How Light Shows Can Help Local Bands

Most concert clubs have lights, but no one to run them. The great thing about a club’s lights is that almost anyone can run them for you. You can usually get a friend to run them for free, and you can usually teach them how to do it in five to ten minutes. A venue like Fitzgerald’s in Houston has a great lighting rig and so does Kingdom in Richmond VA.

The bulk of small venue lighting systems consist of 6 to 12 scenes (groups of different, specific lights programmed to turn off and on at the same time) and single faders (or individual light switches that operate a single light). Groups usually don’t give the lights at a venue much thought, which explains why they usually don’t have anyone to run them, even though they are so easy to operate. The soundman at any given venue will usually simply turn the lights on and never touch the settings throughout the course of a show.

What many local bands fail to realize though is that having a good light show is extremely important. One of the reasons why they are so crucial is that a good light show can made your bands set more exciting for your fans. In my opinion, the best light shows are all about one thing: movement. The proper utilization of light movement on stage keeps the human eye continuously drawn to it. If people have nothing exciting to focus on, then it’s easy for them to get distracted and lose interest.

Another reason light shows at a local level are so important is that they can help to make your band look like a national act. There’s one technique in particular that you can use with your light show to make your group look professional. It’s almost subliminal and almost all national acts use every time they perform. Very few local groups use it at all, however. It’s called a black-out; all you have to do is black out the stage for only two seconds in-between songs. When a song ends, the light person turns off all of the lights for just a moment or two. He then turns them up, but only a little bit until the next song begins. This is so that the band can be seen to some degree, but the fans cannot view the entire stage until the next song starts up.

Light shows can also greatly increase the energy level of you show, whether you’re a local group or a national act. A good light show will amp up every single person in the room, from your fans in the crowd to your fellow band members as well. I can promise you that the better your light show is, the great the energy level at your show will be. And while the proper use of lights can clearly be a nice added push to taking your band to the next level, don’t forget to make every show as awesome as possible by filling up the club with your fans, making strong connections to every one at your show, and, of course, putting on the best show you possibly can.

Gorilla Productions puts on shows with independent acts in cities around the nation and offers promising bands a number of coaching and management resources. independent bands looking to take things to the next level continue to play shows like Gorilla Productions Battle of the Bands to improve their bios and play for big crowds.

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