In our last class, we discussed how flashing images of light can be taken as a form of narrative in itself. When certain patterns emerged, a story was told through sound and visual explanation. I suddenly thought of music as a narrative in itself, live music in particular. The first thing that came to my mind was the improvisational rock band, Phish.
Phish is comprised of just 4 members but most fans claim that there is a 5th member in the band, Chris Kuroda. Kuroda is the lighting designer/operator for Phish. Just as each concert is unpredictable, his lighting effects are just as much unpredictable, seemingly communicating telepathically with the band. He knows when the musical "peak" in a jam is going to occur, when a jam is going to be more ambient than rock-sounding, and when to cut off the lights altogether.
Every song tells a story but when a particular song has many different layers and sections it is much more beautiful to appreciate live and seeing the song "come to life" so to speak. For instance, the song "You Enjoy Myself" is a classical piece written as a rock opera containing 5 different distinct sections within the song, including a trampoline segment in which the guitarist and bassist jump on trampolines while only the bassist and pianist are playing at the same time. Kuroda knows exactly what's going to happen next within the song every time, which makes it a bit easier but being that Phish is a jam band and have never played the same set twice, they might throw in a song without notice in which case Kuroda has to be prepared. Touring with them for over 20 years, it seems he has mastered the technique so well that it makes sense to call him the 5th member of the band.
I couldn't upload the photos so I just posted the web addresses.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Alpine.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_KihadJcC05o/SbzGFWNu_HI/AAAAAAAACLw/4_b6l1fIVaA/s4...
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