Jambands Lights

Tomrrow I have to present on "Jambands and Lights."  I'm really glad that I was given this opportunity to present on lights in a music class, even though they stimulate the eyes and not the ears.

I think I am going to start with the 1960's.  Concert lighting really came into its own at this point.  Much of what it utilized was stolen from theatrical lighting.  However concert lighting is also responsible for many innovations.  For instance before concert lighting there were not many options for portable rigging and trussing.  Since theatrical lighting designers are afforded a longer time in the venue, and if it is a touring theatre production then the venue most likely already has rigging built in, theatrical lighting didn't need to put an emphasis on portability.  During the advent of concerts with world tours the lighting designers quickly realized that bands play in very different venues than theatre.  Sometimes the venue will be a theatre, but very often it might be a civic center or outdoors, and so the bands had to bring their own lights.

In the 1960's the mecca of lighting was San Francisco.  Some of the original Jam Bands (such asa the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, etc.) cam from SF.  I found a great book by James Moody that has a nice history of concert lighting.  There would be "happenings" that truly broke any sort of categorization into any one art form.  There would be video, music, non-musical audio, and lights.  Most people at these events would take LSD and try to just take it all in.  Very often the Grateful Dead would play at these events.  Many people did experiments in lighting that have led to what we know today as concert lighting (a side note: many people also did experiments with surround sound at these events too).

In the 60's concert lighting was defined very differently than theatrical lighting.  The point wasn't neccesarily to make it easy to see the band.  It was for the overall effect.  Now someone in the nosebleed seats wouldn't have to try and squint at the band, but could look at the giant light shows instead.  In the 60's the preferred method of lighting effects was to use a typical overhead projector with petri dishes on it.  Then oil, water, and food coloring would be added (oil and water don't mix, but rather swirl around each other).  The heat from the projector would cause the mixture to make very interesting patterns.

Throughout the 1970's concert lighting continued to expand.  The overhead projector was seen less and less, and giant rigs with par cans (basically a concert lighting fixture that is a coffee can with a light bulb, and a colored filter on it) were seen more and more.  Unfortunately microprocessors were still unheard of, so the method of controlling these was very archaic.

In the 1980's computers started to be incorporated into lighting.  This was the first time that programmable lighting boards were seen, and also the first time that lights that could move via control from the computer were seen.  These new lights were fantastic.  Inside the light they had a color wheel that could be controlled remotely, and they were mounted on yokes that could allow them to move in 360 degrees on the X, Y, or Z axis, also controllable remotely.

In the 1990's these movable fixtures became the norm, and one band to utilize them greatly was another Jamband: Phish.  Many people call Phish's light designer, Chris Kuroda, the fifth member of the band.  His instrument was the light rig.  He would have to learn all of the changes in the songs, just like the members of the band.  During improvisation sections of songs the band and he would be in the pocket together too.  The band would look to the lights above them for inspiration, just as Chris was listening to the music for inspiration.