The Story Behind The New Phish Lighting Rig Featuring LED Panels

One of the biggest surprises thus far of Phish Summer Tour 2016 has been the most major change to the band’s lighting rig since the foursome stopped using backdrops created by bassist Mike Gordon’s mother Marj Minkin in 1995. Phish’s new rig includes LED panels that surround the band on stage as well as a number of panels hung approximately 22 feet above the stage. Full details of the new rig have been shared by Live Design Online.

A particularly cool part of the panels above the stage is that for the first set the LEDs appear as one large panel, but once the second set starts the 78 individual panels split into a bevy of smaller screens. Here’s the before and after:

Live Design Online reveals Phish LD Chris Kuroda and his team recruited TAIT to build and engineer the custom-designed LED video structure:

TAIT manufactured an LED video structure, made of 78 individual LED video screens, designed to appear as one large panel that is 5.6 ft. tall x 51.2 ft. wide. During the second set, the one large panel, separates into numerous smaller screens hanging at approximately 22 ft. above stage level. During the entire show, the artwork displayed on the screens, via projection, includes flashing, abstract colors and “pop art” like content.

Operated on TAIT Navigator, the LED video structure uses 10 hoists to lift it above stage level. TAIT also provided a NavHoist lighting package including 36 additional hoists to automate the tours lighting rigs, also controlled by TAIT Navigator.

Live Design Online refers to the structure as “space invaders” meets “Andy Warhol” and we couldn’t agree more. Watch a few videos showing the new rig in action:

Head to Live Design Online for more on Phish’s new light rig.