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Chauvet fixtures used for Racoon show in Rotterdam

Like every lighting designer, Erwin Van Lokeren was cut off from live tours during the lockdown. At the time it started, he was beginning work on an upcoming tour by his longtime client, Dutch rock band Racoon.

With the world of touring turned away from him, Van Lokeren had time to think about design and what he sees as one of its core meanings, how to reflect his clients’ music. It was, he now says, a time to allow “creativity to run free and build up”.

In April 2022, the result of this creative incubation was revealed during Racoon’s arena show at Rotterdam Ahoy, as Van Lokeren and his co-designer/systems tech Bert Ploegh transformed the stage with a lightshow created with the help of Chauvet Professional Maverick, Strike and Epix fixtures supplied by Splendit.

“Because of the pandemic, we had a lot of time to create and try new things”, says Van Lokeren. “There is a new set list with new songs, which calls for a new design. I always want to translate music into visual components; it is a big part of my role as a designer.”

At the start of one song, for example, there were no front lights; instead a dark, emotional mood was created with UV light from the top and a red band of low light running across the upstage deck. Then, when the song opened up, there was a rush of specials from the rig’s Maverick MK3 Profile, MK2 Spot an Strike 1 fixtures.

The designers used 93 Maverik MK1 Profile fixtures. A group of 50 Epix Strips also contributed to the looks on stage. Arranged on the stage floor in a square around the band, they provided up-lighting in addition to making the entire stage glow.

The geometric effect on the stage deck was one of the touches Van Lokeren and Ploegh added to this design. They also created a special sense of dimensionality to the overall stage panorama by positioning the video panels behind a transparent backdrop.

“For this show I wanted to do something with a backdrop in combination with video”, says Van Lokeren. “I’m not a big fan of video panels being out there in the open when they’re not being used. So for this show we placed them behind the backdrop. This way they were out of sight when not on, and we had the full use of the backdrop throughout.”

(Photos: Frank Lambrechts/Picturesk)

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