Absolute best concert lighting design/show you've ever seen?

[jfetter]

For me it's Pulse, Pink Floyd with the most amazing light show I have ever seen. I don't know how much came directly out of Marc Brickman's head or how much existed before but the circle of movers and the entire iris effect of focusing on the panel jus't cant be beat IMO for the most effective use of moving heads ever. Disc 2 of Pulse, from the second it starts until the last note of the encore is the most riviting 90 minutes if video I've ever seen, I still get goosebumps when they unleash everything on "Run Like Hell"...

Jack

 

[Pie4Weebl]

The best I've ever seen, and the show which I think I credit as the most influential to me would be daft punks ALIVE 2007 tour. The LD built his show up slowly over the whole night introducing one element of the rig at the time. He also didn't use everything at once the whole show, he'd pick an element or two and roll with that for the song. It gave each song its own look and feel and kept things interesting the whole night while still being very flashy. Also I loved how every cue was very intentional and very dead on.

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[DrPinto]

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra puts on one helluva light show...

 

[chausman]

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra puts on one helluva light show...

With me being well..me, I vote one of the most recent TSO concerts. I don't go to many concerts however.

 

[mstaylor]

I find TSO too much for no good reason. Adding an effect or moving a light should be done for a reason. Throwing twenty trucks of lights in the air does not make a good show.
One of my favorites was old school, Jethro Tull circa 1982/83. It was completely conventional but the trusses moved. Mike used two boards, had two guys running special effects and called spots. Toby Keith always does a good show.

 

[JohnD]

I find TSO too much for no good reason. Adding an effect or moving a light should be done for a reason. Throwing twenty trucks of lights in the air does not make a good show.
One of my favorites was old school, Jethro Tull circa 1982/83. It was completely conventional but the trusses moved. Mike used two boards, had two guys running special effects and called spots. Toby Keith always does a good show.

A bit of an aside but, I used to live in a town with lots of garage bands, if they didn't have a drummer(sick or in jail perhaps), there was a pick-up drummer available. The problem was he got to do a drum solo, the problem was, no matter what the song he attempted the same drum solo. Sort a Buddy Rich thing, except he couldn't keep time worth a darn. All the bar regulars of all the bars knew it was potty time. Meanwhile, back to the topic, I think some LD's are kind of like that. No matter what the show, they have their stock in trade Flash&Dazzle programs that they use willy-nilly, to heck for motivation.

As far as Vincent's post, I think of light as MAGIC, and the first rule of magic is you never do the same trick for the same audience twice the same way.

By the way, Garth Brooks used to provide a great tech show, I only hope he checked with the rigging techs before doing his Tarzan act.

 

[Esoteric]

The best I've ever seen, and the show which I think I credit as the most influential to me would be daft punks ALIVE 2007 tour. The LD built his show up slowly over the whole night introducing one element of the rig at the time. He also didn't use everything at once the whole show, he'd pick an element or two and roll with that for the song. It gave each song its own look and feel and kept things interesting the whole night while still being very flashy. Also I loved how every cue was very intentional and very dead on.

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Our profs always told us not to blow our load too soon. I always try to give every show an arc as well as every song.

 

[mstaylor]

A bit of an aside but, I used to live in a town with lots of garage bands, if they didn't have a drummer(sick or in jail perhaps), there was a pick-up drummer available. The problem was he got to do a drum solo, the problem was, no matter what the song he attempted the same drum solo. Sort a Buddy Rich thing, except he couldn't keep time worth a darn. All the bar regulars of all the bars knew it was potty time. Meanwhile, back to the topic, I think some LD's are kind of like that. No matter what the show, they have their stock in trade Flash&Dazzle programs that they use willy-nilly, to heck for motivation.

As far as Vincent's post, I think of light as MAGIC, and the first rule of magic is you never do the same trick for the same audience twice the same way.

By the way, Garth Brooks used to provide a great tech show, I only hope he checked with the rigging techs before doing his Tarzan act.

Garth was an experienced climber and everything was well done. David Lee Roth was another good climber. At the risk of offending somebody's friend, the LD that does Crossroads does exactly that, moves lights for no good reason, musically or visually. He also gets repetitive.

 

[StewTech]

T.S.O.

They have the best combo of perfect sound, lighting and pyro.

 

[len]

For sheer overkill of par cans, I vote for Rammstein Live Aus Berlin.

 

[jfetter]

For me there is no "right or wrong" way of doing concert lighting, I mean it's an art in all seriousness and though guidlines exist for properly lighting a subject for stage/video/film, when it comes to the pure visual effect of concert lighting, the standard rules break down IMO. A perfect example is Pink Floyd's Pulse, which was a treat for the eyes from the first minute until the end. Many different effects, lots of movement and very little front wash lighting (which negatively affects the entire point of a flashy show with a lot of mood lighting). I very much appreciate an LD and band/performer for that matter who accept that lights are pure visual stimulous and doesn't light up the entire stage (I'm talking concert lighting again) and simply plans a visual experience that complements the music first and lights the band second. You can't always get away with that but for me, I want a visual concert along with the audio, I prefer it to build and save something for the end but I prefer moving lights, panels, shapes and dimensional lighting to moving truss...

Jack

 

[shiben]

For me there is no "right or wrong" way of doing concert lighting,

There is certainly things that are wrong to do. Making it impossible to see the band is probably first on that list.

 

[DELO72]

There is certainly things that are wrong to do. Making it impossible to see the band is probably first on that list.

AMEN to that. There is definitely "Wrong" lighting. Any lighting which works contrary to the production (in terms of stealing focus, creating discord to the moment on the stage instead of working to support it, etc.) is "Wrong" or bad lighting.

 

[jfetter]

With all due respect I disagree about wrong, "bad" lighting sure but wrong? Concert lighting serves two purposes, lighting up the band so folks can actually see them and adding a visual component to the music. I expect the people far from the stage that couldn't see the musicians were likely the initial stimulus for adding dramatic lighting to musical performances. That's why I say art, it's purely visual and very subjective so wrong is maybe not the best word, perhaps simply using "bad" (in that it accomplishes neither purpose)...

Jack

 

[Pie4Weebl]

If you want to see the band buy a poster!

 

[shiben]

If you want to see the band buy a poster!

When I pay 30+ bucks for a ticket, I really want to at least see the band a bit. I dont need to see them for the whole concert, but for most of the time, I should be able to see them at least in silhouette, and less strobes in my face. A bit is ok, more than half the time, not ok in the least.

 

[gafftaper]

Genesis: We Can't Dance Tour (1992?) They had three massive screens that were each something like 20' feet wide. The screens were motorized on sliding track so they could be three separate screens or 1 giant 60' wide screen.

During the instrumental break in "Domino" the stage got really dark. When the "Blood on the Windows..." part of the song began, suddenly Phil Collins appeared about 40' in the air in center of that giant screen standing on what looked like a tiny platform on top of a pole. Behind him, the screen was generating an effect sort of like red lasers radiating out from all around him (or perhaps the Star Wars going to light speed look). Again remember this was 1992! We hadn't seen anything like that before.

There were movers all over the stage backlighting the show, something you rarely saw back then. There were two sets of cables crossing the stage in an X pattern. Suspended from these cables were these "truss" units loaded with movers which traveled up and down the cable. You can see the cables and the "truss" unit in this shot. I remember seeing some GIANT movers on the ground around the perimeter of the stage as well. I don't know what they were... I didn't know much about the gear back then. But they looked like the giant Syncrolites you still see today. Was Syncro around back then?


Sadly those are the only shots of the concert I can find. It was technically at least 10 years ahead of it's time. Frankly it would still hold up against a lot of the tours out there now.

AND I'm not sure that I ever got over the pounding of the bass... but that's a topic for a different forum.

While searching for pictures I found this article from Live design on the topic.

 

[Grog12]

There is certainly things that are wrong to do. Making it impossible to see the band is probably first on that list.

You've obviously never been to a Tool concert.

Tool and /\/I\/\ top my list.

 

[bishopthomas]

Coldplay is a pretty cool show. My friend said Muse was the most impressive production he's seen, but I've yet to see the show. I really don't go to concerts anymore.

 

[BalanceLighting]

The U2 360 stage was impressive. But when you get that big it really has to be.
Second to that would probably be the last two Dave Matthews Band tours. Amazing implementation of LED video and intelligent lighting. I actually got a great idea from watching those DMB shows. Instead of going totally dark in between tracks, they would pull the pars up about 10% w/ UV blue. Just enough light for the guys to see what they were doing while changing instruments but not enough for the audience to really notice what was going on.