Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures were crazy popular on the “Carnival of Madness” tour, the annual rock extravaganza that played major US cities this summer. Evanescence headlined dates across the country along with Chevelle, Halestorm, New Medicine and CAVO.

Dan Hardiman of THC Design, the lighting designer for Evanescence, selected 26 Sharpy fixtures for the exclusive use of the band. The core of the Evanescence rig was used for all of the musical acts.

“I had previously used Sharpys for Goo Goo Dolls and for Evanescence as floor specials,” says Hardiman. “Sharpys are a very lightweight fixture whose beam is visible in daylight. For this tour I wanted to remove the ACLs from the flown rig to save on focusing time and eliminate the need to climb any trusses. Sharpy was the perfect choice: Its small footprint and high power-to-weight ratio enabled the units to be placed in tight clusters and still cut through the 1500W moving lights.”

Hardiman placed 14 Sharpys upstage on the floor positioned in pairs on draped cases and used them for both aerial effects and to back light the band. He deployed a dozen Sharpy fixtures in the roof in bars of three as ACL effects and Lekos and to reinforce the floor aerial effects.

“The Sharpys performed very well,” he reports. “I loved them as floor fixtures and it was great to get some in the roof this time.”

A.C.T Lighting is the distributor for Clay Paky in North America.

Francesco Romagnoli, Clay Paky Area Manager for North and Latin America, adds, “Dan has become a big fan or our Sharpys and it’s great to see that he’s using them on this tour as well. The show looks awesome and we’re proud to be a part of it.”