FUTURETECH Featuring Elation - Soft Light, Classic Vibes with the FUZE WASH 500

Chris and Lacy dive into Paul 'Arlo' Guthrie's innovative use of Elation's FUZE WASH 500 on this year's biggest tours. They discuss how this fixture blurs the line between vintage charm and cutting-edge tech, transforming concerts for artists like Finneas, Kelly Clarkson, and Nine Inch Nails. By exploring real-world examples and lighting techniques, the hosts reveal how soft field LED lighting is reinventing the live concert look.

Episode Transcript

(00:19):
Hey everyone, welcome back to Geezers of Gear Future Tech I'm
Chris and Lacey's with me. As always.
Today's episode might hit some nostalgia notes for both the old
school and the modern geeks out there.
We're talking about Paul Arlo Guthrie and his use of Elation's
Fuse Wash 500. This thing's become a bit of a
legend, Arlo. He's one of the best

(00:40):
storytellers with light, honestly.
He says he's missed having a real frennel lens since we
shifted from tungsten to LED. There's just something about the
soft field. You get that enveloping quality
that makes a performance instantly feel, I don't know,
cinematic? Genuinely immersive.
No, I totally get that bit of old school nostalgia.

(01:01):
And The thing is, audiences might not name the fixture, but
you definitely feel a differencein the atmosphere.
Spot on, and that's what makes the Fuse Wash 500 special.
Arlo uses it specifically because it doesn't look like a
bunch of LEDs mashed together. It just feels like a single rich
colour field like the old Fresnels.
It's actually a bit wild how text circled back to classic

(01:22):
vibes, but with all the mod cons.
Makes you wonder what else from the past deserves a modern
upgrade. All right, so let's talk
specifics. Arlo's been using the Fuse Wash
500 all over the place lately. You've got Phineas on his for
Crying Out Loud, tour, Kelly Clarkson's studio sessions, and
then 9 Inch Nails, which is totally a different animal, but

(01:43):
the core is that same soft fieldmagic, just totally tailored,
right? Yeah, so for Phineas, Arlo used
the Fuse Wash 500 on floor stands with barn doors, which is
a real nod to film and TV light styling.
Not only did it look cool and classic, but he actually wrote
sequences where the barn doors moved mid song so you'd see the
beam shift and evolve. Not just a static look, but the

(02:05):
light itself became part of the stage action.
It's clever as anything. That's nuts.
I never even thought about moving barn doors as
choreography. Then with Kelly Clarkson's
sessions, those lights were rigged into a slotted ceiling.
Yeah, they acted kind of like down lights, which sounds
simple, but the effect was incredible.

(02:26):
Yeah, that's the beauty of the Fuse Wash 500.
In Kelly's residency, there wereabout 28 built into that
overhead set and Arlo used them for this bass soft wash, but
could also punch them into beam mode for certain songs.
So it's not just a 1 trick pony.Then with 9 Inch Nails, he
really took it up a notch. 54 fixtures, all on carts upstage.

(02:48):
They'd form this killer wall of light effect, sometimes clean
and architectural, other times just totally blowing out the
stage, almost frying the band's faces for those more aggressive
songs. I saw a clip of that NN wall of
light reveal and it has such a punchy, almost brutalist vibe,
but at the same time it can still do that cozy or nostalgic

(03:09):
look if you need it. I guess that's what keeps
designers coming back. It's super adaptable.
It can be subtle, or it can justwow you with power.
That's it. Placements everything too, floor
up in the air, built into scenicpieces.
Harlow's use of these in multiple contexts shows that
mood and function can go hand inhand if you've got the right

(03:30):
tool. And like you said, even a high
energy rehearsal can feel cinematic if the light shapes
that experience. Well, hard to beat that.
Let's get a bit nerdy. This is future tech after all.
What makes the Fuse wash 500 tick is it's 500 Watt R GB MALED
engine. That A is for amber, by the way,

(03:50):
which gets your pastel tones andwarmer white spot on.
You're not getting the old greenface under blue light problem
here. The color rendering index is
really high, so skin tones look natural and you've got all the
control virtual gel library CMY emulation color correction from
2400 K up to 8500 K. No more racing about with boxes

(04:13):
of gels and filters between songs.
And here's where I think it getsreally interesting.
You've got designers like Arlo using LED flexibility to deliver
all that nostalgia, but with none of the headaches of old
school fixtures, bulb swaps, hotlenses, colour drift, the works.
You can have barn doors, motorized, zooms, motorized,

(04:34):
everything programmable so you can chase that classic look but
also whip the tech around and dostuff that would have been
impossible before. Honestly it gives so much more
freedom to not just light the band but almost direct the
emotion of a set. Like, do you think it's true
that the right light can totallymake or break the feeling of a
show? Oh, I'm convinced.

(04:55):
Sometimes it's subtle, a mood you create in the moment.
In other times it's dead obvious, like the NN wall that
goes from gentle amber glow to blinding slap in the face.
But either way, this tech means designers don't have to choose
between vintage and versatile. They get both.
We saw the same blending of old and new on that Nathaniel

(05:16):
Ratelift tour episode a while ago.
Classic Blinder vibe, all the modern tricks behind the scenes.
It's empowering for artists too,they know their show can look
unique but still feel familiar. I think that's what really
pushes the industry forward, making things beautiful but also
practical and adaptable. It's wild how fast things evolve

(05:37):
and I get the feeling the nostalgia trend isn't going away
anytime soon. Definitely not.
All right, that's about all the time we've got.
If you enjoyed this walk down memory lane plus a peek into the
future, make sure you're following us.
We're always chasing that next legendary look and you never
know what vintage classic might get reinvented next.
Laci, as always, a pleasure. Absolute blast.

(06:00):
Chris. Thanks everyone for tuning into
Geezers of Gear. See you all next time.
Make the specs so clear. Oh, La La with music to your

(06:22):
ears. Hey, hey, yeah.
Let's go. New gear vibes, new tech jive
gearheads unite. We keep it live.