WSJ.com: Two weeks agoAl Gurdon was at a dance studio in Manhattan, having just wrapped days of rehearsing for Beyoncé's Super Bowl halftime show. Mr. Gurdon, the lighting designer for Sunday's show, stood in the midst of stacks of rack-mounted computers, consoles for controlling the machines, and screens on which virtual renderings of the show are displayed
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I strongly agree with Gurdon about "less is more". I've been to quite a few concerts and music festivals, and live theatre shows in my life up to this point. But, especially in the music world, designers tend to go a little "glitz" crazy. I think the statement, though somewhat condescending, that no one whistles for the lights, is true. Lights are good at creating moments, and when one or more of those moments in a song or set list is truly memorable, that's when a design has been successful. I've been to enough shows to have seen lights that seem to have a mind of their own, constantly moving, for no real apparent reason. One of the worst offenders I can recently remember was the Killer's concert I went to last summer. The beams of light behind the band moved constantly for every single song, and they moved rapidly. Those lights have a time and place, and during dramatic moments in a song, or an ending beat of a song would be excellent, but overuse wears the eyes thin, and distracts from the performers. I remember seeing a band called Silversun Pickups, and I remember the lighting of that show, but in a good way! They stuck to a simple(ish) color palate between blue and red, but the lighting was still interesting. Sometimes, the simpler things, are more memorable in the end.
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