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Squeek Lights and Ben Jarrett light Coheed and Cambria tour with Elation Paragon

For the recent U.S. leg of Coheed and Cambria’s 2025 tour, lighting designer Ben Jarrett of Squeek Lights used Elation’s new Paragon moving head as the primary spot fixture in his design. The Paragon M played a central role in shaping the visuals while supporting the band’s “Amory Wars” narrative, including the dramatic lighting of a full-sized inflatable character on stage. New Jersey-based Squeek Lights provided all lighting, video, and rigging for the tour.

The co-headlining tour with Mastodon, which ran from early May to June 8, showcased thirty-four Paragon M fixtures - twenty-four mounted in two 3-stick chevron truss arrays over the stage, and ten on the downstage truss for frontlight. “It’s a great little light - small enough to fit cleanly into GT truss and powerful enough to cut through a full video wall with ease”, says Jarrett, who used the Paragons as spots, gobo projectors, and mid-air beam lights.

Jarrett’s design supports both Coheed’s storytelling and the high-energy concert experience. The production includes “Blind Side Sonny”, a towering inflatable character with spiked armor and illuminated eyes central to “The Amory Wars”, the sci-fi epic penned by frontman Claudio Sanchez that fuels the band’s music. Jarrett uses the Paragons’ dual rotating gobo wheels, animation wheel, and framing shutters to highlight Sonny with animated lightplay, while avoiding spill on the 20’ high x 40’ wide LED wall behind him.

“Sonny is as important to light as the lead singer”, says the LD, adding that he designed the entire rig around it. The inflatable reaches 28 feet high and sits center stage beneath a chevron of Paragons that can illuminate it from any angle. “Having the full suite of gobo and animation tools gives me the flexibility to bring him to life”, he adds.

Coheed and Cambria’s songs take place inside of Sanchez’ sci-fi world, with each album being another chapter in an ever-evolving story. When playing live, that story is echoed on stage with atmospheric lighting, LED graphics and full-size set pieces that help build a universe around the music.

The lighting design occasionally ties directly into the “Amory Wars” narrative. For example, Jarrett colors one classic track, “Everything Evil”, in hues of yellowish green that recall its 2002 album art. Still, he notes that the overall design is more about creating atmosphere and impact, providing a dynamic backdrop to the band’s latest studio album “The Father of Make Believe”, released in March.

In addition to the Paragons, the Coheed rig features thirty-two Elation Cuepix 16IP blinders lining each truss, RGBA color-mixing blinders that Jarrett has used on past tours. Mastodon’s opening set is supported with a separate package that includes Elation SOL I Blinders designed by LD Eric Price.

Working alongside Jarrett on the tour’s U.S. leg were Mark “Chud” Williams (Stage Manager/L1), Ian Fanning (L2) and Andre Dionne (V1). As Coheed and Cambria prepare to extend the tour through Europe and into a summer leg with Taking Back Sunday, Jarrett confirms he’ll continue using the same Paragon setup.

(Photos: Sarah Hess)

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