I play in a four piece rock band. Every band on our scene uses scanners or moving heads from behind themselves and par 64's on full dimmers from the side. When the moving heads go on, on their own, these bands look like the smoking men from the xfiles. I'd be all for that if it wasnt during the chorus of Mr Brightside you know?
When I go to see a big band like thin lizzy, or the darkness (last 2 gigs i was at) the band doesn't glow with the intensity of a par 64 4 foot above their head. And when the moving heads come on they aren't spinning like crazy, they groove to the style of the song and there is enough stage space for the beams to be seen over the wash over the musicians on the stage. So cheesy, for me, is trying to setup a 12 foot high ceiling like a 45 foot one in a theatre. Thats my idea of cheesy?
The thing all the competing bands have are 4-5 moving heads, two scanners and 4 par 64s. I also want to involve the crowd into the visual production and not to have 15 chases for the night. My ideas are as follows:
Create a mini wall of flash panels (9) behind the drummer, with 1 ADJ inno colour beam on the left front and one on the right front of the stage going out into the crowd on certain chases.
3 of my stairville par56's left and 3 right side facing down to light the stage. And two more of my par 56's used as uplighters behind the drummer on the ground to the left and right of the panels.
Right now I have two lasers going into the crowd, 2 par 56 uplighters, and 3 par 56 left and 3 right to light the stage with a hazer to get a nice wash. The lasers might be a bit much and risky ??
Any suggestions would be great. I liked the ADj inno's, used them at a gig on NYE and thought the chase we made where every light went off except the 2 moving heads looked fantastic, it really got the crowds attention and got them into the song.
Thanks for replying guys, I really cherish your advice,
Sean