Sitting in an airplane I was just reminded of an interesting conversation I had last week about lighting and music. I was fortunate enough to not only see, but meet, Sonic Youth when they played the Fox Oakland last Sunday. It was a great show. The music was superb and the members of the band who I met, very pleasant to talk to.
The lighting for the show was quite beautiful. There were a few basic elements used and recombined in very interesting ways. First there were four semi-transparent light boxes lit from the front and within. Then eight boxes with incandescent PARs in a 5×5 grid arranged in a semi-circle pointed at the audience. Next up were a half-dozen color changing strobes arranged similarly to the incandescents. Lastly was what I presume to be the house plot, a few dozen moving lights of different varieties.
The evolution of the elements over the course of the show was stunning. The light boxes changed color lit from both directions, thus providing us with an ever shifting color field. The strobes, also color changing, really punched the post-punk deconstructed sound of the band. The overhead lights did what they do best, atmosphere, texture, movement and color.
The real surprise of the show, from a lighting perspective were the incandescents. Not only was the color, clear incandescent light, an almost shocking experience within a rock setting, a medium typified by heavy saturated color, but the sophistication with which they were used was delightful and surprising.
Starting out they did some basic strobing and chase effects blasting the audience the way any good bank of PARs should do. As the show went on, it was revealed that each lamp was individually controlled. These lights morphed from blunt banks of light to clever geometric patterns to words to the organic feel of flames and clouds.
The end result was a lighting scheme sophisticated like the music. While never letting up its grounding as a punk influenced rock show, it revealed an intellectual and aesthetic sophistication akin to the music itself.
Talking with Lee Ranaldo after the show the subject of lighting came up and we discussed what their lighting designer was doing for the tour. Lee mentioned that he liked how simple the design was. I replied that while it used a few simple elements the actual design was quite sophisticated. This led to a brief conversation about the distinction between simplicity and complexity.
The simplicity of the lighting was of a similar nature to that of the band: four guitars, vocals and drums. Lee explained that it was the simplicity of the elements that he was responding to. I found it amazing how the seemingly simple, once one scratches the surface, fast becomes quite complex. Musically this is what Sonic Youth has done for years, taken a rather simple conventional structure and turned it into something amazingly dynamic and sophisticated. Well beyond what is often found in guitar based music.
Sophistication it seems does not derive from complexity. In fact it often arises out of simplicity. This is the essence of minimalism. Minimalism is not about eschewing elements for the sake of fewer things alone. Rather it is a matter of clearing out the noise to provide a clearer and cleaner signal.
Utilizing a few simple elements in profound and complex ways often displays a deeper understanding of the material than a solution that constantly cries out for more. Being comfortable with the material and one’s tools to the point that you can step back and allow the performance to emerge on its own terms takes a great degree of skill.
I am writing this from a window seat on an airplane flying west. Below me are clouds bathed in the warm glow of the slow setting sun. Perhaps as far an image, some might say, from the aesthetics of a rock show. And yet, the visual sophistication created with a single lighting source mirrors in some way the minimalist roots of post-punk Rock and Roll.
