Photo ©Nilina Mason-Campbell
What’s happened at the Doug Fir? I mean I know there’s been some staff turn-over of late on the booking side of the venue, but apparently the lighting side too. As early as the Thermals’ pair of performances at the beginning of December I noticed red light being much more prevalent, but now it’s the only color in use for lighting in the basement space. What happened to the person who used to create jaw-dropping stage lighting?
That said, I do believe we can all guess what color New Zealand act Cut Off Your Hands was bathed in when they came out on to the Doug Fir stage. Familiar with the band? You know, the one that used to be called Shaky Hands until our own hometown quartet The Shaky Hands (keyword: the) put an end to their name by way of good ole litigation? Well, it’s hard to be blown away by red light and even harder to be blown away by lyrics like “Oh, Girl the way you look just blows my mind,” especially when delivered completely un-ironically [unlike Muscles' very ironic style where he can get away with similarly as shoddy/cheesy lyrics,] and more in an impassioned ballad type fashion. In fact I noticed that many of the Kiwi group’s songs address each song’s subject/object of affection as simply “girl” – a rather impersonal moniker which is what I feel sums up the whole show. There wasn’t an ounce of in-between song banter, conversation or really talking of any sort save the introduction of four songs – by naming their titles – and a “thank you” and cheers” here and there. But let it not go unmentioned the amount of fancy footwork on behalf of frontman Nick Johnston who bounced around whenever any song called for his and his bandmate’s high energy posturing.
At first I thought my chilly reaction to Cut Off Your Hands meant that I was simply divorced from venue shows, then I thought it might be guitar music and then I realized nope, it was specifically the band.
Highlight of the show? Definitely the i-pod based playlist overhead before Cut Off Your Hands took to the stage. Who’s i-pod? Ra Ra Riot‘s mixer. Deerhunter, MGMT’s “Electric Feel,” a tune from Walter Meego, some Walkmen and a dash of quality electro all made audio appearances. Much of the crowd took it upon themselves to create an imaginary six foot barrier between them and the stage and with that fine playlist booming above, I dare say it was the perfect space for a dance party. And that just what I got up to.
When you said the lyrical delivery was “Muscles” style, I thought you were referring to Uncle Muscles from Tim & Eric’s Awesome Show. That mental theater was far more entertaining than the reality…Now when do we get the real life version of Casey and His Brother?
Behold:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TeeWsybwLc
Fear the reaper.
February 27th, 2009 at 7:28 pmI don’t think Doug Fir has EVER had anybody in-house who “used to create jaw-dropping stage lighting,” and certainly not recently. If you’ve seen some jaw-dropping stuff, I would guess it was from people brought in by the band–including me, Dave (remember Stephanie Schneiderman’s CD release in November? Or the last Dirty Martini show there?).
Mick Learn, in addition to being a superb sound engineer, often will gel the lights–but he has to work with what’s there, which usually isn’t very good. He improves on it, but he can only do so much. In fact, I was in there with Stephanie last Saturday, and when I replaced the house gels at the end of the night (I bring my own), I thought the colors were pretty lame, with too much red/pink/purple.
Club owners are the ones ultimately responsible for crappy lighting. Just as they have to invest in a good sound system, pay to keep it in good shape, and pay a sound engineer who knows what they’re doing, they need to do the same for lighting–but most club owners don’t bother. If the lighting sucks, the audience will not say “Oh, I hate going there, the lighting is always so bad,” as they might with the sound or weak drinks or whatever. But the audience won’t enjoy or get as absorbed into the show as much as they would with “jaw-dropping stage lighting” (although they may not realize why), and that ultimately affects how much they’re willing to pay for tickets, how much they’re willing to go see a band again, and so on.
So all that said (did you just punch a big button here, Dave?), it may very well have been the band themselves who changed the lighting that night to be so red!
–Jessica
February 27th, 2009 at 11:08 pmI felt the same way. I liked what I’d heard on their record well enough, but had to leave for a few minutes during their set.
Telekinesis were great, though, and Ra Ra Riot were AMAZING!
February 28th, 2009 at 2:37 am@Jessica,
This post is by Nilina, not me, although I agree with her review of the night and the lights…
February 28th, 2009 at 9:35 amOops–And there’s her byline, right at the top. I was sloppy because you posted the link, so sorry about that. And you do agree that my lighting is jaw-dropping, right? ;-)
February 28th, 2009 at 5:33 pmOh it’s been red since at least November and I have the high definition video to prove it. Are you saying that “Miss Murgatroid†is no longer with Doug Fir? It would be very disappointing to hear that. Did you hear Menomena is doing a short tour with Block Party?…. I just can’t get over the irony Dave…. but hey I hope it works out well for them.
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:59 pmYou’ll have to forgive us… I keep forgetting that “Dave Allen’s” music blog features guest contributors on a regular basis….. and there is NOTHING wrong with that as busy as he must be; I have a ridiculous amount of respect for everything he has done for the scene.
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:04 pm@Menomenation, she is at Mississippi Studios, now.
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:43 pmYeah we are updating the whole site real soon so that each contributor will have there own area or column as it were to avoid confusion.
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:51 pmYeah, that venue is no good for filming. Way too dark.
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:07 pm