lighting

[prancing_pony]

I am a 44 year old musician and I love NC. I saw them last year at the IU campus in Bloomington Indiana. I loved the show but the lighting was nasty. The back lights sweeping the people were blinding. I thought I was just getting old and forget about it. Then I found out I was not alone.
Go here to read more
http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?;act=ST;f=12;t=29657

I know this is mostly a fan club board but there must be someone here that can pass the message along to someone In the know
I love these guys and have even taken up playing mandolin because of chris but Guys your lighting sucks [bang]

[JeffLester]

There have been a bunch of show reviews here on the NC message board that have also shown a displeasure for the lighting scheme for this tour.

[PrincessNic]

Yes, we have all had issues with the lighting. I hate what I call seizure lights.

[iamalighthouse]

When people wear sunglasses during shows, the lighting people need to get a clue...........*cough cough.....Fox theatre, Atlanta......cough cough*
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[matt the fiddler]

It is auctually a pretty widly practiced lighting scheme in concerts nowadays.. there are downsides to them, but I knwo many peopel feel the lights [in the face] add to the surrealness of the show.. to put it one way.

i was just at a non creek concert 2 weeks ago, and found the blindings to be approprate and artisticly used :)

[e-rock2]

I agree with Matt as I'm sure it's an artistic statement. It's just that people who have seen them in the past with their simple lighting are having a hard time adjusting to it. With the way they are, I'm not surprised that they wanted to try something different.

[matt the fiddler]

i didn't see the recent nc show [saw some pics of the setup]- but i have seen some pretty big light shows with a band that played along :) it looks pretty simple overall- and not too much in your face...

[including one on a stage in the round inside an inflatable stadium] every angle you were blasted wiht light.. man that was sweet.

[Gwaihir89]

The Fox show in Atalanta seemed like it had a different feel to it than all the other concerts. It only felt like a Nickel Creek show after the show (out back). The lights probably were one contributer to that because it looks like this is the first time they can afford their own major light setup. Which might show how popular they are getting. I guess I just don't want them to get too popular because if their are going to be concerts where there are thousands of people, my concert going will definitely be cut down. I mean don't get me wrong they are great musicians and they deserve it, but i like that intimacy in the small venues. I like people chearing at every great solo that Sara, Sean, Chris, and even Mark play during the songs , and that was something i didn't get in the Fox show. It seemed so empty. This was just one thing that i had to get off my mind. (Sorry for the really long reply)

[Red Zep]

^^^ I totally agree. I was at the show at the Fox and it was nothing like the one I saw in Athens with about 500 people. It did feel kinda empty, and I was pretty far away. They played great of course, but I just didn't have the same experience.

[quietstorm8228]

Yeah, I'll have to agree with you on the lighting...it did suck majorly. It made it extremely hard to get any decent pictures too since flash isn't allowed. I hope someone gets the word and fixes them soon!!!

[gelfling]

Amen! I was front and center at the Kansas City show and found myself shielding my eyes and even looking away at times when I should have had the best view in the theater. The lights do make for some beautiful pictures that I've seen posted on the internet, but maybe if they were angled up higher than eye level, it would be easier to see the rockingoutness.

[iamalighthouse]

I'm sure the lights have some artistic purpose, but when they start to bother so many hard core, awesome fans as all of us, something needs to happen. It was kinda cool though at the Fox when Chris's shadow was cast on the wall.
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[e-rock2]

I think many people are missing the point that Nickel Creek are about artistic expression. If we fans like it great, but it is not why they are doing it.

[Jared]

I loved the lights at the concert in Minneapolis. I was in the balcony, but they hardly seemed to go out into the audience at all. The redness of Best of Luck was perfect.

[earendil]

Consider this: The stage, for musicians, is like your office at work (imagine you have you own office for a sec!). Eventually you would change the way it looks just to change it. The light system, and a few other things, on this tour is comparable to new furniture or painting the walls.

Personally I thought they overdid it. I saw them on 11/3 and 11/6 at two very differen't venues and both times the lights frustrated me.

[EstherSmith]

i think that some of the lights really enhanced the show and the specific songs they were playing.

but i also agree that some of it was ridiculous. blinding and when it becomes distracting and makes it uncomfortable to hear a song- then yes- its bothersome.

i would say what i thought was really unnecessary was the spotlight. somebody would turn it on whomever was singing lead and completely miss the person. then it just looked silly to the point where i was giggling.

[Gwaihir89]

Iamalighthouse, I noticed that too. When they were playing Nice Dream . You could see Chris' shadow flashing against the wall during his mandolin solo. That was really cool. It was also kind of cool when the lights went into a frenzy towards the end of Helena .

[iamalighthouse]

^Yeah it was cool wasn't it. And now that I really think about it, I can remember how it may have been artistic, but I sure wasn' t thinking about that at the concert. The lights were only bothering me then.
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[e-rock2]

Although I understand why they did it, I really don't think they need to be concerned with the lighting because the music carries the show. It makes it hard to take pics with the set-up that they had. But that is why it is their show and not ours.

[iamalighthouse]

^i agree

[Ikkin1018]

The only time I really noticed the lighting (when I went in October at the House of Blues in Cleveland) was when they opened with When in Rome. They had this big ol' white light shining behind them, and I think it was supposed to make them seem like silhouettes or something, but anyway, it was shining in my eyes like mad, and I had to like shift to put the light behind Chris's head in my line of vision. The rest of the show didn't bother me too much, but I was right up against the stage, so it may have been a different experience for others in the audience.

[EmmieOdysseus]

THe lighting at their recent show in Portland (OR) was actually amazing (amazing enough for me to think, Whoa...cool lights).

[AftonChemicalCo]

Some times, They(light people) like to light up the crowd for safety reasons. I did a couple of shows in Northern Va. (as a sound tech) where they had lights on the crowd for different reasosn.

Also, do they pack their own lights? I mean two boards, snakes, splits, inears, instruments, and then lights, thats alot to fit in that small trailer, Atleast, the lights I saw made up a lot of gear.