086 VENUE
LE POISSON ROUGE Now if you were the superstitious type then 2013 might be a year you try to forget about, but for the team at Le Poisson Rouge (LPR), which can be found on Bleecker St, New York City, 2013 marks its fifth anniversary and having opened its doors just as the recession hit, five years in business is most definitely something to celebrate, regardless of superstition. A multimedia arts cabaret venue founded by musicians, on the site of the historic Village Gate, LPR is dedicated to the fusion of popular and art cultures in music, film, theatre, dance and fine art. The venue’s mission is to revive the symbiotic relationship between art and revelry - to establish a creative asylum for both artists and audiences. LPR prides itself in offering the highest quality eclectic programming, impeccable acoustics, and bold design. The state-of-the art performance space, engineered by the legendary John Storyk of WSDG, offers full flexibility in multiple configurations: seated, standing, in the round, and numerous alternative arrangements. The adjoining space - The Gallery at LPR - functions as an art gallery, second bar, and event space. A work of art itself the physical facilities are the embodiment of the experimental philosophy that drives the venue. “The past five years have been an amazing, wild ride,” Jonathan Talley, Production Manager at LPR, told mondo*dr. “Founded by musicians, the goal was to offer a venue that was artist friendly and was able to house all genres of music, rather than focusing on one or two scenes - they wanted to welcome everything and everyone. “Our programming is incredibly diverse and we see everything pass through our doors from classical orchestras to indie rock bands, to jazz, to electronic DJ sets. Across the two rooms, LPR hosts anything from two to five events every day meaning the production schedules are pretty tight. “From a production stand point we take a great deal of pride in being artist-friendly and we like artists to feel we are working with them and towards the same goal,” said Jonathan. “Historically that’s not always been the case in some of the other venues in New York and it is really important to us that we continue to offer this. We also try to make sure we are staffed appropriately for every show and have all the right equipment to make the show work.” “The team at LPR has worked hard to make sure its audio and lighting equipment has been designed correctly to work with all the different shows that come through the doors,” continued Jonathan. Having installed all new equipment when it opened its doors five years ago LPR has continued to build on this inventory, with the most recent addition coming from GLP on the lighting side. “It’s important to keep moving the technology forward and evolving,” said Jonathan.
www.mondodr.com
“We’re constantly trying new technologies that fit the space and fit into what we, as a venue, are evolving into. I can’t say enough positives about the GLP lighting fixtures we’ve installed. We have wanted to be a greener venue for a long time and as part of that we’re moving in the direction of LED capable fixtures. I had been searching for a lighting fixture that could do a multitude of things and still fit in with the ‘green model’ that we are working towards. “The guys at GLP were amazing to work with and they showed me the Impression Spot One moving head - it was more than I expected. We brought it in, tested it out and it’s been great ever since.” A total of 12 GLP impression Spot One moving heads have been installed at LPR, these join what is already a massive lighting inventory for the actual size of the space. There are 13 Chauvet Professional COLORado 1 lighting fixtures; 18 Color Kinetics Colorblast 12 LED fixtures; 42 ETC Source Four ERS lighting fixtures and 35 ETC Source Four PAR lighting fixtures available for use and all of which can be controlled by an ETC Ion lighting console. Effects wise, LPR has a 20-inch disco ball and a Look Solutions Unique 2.1 hazer in place. “It was really important we chose a lighting fixture that was also going to last, while accomplishing all that the existing moving heads can do. It’s difficult to sacrifice technical capability for energy efficiency, but we don’t have to do that,” said Jonathan. “The GLPs are solidly and intelligently put together and the maintenance on them has been very low. “There is always room for improvement on existing systems and so we’re trying new things out with the audio and lighting. We want to try and exceed peoples’ expectations and we have also had to change the set up as we’ve changed as a venue. For example, when the lighting was initially installed there was more of a theatre design to everything, which was great at the time - there were a lot of colour scrollers - the thought process behind it being that we were going to offer theatre productions as well as live music acts. “However, as we have moved forward, we haven’t done all that much theatre and we’ve instead tried to really focus on being a top flight music venue - one where a lighting designer can come in and just jump straight into it rather than spending time redesigning and rehanging everything. “We’ve also moved more towards LED lighting and got rid of a couple of the scrollers now - there’s been some fine tuning along the way, but it’s more about making a rig that works for everything. All the lights you see up there have to fulfill more than one purpose and are used in more than one way. There are a lot of lights up there and I can’t imagine us doing what we do with any less.” On the audio side, while the PA hasn’t been added to as recently
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172