The Blinding Light Show

Wow, I just pulled that song title out of thin air. It's an old Triumph song (they picked the least exciting section of that song for the 30–second sample). The only place I've ever heard it was on the Maxell Rock sampler album. Maxell sold these samplers back in the late '70s and then a 2nd series in the '80s. There was Rock, Jazz, and 2 other genres I think. I need to digitize that song. Or buy it from iTunes. Duh. That album also has Hall & Oates' August Day, which is one of the best musical depictions of a Summer day I've ever known. The chorused Yamaha electric piano sounds like heat rising off the road in the distance. The long, slow fade–in at the beginning evokes katydids (the northern variety that make one long note, rather than the repeating weee-a-weee-a-weee that the ones in Iowa made—do they still do that?), and the end sounds like crickets. The song could be an entire day and into the evening spent hangin' around the Taylor's front porch.

Anyhoo, getting back to my original point, the new lights are fan–fucking–tastic. Gone are the days of sunlamps on your head. Denny had fun running them. We also had another guy there to kinda preview a gig, because he'll be running sound for us at a May gig that Denny can't make. So they were both playing with the light board. It took them until the 3rd set to find the Full Flash button, which I noticed "get no"s in Satisfaction. That made me laugh. There was also about 20 seconds of total black at one point when they must've pushed something they weren't supposed to push. That made me laugh too.

So yeah, get some of these if you need new or more lights in your band. You can go all automatic if you want, letting each light run through its own preset programs, or even changing to the music with the built–mic. Depending on the light, they can also act as master and slave, so one could be the one choosing the program and changing to the music, and the rest just follow what it does, rather than all of them changing at their own speed or audio sensitivity.

The little par 38 size aluminum cans we have on the floor in front of my drums worked great for that, but might be too small to throw light from a tree to the band. They're $119. The ones we put on the trees are around $270 each. They're a lot smaller than a par 56 or 64, but just as bright as the older generation 56 sized LEDs. There are more choices all the time in this technology and at all price points, so go get some!

It was a great gig. Sadly we forgot to set up the video camera, so no footage of the lights in action or of our 2nd and last show with Craig. We begin auditions tonight for a new lead player.