Bold As Love

When I began this blog I had every intention of writing about the moving truss that was used in the process of recording John Mayer's live DVD "Where the Light Is." What started as innocent research was quickly overtaken by reminiscing about the goodness that was/is The John Mayer Trio. Not only the trio in and of itself but the perfect symmetry of the stage that lead to a very well lit song. Prior to where this particular video begins we find each member of the band being highlighted by plain white light with some minimal crowd lighting as Mr. Mayer introduces the song. Not even two words into the song, the house lights dim completely leaving a spotlight and yellow wash backlight only on the main attraction. As the rest of the band comes in we see their spotlights dim up so that they are now included in the show. The dominant colors during the verses is yellow. It keeps the energy of the song up without being too overpowering. There are some minor reds and blues thrown in. With the blue being used to accent a small instrumental between the chorus and verse 2. After the second chorus Mayer launches into a solo which is accented by some minor dimming effects from the back of the stage and some sweeps of the lights across the audience. The most impressive part of the design here to me is what happens after the solo. Post solo the band bring things down a little bit. Perfectly on cue with a snare hit the lights go from yellows and red to purple and blue, bringing the mood down perfect for John to do a little talking. Going back into a solo after he's done talking we see more red introduced into the mix of purple and blue then once he begins singing again they bring up the bright yellow which was used throughout the first verses and choruses. Watching this performance really makes me think about how important the usage of colors is. Every color used here highlights the part of the song that it appears in perfectly. It makes sense. The listener/viewer is taken on a journey with the lights simply with the use of color and some minor dimming and sweeps. There are no major strobes or anything too flashy. A lot of the things that I notice in the video are things I wouldn't have necessarily thought about before having taken classes on lighting. But now that I have that knowledge all the choices that the lighting designer made here make perfect sense. For me this is just an almost perfect example of how lights and music can meld together so well. When they compliment each other it enhances the experience that much more. Biggest take away for me from this performance is, colors matter. Use them wisely. Know where the band is trying to take the audience and help them lead the way with light.