last night, for the first time in a long time, i ran lights for a band. my friend, darin, is in this band, soulmotor, with brian wheat of tesla and tom mcclendon, formerly of ufo, and their drummer, who’s name is escaping me at the moment. it was their first gig in about a year and a half, and i was excited to go. i had run lights for previous bands that darin was in, and when i asked him if they already had a light man, he said no, but he wasn’t sure if brian had already found someone.
i picked up christy, darin’s wife, and lizz, a friend, at the catfish, and we headed out to the boardwalk, the club. once there, i met up with darin and he told me that there wasn’t anyone running lights, so i walked up to claude, the house sound man, and told him i was going to be running soulmotor’s lights. he was like, sure, whatever. tee-hee, i’s all a-flutter. i love running lights, and i’d gotten pretty good at it in the many years i did it.
they got their gear up on stage, and i checked out the board. same old board from the old days. the lights are seemingly randomly plugged in to the board – there is no order or symmetry to it at all. so, i go through all of the chases, and bumps, and focus the spotlight. ok, i have a good handle on it. really, it hasn’t changed all that much in the last 15 years, sadly. it could use a good light technician to reposition the cans and re-plug them into the board correctly.
so, the band goes on, and i start my show with them. fortunately, i’ve heard their second cd, revolution wheel, about 40 times, so i know the songs, and they didn’t deviate from their arrangements too terribly much. and the song or two from the first cd i had also heard, or watched the video on mtv, or something, so i knew it, too.
running the spot with one hand, i would set a slow chase with the rear lights, and control the front lights manually. trying to do two jobs at once, and it was pretty good.
i’m totally jazzed, because they have four or five more gigs in sacramento this summer, and then some in the bay area and santa cruz and stuff later on. maybe i’ll be able to convince them that i should come help them. that would be just like old times.
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