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



## jfetter (Jan 21, 2012)

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


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## Pie4Weebl (Jan 21, 2012)

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 (Jan 21, 2012)

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


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## chausman (Jan 21, 2012)

DrPinto said:


> 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.


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## mstaylor (Jan 22, 2012)

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.


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## JohnD (Jan 22, 2012)

mstaylor said:


> 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.


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## Esoteric (Jan 22, 2012)

Pie4Weebl said:


> 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.




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.


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## mstaylor (Jan 22, 2012)

JohnD said:


> 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.


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## StewTech (Jan 22, 2012)

T.S.O. 

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


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## len (Jan 22, 2012)

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


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## jfetter (Jan 23, 2012)

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


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## shiben (Jan 23, 2012)

jfetter said:


> 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.


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## DELO72 (Jan 23, 2012)

shiben said:


> 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.


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## jfetter (Jan 23, 2012)

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


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## Pie4Weebl (Jan 23, 2012)

If you want to see the band buy a poster!


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## shiben (Jan 24, 2012)

Pie4Weebl said:


> 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.


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## gafftaper (Jan 24, 2012)

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.


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## Grog12 (Jan 24, 2012)

shiben said:


> 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.


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## bishopthomas (Jan 24, 2012)

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.


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## BalanceLighting (Jan 24, 2012)

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.


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## bishopthomas (Jan 24, 2012)

Yeah, Fenton is an amazing LD, has won some awards for his designs.

Also, welcome to Control Booth! I'm originally from Jonesboro, so nice to see a fellow Arkansan around these hear parts. Have you introduced yourself in the new member forum? I'm curious as to how much quality work is in your neck of the woods, since I moved away around 6 years ago.


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## BanditRO (Jan 24, 2012)

jfetter said:


> 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


 
Garth Brooks 1996-1998 world tour. The Garthship Enterprise was the most versatile, best moving rig I have had the pleasure of seeing, and building!!!


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## Voltage (Jan 24, 2012)

Brickman was definitely the pioneer for me. I find myself trying to make my shows look like Pink Floyd more than I realize. I'm also a sucker for anything that Chris Kuroda (aka CK5) or Jeff Waful do.

Here is one of my favorite CK5 memories.


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## mstaylor (Jan 24, 2012)

I have seen some very artistic uses of side,back lighting,floor lighting and fog/smoke. Audience abuse is fine occasionally and movers going out in the audience when used sparingly. To me overuse of blinding the audience for any reason or method is wrong. It's bad lighting but in my opinion it is wrong lighting. The other thing I see regularly is moving lights at weird rates with respect to the music, this also is wrong lighting. 
You can do unconventional things without it being bad lighting. You can do numbers where there is never any front light and look great. There are so many things that look great, many that are OK, but there are a few that just suck.


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## jfetter (Jan 24, 2012)

I would like to see a show with say 400 Par's, all pretty much focused straight down or on a curve, just huge banks of color changes or cycling through in chorus line-style, all with color scrollers! Something about the movement of the gels in scrollers that looks better than smooth transitions as with RGB mixing. Aso love to see a plexi or all-grate stage with a huge amount of light from below, lots of movers too and fog bellowing up from below ;-)

Jack


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## Pie4Weebl (Jan 25, 2012)

mstaylor said:


> To me overuse of blinding the audience for any reason or method is wrong. It's bad lighting but in my opinion it is wrong lighting.


 
I suggest you never come see any electronic music event I light.


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## soundlight (Jan 25, 2012)

One of my favorite shows that I've seen was the Goo Goo Dolls tour in early 2007. The lighting was simple but incredibly effective and many-layered. Small fixture count, but all fixtures were used incredibly well. Each song was carefully cued and different parts of the rig were used in each song. Freshman year of college, definitely influenced my style of how I want to light concerts.

The rig consisted of MAC2K profiles - I think 7 of them, 10 or so MAC600s, some movers on the FOH truss that I didn't recognize at the time (didn't yet have my encyclopedic knowledge of what different moving lights look like), and 20-lite MR16 blinders with scrollers arranged in 3 levels plus a set of them on the floor lighting a theatrical curtain in the back. I'm fairly certain there were two levels of subhung truss (with spansets, I think). The rig also had white stretch panels in it that were lit with Source Four PARs with scrollers on them. Some of the S4 Pars also punched down between the panels. The result was a very organic, multi-layered rig that had a phenomenal variety of looks possible and a great range of layers and options for lighting.

Combine that with an LD who really cued the show quite well (I was watching him occasionally during the show, and every go and flash and swop button press was very deliberate and right on). There was also a system of Source Fours with gobos & CTB gel in them (gobo was a version of Pointed Breakup I think) that was one of the between-song washes. Also used during several songs. Looked great. Another thing of note is that the LD also tried to keep the light on the stage and didn't keep movers focused on the audience for extended periods of time - they were on stage of above the audience, not just punching people in the face other than for some move effects, flyouts, and flyins.

Here's a couple of videos of shows from that tour that let you see parts of the rig (warning for bad sound quality; they're live videos from 07 - not much you can expect there):
Goo Goo Dolls Live at Robinson Center in Little Rock, AR - YouTube
Goo Goo Dolls - Iris - YouTube
Goo Goo Dolls-Stay With You - YouTube
Broadway - Goo Goo Dolls - YouTube
Can't Let It Go - Goo Goo Dolls - Kirby Center 2/3/2007 - YouTube

There are three other shows that I really enjoyed lighting-wise, not all in person though. Out of these I only saw TSO 07/08 in person.

One was the 07-08 Trans Siberian tour. Before they added too much video and it got to be a trash n trash show. Back when he took more care in cueing the movers. (I think that the TSO tours have gone way downhill since video elements were added in heavier - I still think the snow cue looked way better with a real fiber optic curtain not an LED curtain that attempts to simulate it. Even the 3 LED screens in the 07/08 tour were not great IMO, but I did quite like the chevrons of Versa-Tubes). The rig had 10 pods over the stage, each with a Showgun, other movers (VL3K Spots, MAC2K Washes), ACLs, PARs, strobes, versa tubes & CB12s. Heavy upstage wall & deck rigs as well, as with any TSO show, and there was also plenty of pyro as usual. I will have to say that the truss moves with the 10 pods were definitely the best part about the show. Great looks with moving them to different positions. Oh, and the truss did the wave. Links:
SHOWGUNs and Wholehogs Play Instrumental Role on Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Trans-Siberian (Carol of the Bells- Sarajevo) LIVE 12/07 - YouTube

Next up, Paramore Final Riot Tour. Well cued, low fixture count, but a well designed rig with a good amount of lighting layers. Showguns, MAC2K Washes, 4-lite & 2-lite blinders, Atomics, and some other toys including Versa-Tubes in the shape of "RIOT" in the truss. Links:
Paramore- The Final Riot! Live In Chicago- Misery Business- Track 15 - YouTube
Paramore- The Final Riot! Live In Chicago- Fences- Track 4 - YouTube

Finally, anything recent from Umphrey's Mcgee. Just look at the live stuff on the umvideo channel on youtube. It's amazing. Jeff Waful is a master with MACIIIs and an MA. His strict separation of MAC301s out front and various spot fixtures on stage (generally profiles/spots only on stage Some of my favorite stuff from them is actually covers, but I also like the live versions of their original stuff. Here's a few links:
From early on, Cemetary Walk
More recently, Much Obliged
And quite recently, two covers, 25 or 6 to 4 and You Can't Always Get What You Want.


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## shiben (Jan 25, 2012)

Voltage said:


> Brickman was definitely the pioneer for me. I find myself trying to make my shows look like Pink Floyd more than I realize. I'm also a sucker for anything that Chris Kuroda (aka CK5) or Jeff Waful do.
> 
> Here is one of my favorite CK5 memories.




I wonder how much of that smoke is actually produced by a hazer?


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## zmb (Jan 26, 2012)

soundlight said:


> One was the 07-08 Trans Siberian tour. Before they added too much video and it got to be a trash n trash show. Back when he took more care in cueing the movers. (I think that the TSO tours have gone way downhill since video elements were added in heavier - I still think the snow cue looked way better with a real fiber optic curtain not an LED curtain that attempts to simulate it. Even the 3 LED screens in the 07/08 tour were not great IMO, but I did quite like the chevrons of Versa-Tubes). The rig had 10 pods over the stage, each with a Showgun, other movers (VL3K Spots, MAC2K Washes), ACLs, PARs, strobes, versa tubes & CB12s. Heavy upstage wall & deck rigs as well, as with any TSO show, and there was also plenty of pyro as usual. I will have to say that the truss moves with the 10 pods were definitely the best part about the show. Great looks with moving them to different positions. Oh, and the truss did the wave. Links:
> SHOWGUNs and Wholehogs Play Instrumental Role on Trans-Siberian Orchestra
> Trans-Siberian (Carol of the Bells- Sarajevo) LIVE 12/07 - YouTube


 
Agreed, I've seen some of the you tube videos and it has a crap load of instruments in what eventually become predictable effects.


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## kevis45 (Jan 26, 2012)

I really am a fan of Coldplays lighting style. Its very original and creative. They also have a great balance of effects, colors, and feel through out the entire production.


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## soundlight (Jan 26, 2012)

kevis45 said:


> I really am a fan of Coldplays lighting style. Its very original and creative. They also have a great balance of effects, colors, and feel through out the entire production.


 
I almost forgot! I'm a fan of most things done by Coldplay's LD, Paul Normandale. He did some great stuff on the recent James Blunt tour with MAC101s and MACIIIs. He also owns his own production company - Lite Alternative - that provides gear for a lot of the European shows he designs. Here's Martin Professional's MAC101 promo video from the James Blunt tour. I think that Normandale is one of the most uniquely creative concert LDs out there right now.


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## Esoteric (Jan 26, 2012)

I love Holder's theater designs. Between him and Kevin Adams they could light every show I watch.


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## EBB (Jan 26, 2012)

I remember working the ACDC Black Ice tour when it came here and was very entertained from the spot position. It mixed really well with lighting and video and whatnot. Altogether it was just a good show. But then again that comes from being a long time fan of them in general and wish I could have seen Stiff Upper Lip. But was a bit young at the time. 

A teacher of mine showed us video of the Bigger Bang tour for Rolling Stones and I remember watching that more in awe of how ridiculous it looked- of course not soon after I saw that, I saw the pictures of U2's 360 tour and was amazed at that. In any case, that show had a really cool look to it and the lighting seemed spot on to alot of the songs. I should really sit down and watch it again. 

Overall with the 360 tour, I wasn't all that impressed to be honest. Neat stage design. Alot of lights. But it just seemed very... boring at times. The video made up for it. But still, I felt like that show was very over rated for what it was. I'm sure it took a long time to program and trying to edit and change things like that in 2 days is a mighty task when it's 250+ movers and 270+ atomics. Especially more difficult during legs of the tour where the set lists would change often on a weekly basis according to a buddy of mine. 

As for that TSO comment about it being great. I saw it here last year and the year before. Meh. Alot of fixtures, video and pyro don't make a show good. Usage of said effects makes them what they are. The lasers were probably the more interesting effect in my opinion. But often looked like they were either mis-cued or just didn't feel like they matched up with the music at all. Like the Carol of the Bells would have this really hard hitting kick and floor tom sound that felt like it would be great for strobes or the ACL effects. But instead it was very plain and oddly colored(Mixture of on the movers and white on what looked like all the LED's). And then when it slowed down, it strobed. Alot. 

From what it seemed like to me, it was a show that had alot of crap and who ever designed it wanted to use it all at once every chance they could get. I wasn't impressed. Automation on the other hand. Neat. making the truss triangles pull together at the right angle with the Versatubes and Stagebars to look like a jaw of teeth. Awesooome. haha. 


Now here's a story I like that I heard from some of the union guys here in Jacksonville. So Garth Brooks apparently was touring with rig that supposedly weighed somewhere in the range of 120 tons back in 2000 or some time around then. When he came to the coliseum(now demolished and arena built in it's place) with the said gear, safety inspectors believed the amount of equipment on that side of the building was so much that they had to hang about 20 tons of concrete in the air to make it safe, otherwise the building would literally "roll over". Funny story. Not sure how true the numbers and whatnot are. But alot of the older guys like to talk about how they hung concrete in the old coliseum to prevent it from falling on itself like a turtle.


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## avkid (Jan 27, 2012)

soundlight said:


> Finally, anything recent from Umphrey's Mcgee. Just look at the live stuff on the umvideo channel on youtube. It's amazing. Jeff Waful is a master with MACIIIs and an MA. His strict separation of MAC301s out front and various spot fixtures on stage (generally profiles/spots only on stage Some of my favorite stuff from them is actually covers, but I also like the live versions of their original stuff. Here's a few links:
> From early on, Cemetary Walk
> More recently, Much Obliged
> And quite recently, two covers, 25 or 6 to 4 and You Can't Always Get What You Want.


Last June when they were on our big stage was the first time I had ever seen a JB Lighting A7.
Creative Stage Lighting always bring the coolest toys.


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## Marcello (Jul 2, 2015)

Chemical Brothers, Underword, DaftPunk and Massive Attack make wonderful things.


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## DELO72 (Jul 2, 2015)

I thought Broken Bells had some terrific lighting in their tour for After the Disco. I don't specifically recall the lighting, persay, but Peter Gabriel always puts on one hell of a theatrical display with elevators, conveyor belts, and other fun imagery. His lighting and staging for the US tour was amazing and left the biggest impression on me of all shows I've seen. Also- in tribute to the recent passing of the late, great Chris Squire, YES always did a nice job with their lighting.

I can say that hands down the worst concert lighting I have ever seen was Patrick Woodruff's lighting of The Police's reunion tour at the Pepsi Center in Denver. I'm not convinced it was the design necessarily as it is rare for a designer of that reknown to do such a terrible job, or the Lighting director for that particular venue, but the focus points were completely off so nothing worked, and it was absolutely terrible. So bad in fact, that my friend who knows nothing at all about lighting, turned to me without prompting and said, "This is the worst lighting I've ever seen!". Which...when a non-lighting snob notices it and feels it's worth mentioning, you have a problem! *laugh*


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