of atmosphere in some of these venues – especially the newer places because there are air scrubbers and CO2 sensors – but I’ve been able to overwhelm every single building we’ve been in. There are some numbers where it doesn’t matter if the stage is absolutely filled with smoke so in those we just let them rip and the rest of the night we’re just fine. It’s got a big hang time for a fog machine.”

Joe also has his eye on Jem’s new multi-headed Hydra fog system. “I’m interested in that new Jem Hydra. It’s like having multiple smoke machines. With fog, placement is everything – it’s not necessarily the amount of smoke but where they are located. I’m going to take one out on the road, I guarantee you.