With a landmark year of Phish now in the books, one of the most talked-about subjects in the Phish Universe has been the band’s new light rig. After using a setup with fixed spotlights and a mechanically-manipulated multi-part LED screen, Lighting Designer/Director Chris Kuroda and his team broke out an entirely different rig in 2017. They nixed the screens, and devised a new design that put smaller sections of the rig on individual sets of ropes with pulleys, allowing them to shift formations, create marionette-style dynamic paths, and more. The new lights have been a huge hit with fans, many of whom feel that this iteration of the rig is Phish’s best ever.
In a newly-released interview with The Light Side podcast, hosted as always by experienced lighting designer and experienced audio engineer Luke Stratton (Dopapod, Thievery Corporation), Chris Kuroda and his team–including Associate Designer and Programmer Andrew Giffin, and Lighting Crew Chief Terry Smith–dig deep into the inner workings of Phish’s light rig. Recorded at Front-of-House and backstage inside Madison Square Garden during the band’s historic 13 night Baker’s Dozen residency, the new podcast interview delves into Gif and Terry’s “origin stories,” the inner workings of programming the lighting and automation systems for the light rig, and Kuroda’s secret tricks for lighting the “You Enjoy Myself” vocal jam, a particularly Phish-y segment where he is known to do some of his most mesmerizing work. The new segment is the second part of the two-part interview conducted this past summer (Listen to part 1 here).
The Light Side is available at lukestrattondesigns.com/
You can listen to Part 2 of The Light Side’s two-part interview with Phish’s lighting crew below via The Light Side’s SoundCloud page:
You can also revisit the first part of the interview here:
[Cover Photo via The Light Side]