FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nashville, TN – Bandit Lites is proud to provide lighting for the latest Papa Roach tour, collaborating once again with Lighting Designer Mathius “Mathes” Kuhn to bring the band’s explosive energy to life on stage. Known for their intense performances and emotional range, Papa Roach’s live shows are elevated by Kuhn’s creative design and Bandit’s technical expertise.
“Working with Bandit is always great,” shared Kuhn. “The gear is very well maintained, the prep is unmatched, and the crew is top notch. I also like working together with the Client Reps on fitting the design into a budget and giving the band the best bang for the buck.”
Kuhn praised the synergy between his design vision and Bandit’s experienced team: “It’s always great to have a team of touring-experienced Client Reps, Project Managers, and shop personnel that can look at my production design drawings and translate that to something tour friendly.”
The lighting design features moments that perfectly capture the emotional depth and high-impact performance style Papa Roach is known for. “There are two songs that stand out in my opinion,” Kuhn explained. “First is ‘Getting Away with Murder’ where I use a rotating color wheel synced to the music – since most of the show is in white or with minimal color, that sudden colorful blast really pops. The second is ‘Leave a Light On,’ which starts very low lit and opens up into the last chorus with an extreme big gobo look and a pyro waterfall. It’s the most emotional part of the set.”
To achieve these striking visuals, Kuhn relied heavily on Robe BMFLs and MegaPointes, his “absolute favorite workhorse fixtures.”
Carter Fulghum served as lighting director with Kuhn on this tour.
“He has a definitely knows his video stuff really well and has his designs set up in his head properly and the way he wants things to happen,” Fulghum said. “Which is great because there’s no gray area; you know exactly what you need to do.”
Fulghum went into more detail about the video wall designed by Mathes.
“The video wall extended out through the sides and into the set and he had it mapped out and had all the main content centered, so if you had to scale down or you had to make things
differently it was easy to just drop some of the sides and you still had all the content the way that it needed to be seen.”
“We worked close with the video vendor to eliminate as much dead space as possible regarding the USL and USR LX/VX hang.” Said Ty Veneziano, Bandit Lites Client Rep for Papa Roach. “With Mathes’ direction, we were able to make sure all the elements could snuggly and properly operate free of obstruction.”
“Mathes has become a familiar person at our company. He speaks Bandit.” Veneziano continued, “Mathes shows how lighting design can tell a story. The visuals transport you to his narrative. His design enhances Papa Roach’s energy with optics that compliments the intensity and support the storytelling.”
