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INTERVIEW
The
Where did your career take you next?
I toured with Cheap Trick for five years.
In the very beginning there were the bars,
then the arena circuit and then outdoor staof
King
Congo Blue
Matthew Perrin talks
about achieving amazement
Matthew Perrin
By RobLudwig
Plenty of people in our industry
wanted to be an actor, yet ended up
studying technical theatre. But not
many have toured as an LD for one of the
biggest bands of the ‘70s, then quit to play
in a rock ‘n’ roll band. And what if someone
were to do both, then ended up working for
a mouse? That’s the story of the multi-talented
King of Congo Blue, Matthew Perrin.
PLSN: How did you get started in the
lighting industry?
Matthew Perrin: I went to Bradley University,
in Peoria, Ill., right after graduating
from high school and elected to take theatre
as a major. I started out as a carpenter
building really nice sets. We built a special
set for The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail that I
will always remember because it had 22 different
levels.
That got me started in the tech side,
because I figured I wasn’t a very good actor,
and we started playing with lighting
as well. The next thing I know, I’m working
for a rock band. They asked me to do their
lighting, so I took it and ran with it. That was
in 1971. By the end of 1972, I started using
Was your approach to concert lighting
more theatrical because of your training?
Absolutely. I learned a lot about color.
I studied the psychology of color when I
was with Gilbert, and he was very good at
teaching the fundamentals. The thing I still
try to tell LDs that are learning is to pay attention
to the basics. General illumination is
your first job, the first element. The second
element is specific lighting — areas, specials.
The third element is color and special
effects. I try to keep them prioritized, and
that’s what I did with Cheap Trick. I applied
a lot of what I learned theatrically to what I
did with them.
At the University of Wisconsin, we had
“We had over 120K on the floor alone and a
million-watt button.” –Matthew Perrin
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PAR Cans, 1000-watters, and I had to figure
how to wrangle power. I ended up getting
my own dimmer rack. And for a distro, I was
using alligator clamps to hot panels to grab
power and run all the PAR 64s. [Do not try
this at home! – ed.] I probably had one of
the largest systems anyone had seen in the
bar scene. I had that maximum approach
— I always put as many things together as
I could.
That’s when Cheap Trick discovered me.
I was working for a ‘50s revival act that was
incredibly theatrical and really successful.
We had shows where Bob Seger and Cheap
Trick opened up for us. Our booking agent,
Ken Adamany, ended up being the manager
of Cheap Trick. For contractual reasons,
and in order to work for Cheap Trick,
I stopped touring with the revival group
and went back to school in Madison, Wis., at
the University of Wisconsin. There, I got to
study under the late, great Gilbert Hemsley.
Gilbert was the guru of Broadway lighting.
It was a fantastic opportunity, and I learned
a lot.
Finally, Cheap Trick got a recording contract
and asked me to go on tour with them. I
went to Gilbert and asked him if I should pass
on the opportunity to stay and study under
him. He told me that Cheap Trick was a great
opportunity and I’d probably not get one like
it again. He said, “You go and report to me,
and I’ll give you all ‘A’s in your classes.”
a color lab where you could just play for
hours. I would go in and try different colors
at different angles and intensities with
different instruments. We’d study the elements
of the light down to transmissivity,
or what we called translucence — the “wow
factor,” or chroma, to be exact. We’d break
that down to chroma elements, or the relationship
of intensity, color and saturation.
I don’t think there are a lot of LDs around
anymore that are aware of that relationship
and try to use it. Those are the tools that I
brought with me from my studies.
You are the self-proclaimed Congo blue
King.
[Laughs]. That was what I got to be
known for — it was my signature. When I
started using Congo blue in the concert
scene, other LDs told me I was crazy because
they felt it took too much power to
push enough Congo to make it useful. I
found that Congo blue was that incredible
link between colors that shouldn’t work
side-by-side. It’s a double spectrum color;
it has got red and blue in it. It’s warm and
cool, and it can become a link. For me, it was
the key to my palette.
24 PLSN FEBRUARY 2007
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