The Wetlands is my home away from home. My lighting story begins in these parts. I had a 1992 Harley Davidson, a sportster hugger, mint, and I sold it to buy three trackspot lights and a very outdated controller. Larry Bloch (former owner), Peter Shapiro, Jake, Otis, and Chris Zahn all believed in me, all the way. Zahn even used his own money from his personal account to help me out when I needed it, on top of that I was allowed to sleep at the club when I ha no place to stay. Over in Jersey there was a house that Vlad (Yolks manager) and Topper (moe.s manager) lived, and so did every one of us who were trying to make our nitch in New York City. I was from Syracuse at the time so I would stay in my car in front of their place. All in the name of light and music. Next thing I know I'm on the "bus" and headed for adventure. The Wetlands is everything to me and I love every single person who works there!

The Wetlands birthday party was in February of 1999. I put a couple of lights on top of the bus by the Eco-center. It was cool but I wouldn't do it again. That's where the spinners want to groove. They need their serenity.

(that's Ragan sitting on the right)

In May of 1999 we played the Allgood Festival at Wilmer's Park in Maryland. It was put on by a great group of people but that day turned out to be every lighting designer's worst nightmare. The rented festival lighting was improperly installed and a gust of wind knocked a truss into the stage, crashing into moe.'s lighting rig destroying $13000 worth of gear. The sound company had called it a day at that point, however the show must go on. Time goes by, and the band said that they would take the stage acoustic. Mind you there were 5000 people standing around in the rain waiting for something to do. I set up whatever lights we could use to see on stage, some guy let us use his mini PA and there you have it, history. Not the greatest performance ever, but everyone there knew that they would never witness a moment like this again.

The Gathering of the Vibes 1999. The "Moth" sandwich. I remember it well. That was a good year at the Vibes, I didn't have my rig because of the accident at the Allgood festival. That butterfly that was designed by Lisa Smith turned into a moth and was headed straight at us!

The Hammerstein Ballroom was the stomping ground for the 1999 Halloween show. The truss I designed that night was for moe. and the Disco Biscuits. Matt Iarrobino, the Biscuits lighting designer, and I are old friends from college. I brought him to his first moe. show and look where he is now. Halloween was all about the "X" Truss. Need I say more? That night was an attempt to mix reality and liquid pure imagination. It was a really magical evening, I remember being very nervous because it was the first time moe. had ever asked for specific lighting cues. I have always been given the option to bring my art as far as I can with the medium. Something that Chris Kuroda and Candace Brightman have also, "freedom to express.

In April of 2000 we stopped back at The Wetlands for the release party of our live album "L" I'm not going to get deep into gobo projections however I will say that what you see here is child's play compared to what I have planned for the American Tour this fall. It's a first, which's all I'm saying. At this point I'd like to say thanks to all the fans for noticing, I do what I do for you.

Gathering of the Vibes 2000

I have thanked a lot of people for helping me out and none would be possible without my friends Rob, Al, Chuck, Vin and Jim, the musicians, as well as my production manager, Chris Burrows, my audio engineer, Steve Young and of course Ken "Skip" Richman our road manager. They are a true JAMBAND. They're completely spontaneous and that's why I love it. To me moe. is a band that could be described as jumbled and organic. That is why I do this for myself, but mostly it's for the dreamers. See you all at the moe.down.

-Chris Ragan

LINKS

Click here to see the mother load of moe. pix: www.moe.org/photo.htm

Click here to get tickets for the first annual moe.down: www.moe.org/dates.html