Coloured lights can hypnotize

General discussion about Pink Floyd.
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Feeling Very Pink
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Coloured lights can hypnotize

Post by Feeling Very Pink »

Hmm, a while ago I read a post by someone who said that the light show thing during 'Wish You Were Here' in the p.u.l.s.e film detracted from the intimacy of the song. :o

Do you think these spectacular light and lazer shows were overblown and unnecessary? :?:

Personally, I love bloated stadium rock shows. I don't always feel as if I've got to be able to see the whites of the singer's eyes. :| :wink:
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decampos
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Post by decampos »

I hate those big stupid shows for the same reasons waters does.
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Post by Furious »

Pink Floyd started off their career experimenting with both a audio and a visual experience (so ive heard, someone may be able to clarify this further)

throughout the 70s big lights and effects became a trademark.

the big bloated stadium shows are more a product of commercialism than anything else.
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Post by Keith Jordan »

I think it is both important and "special" to be able to connect to a band intimately in a reasonably sized venue. I think arenas are too big. A relatively large hall is the best I think but not very economical if you want to use lots of great equipment for sound and lighting. Economies of scale are not high in a small hall! :lol:
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Post by Real Pink in the Inside »

I think big stadiums are fine if you're singing about nonsense or watching a football game. Pink Floyd's lyrics are not nonsense IMO (Pre-MLOR, anyway), so I'm not a big fan of Pink Floyd performing in huge stadiums.

As for the lightshow...I'm sure it really is as great as they say it is when you're on LSD, but I would go to a Pink Floyd show to hear the band perform the HOLY music. I highly doubt I would want to be under the influence of any drugs. I would expect it to be a special event. There's nothing wrong with spicing up the presentation a bit, but the music should always be at the forefront.
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Post by grateful pink »

I do not like big shows. The smaller the venue the better. I like having an more intimate relationship with the performers. The closer you get, the better it is, so long as the sound is good. In a larger venue i ususally stand by the soundboard to get better sound.

A light show is ok if it is not too much (better in the background) or to add to the mood of the performance.

I saw the Wall shows of 1980 on the east coast (all) and it was a big extravaganza. It fit The Wall show because IT was a big extravaganza. I would not necessarily like that for most of the shows or artists I see play live.
Last edited by grateful pink on Sun Feb 16, 2003 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Feeling Very Pink »

Yes, I guess The Wall stage show was almost a parody, which is a different thing. :)
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Post by David Smith »

And that person who complained about the treatment of WYWH on Pulse was me. God it ruined the song. Although on the album it sounds great i feel the radio intemission also should have been ditched and they should have just entred the song like on TDSOT.

Most songs arer helped by lights, but at times they do take over the concerts. As long as it's things like Inflatable pigs that you can look at out of choice it's fine, but i feel a huge video screen is taking things to far. It slihgtly loses the socialist feel of animals though when a flying pig and various other objects worth a few grand are floating around a stadium, although the wall was helped a lot by it's concert. It turely added to it.

What are Roger's current concerts like? Do they use lights and stuff?

Oh, this will probably sound really stupid, but people talk about the wall as an assault of stadium rock, i never picked up on that, how is it?
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Post by bong »

Pulse may have ruined WYWH for you, but ITF DVD ruined Welcome to The Machine (my fave floyd song) and several others for me.
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Post by Tommy »

man, its so dumb how pink floyd uses the same effects on songs in concert than they do on the album. especially WYWH, there is no need for the radio, its retarded. also the kids on ABITW part two, i never liked them in the first place. the absolute WORST thing is the backup singers in money, they completely ruined the song for me with their "woo woos" god it was horrible
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Post by David Smith »

I quite liked Roger's verion of WTTM actually, for me that was one of the highlights of the album. Roger's voice was brilliant on it.

Oh by the way, Roger was only the bassist, it's not like he played the whole verse to Comfortably Numb himself. the reason i bring this up is because it just gets to me that somehow Pink Floyd without Roger can't play the verse at the normal speed.

Anyway, enough complaining, while lights do ruin some songs (WYWH being the best example) the shows are still incerdible to watch.
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Post by Feeling Very Pink »

I ADORE the In The Flesh version of Wish You Were Here. I find the chorus incredibly moving. Great use of the backing singers. :)
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Post by madcap69 »

:shock: Well they didn't use any lights when they played there whole song catologe at my house six weeks ago.
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Post by quicksilver »

I was at both the MLOR and DB tours and they were incredible to watch live. I don't recall thinking at the time that the light show ruined any of the songs though and the video doesn't really bother me.

If they ever toured again with or without Roger I would like to see a scaled down production more reminisent of their early 70's shows; ideally played in smaller venues where you really have a connection with the audience. It would be nice to see them as they were in the beginning.
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Post by Feeling Very Pink »

This is a somewhat random David Gilmour quote, from http://www.pinkfloydfan.net/t1480.html, which I guess fits in with this 'ere thread...

"I think the question is, well, can the spectacle get any better. I don't know. Limits are there to be surpassed, I suppose, aren't they? People have been saying that we would never be able to top the original Dark Side Of The Moon show in 1973. We're not trying to top previous shows, we're just trying to do a different show each time as well as we could possibly do it. We've set the standards for this kind of show, ever since the stadium shows in 1973. Obviously, the technology is better, and it's easier to do many of the things: The lasers are of better quality, so is the sound system. But we had the quadra-phonic sound system and the circular screen even back then." Gilmour is also not inter-ested in going backwards, in making the show smaller or more intimate. "I'm not big on playing small places with Pink Floyd. I mean, when we'd been doing this tour for six months and finally got back to London, we played Earl's Court, which holds about 18,000 people. That was a nice small club, like being in Madison Square Garden," he laughs.

8)