Week #9 - Concert Lighting

I attended a concert at the giant Gibson Ampitheater at Universal Studios this past week. I admired the lighting throughout the whole concert, something I had never taken too much notice of at concerts before. This photo is of the first opening band, which I unfortunately don't remember the name of. The band included a female lead singer and the rest of the band was male. The lead singer was dressed in a shiny white cloak, which picked up the lighting very well. Throughout their entire set the lighting was definitely used to bring the band into the world of whatever song they were playing, and to take the audience on the emotional journey as the band played. My seats were located to the far right of the stage, giving me the ability to see the ray of light coming from the lighting instrument that you can see in this picture. Haze was utilized to highlight these rays of light, as well as to give it a rock-n-roll concert vibe. What I noticed when I took this picture is how the lead singer is highlighted and the rest of the band is in darkness. I don't know anything about this band, but as a first-time viewer, to me this says that their main selling point is the female lead singer, and the musicians are her back up. This makes me think of No Doubt's history as a band (No Doubt was the headliner for this concert) and the drama bands go through when one member of the band, usually the singer, gets more attention. This band used a lot of color changes throughout, and a lot of lights in general, because the venue is so huge, and the lights had to read to so many people in a vibrant, energetic way. I was wondering how lighting for big concerts like this works... if the venue has a lighting designer, or if each band has their own lighting designer, and how it works when bands move from venue to venue during a tour and lighting grids/equipment change from venue to venue. Interesting stuff.