Stone Sour may be the opening act on the U.S. leg of Ozzy Osbourne’s “No More Tours 2” tour but the American hard rock band is making an impression with the help of lighting designer Scott Warner and a dynamic wall of color. On the road since late August with The Prince of Darkness, Stone Sour has made a unique opening act impact with a “huge wall of overwhelming color” made up of multifunctional Elation Professional Paladin LED effect lights supplied by Bandit Lites.

“I knew coming into this tour that I didn’t have access to LEDs and with Stone Sour I need to have my colors flash quickly,” said Warner, who also serves as the tour’s lighting director/programmer. “I could’ve done a pod of small moving heads, but with the amount of fixtures the Ozzy tour was giving me, who’d see them? So I took the original pod idea that was used on our previous tours and decided to go with a wall of bright LED fixtures that would hold their own to what was given to me by the Ozzy tour.”

Warner created four upstage pods of Paladins, versatile hybrid luminaires with zoom that can function as a bright blinder or strobe, powerful wash light, or, because of its multiple pixel zone control, pixel map and eye candy looks. Each pod contains 9 fixtures in a 3 x 3 matrix for a total of 36 units that play a prominent role in the lighting design. With Stone Sour performing a varied set list, with heavier rock numbers from its most recent album, “Hyrdograd,” intermixed with mellower favorites, the versatility of the Paladins shines through. “The beam is incredibly bright and the zoom is amazing,” the designer comments. “It has great dimming as well. This rig goes in and out super fast, and my crew chief Adam McIntosh does a fantastic job.”

Driven by twenty-four 40W RGBW LEDs that produce a blistering 990 watts of power, the Paladin produces intense effects with RGBW color mixing that gives a full spectrum of color options, including high-impact white light. Warner uses the fixture’s manual tilt adjustment to aim the Paladins upward (to avoid blinding the audience) and zooms them out for fantastic blinder effects. The Paladin is also IP65 rated for multi-environmental use, a feature the designer values. “We do mostly outdoor shows so there is no need to wrap them in plastic if it’s raining,” he said.

Warner, who recently used Elation lights on shows with Icona Pop and Erika Jayne and has only been with Stone Sour since April, says he specs Elation gear as much as he can and values the support he gets with the lighting manufacturer. “Jean Lariviere, John Dunn, and Eric Loader at Elation are a pleasure to work with. Whenever I need something, they don’t hesitate to help.”

Stone Sour features one of hard rock’s most celebrated frontmen in Corey Taylor, who also fronts the heavy metal band Slipknot. Touring in support of their latest album “Hydrograd,” the band was out with the Ozzy Osbourne tour until Oct 13th.

Photo credits: Todd Kaplan

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