One of the most inventive low budget lighting tricks I've seen live was at a concert in Washington DC. The band that employed this trick was called Maserati and at the time, they were on tour opening up for the Japanese post-rock band MONO. After noticing their stage setup, which had the drumset downstage-center with a guitarist on each side of him and the bass player on the drum riser behind the drums, it was clear that the member of the band that demanded the most attention was the drummer. What I thought was odd was that beside the drum set, on each side of the bass drum, were what looked like two tiny Par Cans focused directly at the bass drum. As I was sitting there wondering what they planned on doing with those fixtures, it hit me. The drummer's kit was an old 70's Ludwig blue Vistalite acrylic kit, and after noticing I realized that the band was aiming the fixtures THROUGH the kit, not at it. Once the house lights went out and the drummer took his seat, the lights fired up at the first crash hit. The entire room was then filled with this watery blue aura that look as if the band and audience were no underwater at a indoor public pool. On top of that, the other members of the band were playing instruments that matched in color and one other detail: Their respective guitars and bass all had pickguards that were made from shards of cracked and broken mirrors. This caused all light from the drumset spotlights to reflect off of the pickguards, creating an almost disco ball effect. It looked as if they were shooting beams of light out of the guitars themselves! That was one of the coolest live shows I've ever seen. And thats just the lighting!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals at the House of Blues, Lake Buena Vista
I attended this show only due to the fact that my girlfriend received free tickets to it. Even if I'm not a fan of the artist or even if I haven't heard of the musician I'll never turn down a free concert if I don't have to. The show started fairly plainly in terms of the lighting aspect. A good front and back wash with some blue accents along the back drop. As the first song progressed the color of the accents would change as the song went from "verse" to "chorus". By about the middle of the second song, I noticed that throughout the upstage left and right, there were these modular stands that at first glance seemed to be nothing more than decoration. Some even had tiny disco balls hanging off the sides of them. But after closer inspection of the stands I discovered that they were not only hiding what looked strips of 9 or 10 incandescent bulbs, but also what seemed to be type of moving fixtures akin to the Mac 250 kryptons.
By the beginning of the 3rd song, The strips of incandescent bulbs within the stand lit up, causing an effect that was like a slightly less blinding crowd blinder effect. This effect used in conjunction with the warm amber and yellow stage wash looked very nice. It reminded me of "The Lion King".
After that, during the 6th or 7th song, the disco balls i mentioned earlier were actually used for more than decoration. During the bridge of the song, the stage had a very dim blue wash with almost no front light. Then out of nowhere, two of the stand mounted movers shot a beam of white light into the two mini disco balls causing this incredible effect in the venue, making it look as if there were hundreds of super fine beams of light shooting in every direction.
All in all the show was great, especially knowing I didn't even pay to see it.
On a side note, I saw something at the House of Blues that night that didn't sit right with me. After the show had ended, I decided to hang around for a bit and try to get a better look at all of the consoles and gear used. Then I saw a guy come around from corner on the second floor loft with a motor control in his hand. Without any spotters or any kind of warning to any of the patrons left on the main floor below, he started dropping one of the middle squares of truss holding a couple lights and a rather large disco ball. Maybe because its my experience to let everyone in the venue know that truss and motors are moving. I don't know. I just wished I had a heads up to get off the floor before he did that. Like I said, It didn't sit well with me.
By the beginning of the 3rd song, The strips of incandescent bulbs within the stand lit up, causing an effect that was like a slightly less blinding crowd blinder effect. This effect used in conjunction with the warm amber and yellow stage wash looked very nice. It reminded me of "The Lion King".
After that, during the 6th or 7th song, the disco balls i mentioned earlier were actually used for more than decoration. During the bridge of the song, the stage had a very dim blue wash with almost no front light. Then out of nowhere, two of the stand mounted movers shot a beam of white light into the two mini disco balls causing this incredible effect in the venue, making it look as if there were hundreds of super fine beams of light shooting in every direction.
All in all the show was great, especially knowing I didn't even pay to see it.
On a side note, I saw something at the House of Blues that night that didn't sit right with me. After the show had ended, I decided to hang around for a bit and try to get a better look at all of the consoles and gear used. Then I saw a guy come around from corner on the second floor loft with a motor control in his hand. Without any spotters or any kind of warning to any of the patrons left on the main floor below, he started dropping one of the middle squares of truss holding a couple lights and a rather large disco ball. Maybe because its my experience to let everyone in the venue know that truss and motors are moving. I don't know. I just wished I had a heads up to get off the floor before he did that. Like I said, It didn't sit well with me.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Pepsi Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show
I'm going to go ahead jump on this bandwagon. You know, the one where people can't stop talking about SuperBowl Halftime Show with Beyonce. Let's face it: it was incredible.
I have watched that video of the performance about 8 times more since it was broadcasted live. I'm not even a fan of Beyonce by any means, mind you. I was captivated by the lighting and pyrotechnics of the show. Here is a short list of my favorite moments of the entire performance.
The opening aerial shot of the stage being outlined by a burst of flames that die down and reveal the two faces that make up the stage was my first clue as to how visually over the top this performance would be. From there, the other great use of pyro was while the members of Destiny's Child were slowing raising their arms, around 8:47 in the linked video, a line of flames slowly lit up in front of them, as if their gesture is what lit the fire. Awesome.
Some of the MVPs of the Halftime show were the Clay Paky Sharpys used. One Sharpy's beam of light can only do so much from a visual aspect, but when 180 are used in tandem, they can pull off some pretty mind-blowing visual displays. In a transition between songs, around 5:53 in the video, all of the Sharpys are pointing straight up into the sky and then slowly tilt downward, creating what looks like a wall of light crashing down. Quite a dramatic effect.
Finally, around 11:30 or so, the viewers could see that everyone in the audience is wearing blue LEDs on their fingers, creating a sea of blue lights. I've always loved the random movement that comes from lights being put on the members of the audiences, creating a sort of randomly shifting sea of light. Minutes later, when Beyonce hits the chorus of her song, right at 12:23, the aforementioned faces that are the stage now have what looks like flowing hair in the wind. Truthfully, I can't seem to figure out how that effect was made, but it sure looks awesome.
Overall, I would say that this years SuperBowl Halftime Show was a rousing success and blew the past 3 SuperBowl performances out of the water. I can only hope that the SuperBowl keeps this kind of over the top look for all the next SuperBowl Halftime Shows to come.
I have watched that video of the performance about 8 times more since it was broadcasted live. I'm not even a fan of Beyonce by any means, mind you. I was captivated by the lighting and pyrotechnics of the show. Here is a short list of my favorite moments of the entire performance.
The opening aerial shot of the stage being outlined by a burst of flames that die down and reveal the two faces that make up the stage was my first clue as to how visually over the top this performance would be. From there, the other great use of pyro was while the members of Destiny's Child were slowing raising their arms, around 8:47 in the linked video, a line of flames slowly lit up in front of them, as if their gesture is what lit the fire. Awesome.
Some of the MVPs of the Halftime show were the Clay Paky Sharpys used. One Sharpy's beam of light can only do so much from a visual aspect, but when 180 are used in tandem, they can pull off some pretty mind-blowing visual displays. In a transition between songs, around 5:53 in the video, all of the Sharpys are pointing straight up into the sky and then slowly tilt downward, creating what looks like a wall of light crashing down. Quite a dramatic effect.
Finally, around 11:30 or so, the viewers could see that everyone in the audience is wearing blue LEDs on their fingers, creating a sea of blue lights. I've always loved the random movement that comes from lights being put on the members of the audiences, creating a sort of randomly shifting sea of light. Minutes later, when Beyonce hits the chorus of her song, right at 12:23, the aforementioned faces that are the stage now have what looks like flowing hair in the wind. Truthfully, I can't seem to figure out how that effect was made, but it sure looks awesome.
Overall, I would say that this years SuperBowl Halftime Show was a rousing success and blew the past 3 SuperBowl performances out of the water. I can only hope that the SuperBowl keeps this kind of over the top look for all the next SuperBowl Halftime Shows to come.
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