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shermaramaNot least because I was expecting quite a lot of it. Jon goes on about Litmus a lot, and all the recorded output I've heard promises to be the sort of thing that's even better live. The gig was free and they were the only band on so they were getting a long set with lots of time to do long jams which I was looking forward to hearing. Top stuff, in prospect.
I can tell you very little indeed about what the music was like because I spent most of the evening being extremely fucking annoyed by the lights. Sounds so trivial, doesn't it? Let me explain. Here are some recommendations on how to use strobes, from an article about theatre lighting effects.
Try to position your strobes so that the effect is achieved without blinding your audience. In a nightclub, use high placement with steep angles. You may need to use more units, but your crowd will appreciate it. In stage productions, try to position the strobes so that they illuminate the stage and not the audience. One exception to this is when you're using strobes to momentarily "blind" the audience (e.g., to cover a disappearance or appearance).
Strobe lights are a special effect. The word 'special' implies something that is not commonplace. When you use something too much it becomes commonplace. Do you see where I'm heading?
So. Litmus had 1700W strobes, about the most powerful ones you can buy. Three of them, spaced out along the Ruskin's curved stage front, so no matter where you stood you had one pointed at you. They have reflectors, giving a sort of beam of about 30 degrees of the highest intensity, and they were sitting angled back to point up a bit. But the Ruskin's stage is also very low so anyone stood up and within fifteen feet of the stage was in their direct beam, with no filters nor even a frosted cover, just a clear view straight onto the tubes. So, there am I watching the band, halfway through the first song, and at the first fast bit the strobes kick in. I am a normally functioning human being equipped with a blink reaction so I shut my eyes, as you would if someone shone a light not far off equivalent to sudden daylight at you when you're in a very dark room. And every time the strobes go on again, which is in all the fast bits of every song from then on with, I think, only two or three totally strobe-free songs, I have to shut them again. In order to avoid the purple afterimages from not closing my eyes quickly enough, in fact, I spent a lot of the gig with my eyes shut. Or when I got fed up of seeing bright flashing red through my eyelids, with my hand over them as well.
I dedicated some of the time to trying to find places from where I could watch the band (and, you know, the projected background which I don't doubt the light man spent a lot of time and money achieving only to render it utterly invisible for most of the gig) without being blinded but I didn't manage it. There was nowhere far enough to the right to be out of the range of the one on that end, and I managed to get an interesting spot over to the left for a while where the strobes themselves were blocked out by people's heads or the pillar to the left of the stage, but there wasn't much point being there because there I could hardly see the band.
Why am I so interested in seeing the band? Well, because I play some of the instruments myself, I like to watch people, see what they're doing. And if the aim is not at least partly to *see* the band, watch them in action, what is the point in doing interesting backdrops, what is the point of using something like a pair of theremins that translate spatial movement into sound, what's the point of the band being there at all? I went to a Melvins gig once where they were soundtracking a film live; they were there but hidden behind a curtain, we knew we couldn't see them, the visual focus was the film. If you know the visual element is going to be missing, that's okay, you make the choice to go based on all the other benefits of actual in-person gigs, fine. If you can see the band for about a third of the time but, any time a song is starting to go somewhere and you're just getting into it, your visual senses are assaulted in such a way as to prevent you using your eyes for the next five minutes, this is just fucking frustrating.
Okay, I was watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas last week. It's a long, involving film, it's got atmosphere, you have to let go and go with it. Now imagine you are watching this film with the audio on headphones. Any time a scene's starting to develop, the soundtrack is replaced by AN EXTREMELY LOUD LOOPED PART OF A ROBBIE WILLIAMS SONG in short-spaced bursts. Are you going to enjoy the film?
I'm not even saying don't use strobes. It's perhaps difficult to explain that, you know, I'm into sensation and stuff, I'm not the sort to complain at intensity. Just, well, there are ways to use intensity and then there's thinking aftershave works better if you use more of it. I asked the light man if he'd tone it down a bit with the strobes and he said that that was what the band wanted, which is fine in that I'm sure they want a strobe effect, but I'm pretty certain they didn't want to do this. Jon claims he couldn't see past the strobes but could keep his eyes open, but he has the hardened and intrinsically shielded eyes of the contact-lens wearer. I can't help noticing that the lights man himself was in glasses. So the same article suggests this approach:
On stage, try backlighting your performers or dancers with a strobe. Too many times, I've seen a so-so effect and disoriented performers as the result of placing the strobes along the front of the stage. Try mounting the strobes behind the performers and somewhat high up to avoid blinding the audience. The result should be the slow-motion effect with the performers mostly in silhouette. If you need more light on the performers' faces, mount the strobes as sidelights.
Oh, and. While I'm prepared to put the strobe problems down to just not understanding how best to use them, the laser effect was just fucking stupid. Why do you use a smoke machine in conjunction with a laser unit, as was being used on Friday night? To render the laser paths visible and show the pretty patterns, because you have to position the laser show above people's heads and out of their line of sight because CLASS III LASERS ARE DANGEROUS TO THE EYESIGHT. I'm willing to bet the safety information that came with the unit includes an internationally understandable pictogram of the unit being suspended somewhere high and angled upwards, in such a way that there's a 2.5m space below the bottom of its direct viewing line. The drum riser in the Ruskin is really not 2.5m in height. By the end of the gig I'd given up trying to see and was sat on the floor in the middle, trying to at least tune into the music a bit, and the laser, low set and pointing straight out into the audience, was still getting in my eyes. For most of the time the smoke machine wasn't running so the laser was just being irritating green flickery shit. But I'm sure the band had a nice view of a light show, from the side where you could watch it instead of being blinded by it. The bassist's own review describes the lights as "visual assault and battery" and speaks of the audience as some distant thing he's not quite sure what was going on with. This is because they were mostly trying to keep out of the blast radius. If I can get over this pissed-off-ness enough to try seeing this band again, next time I'll take a light-activated welding mask.
Well, I thought I'd try dancing to the last song anyway. The drumming I had attention for was being excellent, and with the real snap and energy that reminded me of the last time I was in that place. The bass was all around everywhere, using fingers and plectrum accordingly, which I'm always interested to see. These things make me want to dance. However I learnt something new about mine and Jon's contrasting dancing styles. Jon stumbles a lot when he moshes because he just keeps his eyes screwed shut and goes for it. I flick my hair about a lot but usually stay remarkably upright, unless really pissed. Because I open my eyes just a bit at some top points to check I still know which way is up. Which was getting me and eyeful of fucking strobe and laser, so I stopped again. Woo and yay for lighting so badly thought out it even prevented me *dancing*.
I can tell you very little indeed about what the music was like because I spent most of the evening being extremely fucking annoyed by the lights. Sounds so trivial, doesn't it? Let me explain. Here are some recommendations on how to use strobes, from an article about theatre lighting effects.
Try to position your strobes so that the effect is achieved without blinding your audience. In a nightclub, use high placement with steep angles. You may need to use more units, but your crowd will appreciate it. In stage productions, try to position the strobes so that they illuminate the stage and not the audience. One exception to this is when you're using strobes to momentarily "blind" the audience (e.g., to cover a disappearance or appearance).
Strobe lights are a special effect. The word 'special' implies something that is not commonplace. When you use something too much it becomes commonplace. Do you see where I'm heading?
So. Litmus had 1700W strobes, about the most powerful ones you can buy. Three of them, spaced out along the Ruskin's curved stage front, so no matter where you stood you had one pointed at you. They have reflectors, giving a sort of beam of about 30 degrees of the highest intensity, and they were sitting angled back to point up a bit. But the Ruskin's stage is also very low so anyone stood up and within fifteen feet of the stage was in their direct beam, with no filters nor even a frosted cover, just a clear view straight onto the tubes. So, there am I watching the band, halfway through the first song, and at the first fast bit the strobes kick in. I am a normally functioning human being equipped with a blink reaction so I shut my eyes, as you would if someone shone a light not far off equivalent to sudden daylight at you when you're in a very dark room. And every time the strobes go on again, which is in all the fast bits of every song from then on with, I think, only two or three totally strobe-free songs, I have to shut them again. In order to avoid the purple afterimages from not closing my eyes quickly enough, in fact, I spent a lot of the gig with my eyes shut. Or when I got fed up of seeing bright flashing red through my eyelids, with my hand over them as well.
I dedicated some of the time to trying to find places from where I could watch the band (and, you know, the projected background which I don't doubt the light man spent a lot of time and money achieving only to render it utterly invisible for most of the gig) without being blinded but I didn't manage it. There was nowhere far enough to the right to be out of the range of the one on that end, and I managed to get an interesting spot over to the left for a while where the strobes themselves were blocked out by people's heads or the pillar to the left of the stage, but there wasn't much point being there because there I could hardly see the band.
Why am I so interested in seeing the band? Well, because I play some of the instruments myself, I like to watch people, see what they're doing. And if the aim is not at least partly to *see* the band, watch them in action, what is the point in doing interesting backdrops, what is the point of using something like a pair of theremins that translate spatial movement into sound, what's the point of the band being there at all? I went to a Melvins gig once where they were soundtracking a film live; they were there but hidden behind a curtain, we knew we couldn't see them, the visual focus was the film. If you know the visual element is going to be missing, that's okay, you make the choice to go based on all the other benefits of actual in-person gigs, fine. If you can see the band for about a third of the time but, any time a song is starting to go somewhere and you're just getting into it, your visual senses are assaulted in such a way as to prevent you using your eyes for the next five minutes, this is just fucking frustrating.
Okay, I was watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas last week. It's a long, involving film, it's got atmosphere, you have to let go and go with it. Now imagine you are watching this film with the audio on headphones. Any time a scene's starting to develop, the soundtrack is replaced by AN EXTREMELY LOUD LOOPED PART OF A ROBBIE WILLIAMS SONG in short-spaced bursts. Are you going to enjoy the film?
I'm not even saying don't use strobes. It's perhaps difficult to explain that, you know, I'm into sensation and stuff, I'm not the sort to complain at intensity. Just, well, there are ways to use intensity and then there's thinking aftershave works better if you use more of it. I asked the light man if he'd tone it down a bit with the strobes and he said that that was what the band wanted, which is fine in that I'm sure they want a strobe effect, but I'm pretty certain they didn't want to do this. Jon claims he couldn't see past the strobes but could keep his eyes open, but he has the hardened and intrinsically shielded eyes of the contact-lens wearer. I can't help noticing that the lights man himself was in glasses. So the same article suggests this approach:
On stage, try backlighting your performers or dancers with a strobe. Too many times, I've seen a so-so effect and disoriented performers as the result of placing the strobes along the front of the stage. Try mounting the strobes behind the performers and somewhat high up to avoid blinding the audience. The result should be the slow-motion effect with the performers mostly in silhouette. If you need more light on the performers' faces, mount the strobes as sidelights.
Oh, and. While I'm prepared to put the strobe problems down to just not understanding how best to use them, the laser effect was just fucking stupid. Why do you use a smoke machine in conjunction with a laser unit, as was being used on Friday night? To render the laser paths visible and show the pretty patterns, because you have to position the laser show above people's heads and out of their line of sight because CLASS III LASERS ARE DANGEROUS TO THE EYESIGHT. I'm willing to bet the safety information that came with the unit includes an internationally understandable pictogram of the unit being suspended somewhere high and angled upwards, in such a way that there's a 2.5m space below the bottom of its direct viewing line. The drum riser in the Ruskin is really not 2.5m in height. By the end of the gig I'd given up trying to see and was sat on the floor in the middle, trying to at least tune into the music a bit, and the laser, low set and pointing straight out into the audience, was still getting in my eyes. For most of the time the smoke machine wasn't running so the laser was just being irritating green flickery shit. But I'm sure the band had a nice view of a light show, from the side where you could watch it instead of being blinded by it. The bassist's own review describes the lights as "visual assault and battery" and speaks of the audience as some distant thing he's not quite sure what was going on with. This is because they were mostly trying to keep out of the blast radius. If I can get over this pissed-off-ness enough to try seeing this band again, next time I'll take a light-activated welding mask.
Well, I thought I'd try dancing to the last song anyway. The drumming I had attention for was being excellent, and with the real snap and energy that reminded me of the last time I was in that place. The bass was all around everywhere, using fingers and plectrum accordingly, which I'm always interested to see. These things make me want to dance. However I learnt something new about mine and Jon's contrasting dancing styles. Jon stumbles a lot when he moshes because he just keeps his eyes screwed shut and goes for it. I flick my hair about a lot but usually stay remarkably upright, unless really pissed. Because I open my eyes just a bit at some top points to check I still know which way is up. Which was getting me and eyeful of fucking strobe and laser, so I stopped again. Woo and yay for lighting so badly thought out it even prevented me *dancing*.