Grumble mumble number two for this week. As you know I love my gigs. Over the last few weeks there have been several although I did skip one I'm afraid. Anyway, highlight for me was Polica down in Hove, very good indeedy!
Really enjoyed The Naked & Famous at Shepherd's Bush Empire and Bastille at Somerset House. Not quite as enthralling were Daughter, also out in the open air. Perhaps my expectations were out of kilter, unusual that! Never mind. It certainly wasn't bad and I still love them dearly too, probably more than the others in this paragraph.
The downside though, has been the lighting for these gigs. Some of it was interesting, new to me, different, and I can appreciate that. But on the whole the lighting was too much, too many lights, too bright. I've come to see a band play live, not a bunch of silhouettes, you know? I want to be able to see expressions of singers living their lyrics, of guitarists being carried off on their music, of sweaty drummers beating the hell out of their kit. I love seeing the knowing moments the musicians share, how they interact with faces in the crowd, damn it, even their nervousness. I love all these human elements of gigs.
Mr lighting engineer. I'm impressed at how well you've managed to use the latest technology to do a million things at once. Get over it though, or perhaps you could go into large even firework displays? Let me see the people you're supposed to be lighting for me. Give me an atmosphere, don't blind me with strobes that really add nothing to a gig. Show me subtlety, see if you do that for me, please?
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