Dublin 2

Hellishly long day today. Lots of waiting around for video to appear on a massive, dark stage. It was pretty frustrating as the show is really shaping up to be a 50-50 lighting/video type thing. At the moment we only have the appearance of it. Merely a concept, at best. The lights look nice though. I am letting go of a lot of my pre-conceived notions of what is visiually pleasing. I used to mock certain color combinations that tend to crop up in small clubs when careless, colorblind operators are at the helm. It has taken me years to accept that both red and green can exist on the same stage at the same time even when there is nothing involving either Christmas or a Mexican wedding. Sometimes it coveys a sentiment. It's grating, for sure, but the right hues can be alright. It seems to be a fine line between different and garish, clever and stupid, genius and stupidity. We'll see. I have 2 shows here in Dublin with a house rig and even worse, a house desk that is most likely in all manner of disrepair. I forsee a challenge or two tomorrow, although if there are 2 candles and a maglight on stage that will still be the most I have had to work with for this band. The 2, week-long stinits at churches in Montreal and New York were really a means for me to learn some songs and get a feel for the band. I did the simplest, and most effective (considering the total lack of space with all of the absurd crap on stage and the shaky power in a couple century-old churches) design that I could think of. It came out as a dozen or so leds of various makes to light, in one setting, a velour drop upstage of the band, and another, to light a marble alter and a few stained glass windows. That, coupled with some frenel tv-ish lights for some front glow and a gobo of a bible projected onto a backdrop was pretty much the show. There were mostly some steady color changes until an inevitable (make that 3) film crews turned up to complicate things. It all worked out, which is a miracle, as usually film crews aim to totally destroy the atmosphere of a live show in order to get the 'look' that they want. Some camera operators fail to realize that there are methods of shooting in low light with fantastic results. One of my favorite anecdotes is from Radiohead's tour documentary 'Meeting People is Easy.' The band is doing a show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NY and MTV is out filming it for their, now defunct, 'live at the 10-spot' program. Andy Watson, Radiohead's lighting designer is really the most talented guy out there these days. His shows never cease to amaze me. So, there is a scene in a remote truck where the director from MTV is staring at a set of monitors showing the band onstage, presumably live. Through a faint green haze you can barely make out the shape of people on the stage. The director is yelling about it being too dark and someone comments that neither the band nor the lighting guys really care how dark it is, and they said so. It is their show. Take it or leave it. That said, I did a DVD shoot for Interpol a few years back which aired (still does occasionally) on Showtime. That was a remarkably dark show lighting-wise, and the director knew it, yet failed to prepare for it. It's a pretty embarassing show because you can't see a damn thing for 60 minutes. So it goes. I hadn't really thought that I would end up with so much stuff about lighting here. I intended this to be a vaguely more technical explaination of my work. As I am just beginning a tour this seemed a good time to begin this type of thing. It will get geeky from time to time. I can deal. I am fortunate enough to, at the core, really enjoy the work that I do. I find it rewarding, sometimes exhausting and miserable, and apparantly can talk about it for ages. Not everyone can really say that. I was inspired mostly by one of Harley's blogs and Dave Ratt's tour diary. Both of which are audio guys who can talk a blue streak about combinations of letters and numbers that you have neither heard nor could hope to comprehend. I knew it was great when I spent a half hour reading about how a near-microscopic change to a drumstick can affect an entire arena show. Nice. I'm just in to Dublin. Room service. Glass of wine. Sweet, sweet, long overdue sleep.