What a truly wonderful feeling it is to be back to doing what we do best! Live music is returning! This past weekend marked the premier of Portland’s first drive-in EDM Concert at the Portland International Raceway and we were lucky enough to be asked to assist in enchanting the optic nerves of the eager concert attendees.

“Road Rage,” as the name suggests, was a vehicle focused COVID-19 safe way to finally immerse yourself in the live music experience that has been absent from our lives for over a year. A two day event hosted by Treadway Events in conjunction with sponsor DETOX Nightlife on 4/16-4/17; This was the first event of its kind since Oregon shut down live music in early 2020. Everyone involved was very careful to follow Oregon’s COVID-19 guidelines to the letter. Capacity was limited. Vehicles were adequately spaced in order to keep the attendees isolated to their own pods. Vehicle occupancy was limited so six people per, which helped to keep ticket prices at a reasonable level while still limiting the amount of close contact amongst people. Attendees were required to stay within the confines of their allotted perimeter.

Even with the additional safety precautions, the show was absolutely electric, and you could tell the Portland audience had been starved for this kind of entertainment for quite some time.

Our radiant lighting production consisted of Robe MegaPointes, Colorstrobes, and 150 LED Beams as well as Elation 5R Beam Extremes and ZW37s. Additionally, there were a great deal of incredibly talented companies who came together to make this production happen.

 PK Sound provided the PA which not only sounded spectacular, but also contained the aural assault to prevent noise bleed into the neighboring community using science or sorcery. We aren’t entirely sure which. The dazzling high-output lasers were provided by Laseronics and did not disappoint. The staging was provided by none other than Stages Northwest. Without the stage, there’s no show. The absolutely stunning video wall was provided by the always fabulous Positive Systems. They never fail to deliver that crisp image quality with half the calories.

The R90 Lighting and Positive Systems teams were Erik Mahowald/Bending Lite Productions, who in addition to being a strong supporter of the ADJ Starburst, is a phenomenal lighting designer. Our ME was Rachid Shultz who was seconded by Jessika Palmer. Video lead was Marc ‘MarcGuyver’ Gelinas who was seconded by Mike Worthen.

If you haven’t deduced from the above textual gushing, we have truly missed doing live lighting production. It was an absolute privilege to have been asked to be apart of this fantastic spectacle and we cannot wait to see what possibilities this event results in as far as the continued rebooting of the live music industry. Thanks again to Treadway Events for making us apart of this event and thanks to everyone who came together to make it happen!

Live music is coming back!