Ayrton Fixtures Punctuate Shinedown’s Attention Attention Tour

Shinedown’s Attention Attention world tour features large complements of Ayrton GHIBLI LED spot luminaires, grandMA2 consoles and ChainMaster hoists.  ACT Lighting, Inc. exclusively distributes all of the brands in North America.

The Attention Attention world tour supports Shinedown’s eponymous sixth studio album.  The tour kicked off in October 2018 in the American west, played legs in Europe and Russia then resumed US dates in February.

“I don’t ‘wow’ much anymore, but this tour was so well done – it used the rig to its full potential to get maximum firepower for minimum dollars,” says James Vollhoffer, Vice President of Touring at Nashville’s Premier Global Production, a full-service design and equipment rental company.  “A lot of reviewers called it one of the best lighting shows they’d seen.”

Attention Attention had a fast turnaround.  “From our initial meeting to the first day of rehearsals was just three weeks,” says Vollhoffer.  Shinedown asked for three different concepts from three different designers based on such key objectives as perspective, dimension, asymmetry and dynamics. Vollhoffer pitched three designs, and Cort Lawrence’s stood out to the band.  

The Denver-based Production Designer used an exclamation point motif prompted by the tour and album’s emphatic name.  “It accomplished their key objectives and added a new look to their latest album brand with the exclamation points, which was something neat to incorporate on a large scale,” says Lawrence.  Ten LED video screens and five lighting torms formed stylized exclamation point shapes as a backdrop for the band; three lighting trusses were overhead.

After the design was selected Lawrence continued to focus on the creative with his programmer Mitchell Schellenger of Station Six Creative while Premier Global built the rig.

Positioned in the truss to create aerials were 24 Ayrton GHIBLIs.  “This was my first time using GHIBLIs, and I was quite impressed with them,” says Lawrence.  “James told us about the fixtures, and I reached out to others in the business for their thoughts on the light.  Playing around with them was quite a treat; the GHIBLIs added a different flavor to the show.  I’ll definitely use them on future shows as well.”

“Cort was very impressed with how well the GHIBLIs punched through,” says Vollhoffer. “Everything the light can do, they did – they really used the full functionality of the GHIBLI.”

A full-size grandMA2 console ran video and lighting for the show with a grandMA2 Light on hand for backup.  “It’s our go-to console.  We can create new and unique looks quickly with the grandMA2, and this was a quick turnaround show,” notes Lawrence.

Twenty-five ChainMaster half-ton, 1-ton and 2-ton hoists were put to work on the super-grid structure and the truss.  “Some were used as inverts within the truss system to allow us to find different asymmetry and quickly put things in different spots,” Lawrence explains. “The super-grid structure was the main chunk of the show: It housed the LED video screens and the torms.  The 2-tons and the inverted motors made the show clean, simple and easy to load in.”

Lawrence is pleased with how the show came together.  “The band was incredibly happy with the way it turned out, and so were we,” he reports.  “Audiences have been very impressed as well.  I appreciate that James gave me the opportunity to create something for this one-of-a-kind band.”

For the Attention Attention tour Joshua Dirks was the Crew Chief and Joseph Herring and Andrean McDonald the Lighting Technicians.  Bobby Hewitt was the content creator.