RUSH Lighting Director Answers Fan Questions

A few weeks ago, The Canadian Music Scene web site took questions from fans for RUSH lighting director Howard Ungerleider. A couple of excerpts from the resulting question-and-answer session follow:

Q: Who does the videos, how are they integrated into the show, controlled?

Ungerleider: "The videos are produced by five different companies in Toronto, Canada under the direction of Alan Weinrib and one in Los Angeles that Neil [Peart; drums) takes charge of. Alan, Geddy [Lee; bass, vocals] and myself sit down together and brainstorm many of the ideas that eventually come to fruition. This process is long as we involve the creative teams of all of the producing companies who also take on a creative roll as we finalize all of the teams ideas. I oversee the color palettes that are used so that we obtain the best results when color blending the live stage performance in with the video screens. Neil took control of the entire drum solo piece along with his creative team. The control of some of the videos are coming from our video director backstage that are timed out to musical cues, while I trigger the rest of the video pieces through the Catalyst media server that is tied into the lighting console. These cues are also executed to musical cues manually."

Q: Is everything rented, or does RUSH keep the equipment after the tour?

Ungerleider: "Most of all equipment aside from the backline gear is rented."

Q: How long does it take to program all of the lights used for each song? What is the average amount of movement for each light during a song, color, and pattern changes?

Ungerleider: "This is a strange question because when I program a tour I am actually dissecting the song musically and creating a lighting choreography based on lyrics and musical structure. I do not ever count or track how long a light is used or what it is doing over a time period because it does not pertain to anything that is needed. Once the track is complete and I am happy with it, I move on to the next track. The world tour programming system that is in place for creating the show starts with the band providing me with a live tape of their rehearsals. I use these tracks to fine tune lighting and video timing and all manual effects triggers. I start at 4pm when the band starts the rehearsal process and when they are done usually three hours later all of the crew and band go home to sleep, my evening begins. My team and I then create three songs per night, that usually takes us to 10 am. This is when I go to sleep until 3pm when my team and I awaken and start the process again. This process lasts for 10 days until all of the show is completed. Once this is done I have two dress rehearsals with the band before the first show. You have seen the rest after day one. All laser and pyro effects along with the coordination of live video as well as all other video pieces are worked in over the 10 day programming sessions."

Q: How did you get the job working with RUSH?

Ungerleider: "I started in 1971 as an office boy for American Talent International, an agency that represented dozens of touring groups in NYC. I had always had an interest in lighting and special effects in rock and roll shows since I was a teenager. I was soon promoted to talent scout and at 20 years old I was traveling with famous groups making sure that the contracts I had negotiated for were being fulfilled. Since I was close to the bands, I was often asked about their shows. My honest answers led me into a whole other world because the questions started turning into production questions like "How can we make our show more interesting?" That is when all of my dreams started to unfold as I had decided to help these artists improve their onstage appearance. I later left ATI in the summer of 1974 after they had sent me up to Canada to run the touring operation for RUSH. The rest is history and if you have ever seen a RUSH show you will know what I mean."

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(Thanks: RushIsABand.com)