USA - New Hampshire-based LD Brian Courchine, designer at the well-known Northland Music and Arts Festival, has made a career out of studying the inexorable connection between music and colour.
Courchine recently designed the lightshow for a sold-out concert at Infinity Hall in Hartford by Pink Talking Fish. Among the more successful tribute bands, Pink Talking fish combines the music of Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, and Phish, each evoking a different aura – and each lending itself to a different palette. Adding a little extra spice to this particular evening was the healthy serving of Beatles songs thrown into the set.
Following the music with his colour rendering skills, Courchine immersed each song in hues that fit it like a glove. “I try to make a distinction between the three musical acts in the Pink Talking Fish show,” he explained. “Talking Heads is usually a more straightforward vibe. Although this band does jam out these songs, the palette I choose will stick within boundaries. On the other hand, Pink Floyd tunes can be a roller coaster. Some of their more epic songs can range anywhere from a single solo spot to an explosive, fill-the-room-with-bright-beautiful-gobos types of looks.
“Then again, they also have straight up rock‘n’roll songs like Young Lust, where I stick with the same vibe throughout,” continued Courchine. “With the Phish tunes I pretty much go on auto pilot. I’ve seen Chris Kuroda do lights for Phish so many times, I just think, 'W.W.CK.D?' if he still only had 16 movers. The night in question also included a good amount of Beatles songs, which I tried to keep a unified palette. Also, I realise everything I just said can fly out the window in the moment.”
Courchine called on the colour rendering prowess of 32 Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures to create his multi-hued show. He had eight R1 Spots and eight R1 Washes in his floor package to complement the eight R2 Spot and eight R1 Wash units in the venue’s house rig.
“All my spots and washes usually end up in a line upstage,” said Courchine. “I try to keep them away from the backdrop for situations when I want to project gobos back on it. It’s helpful that PTF sets up across the downstage area, so I am never fighting for space.”
Courchine used the lighting fixtures in his rig to create a richly textured background of colourful aerial gobo patterns. “I’m not a big fan of video. I don’t want to choose the distinct image or feeling that an audience member is going to associate with a specific song,” he explained. “That being said, I have seen it done very, very well.
"I definitely use the backdrop sparingly. The song attached to the picture with the backdrop lit was Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles. It’s one of the more psychedelic songs I know by them, so I was going for that old-school oil projection look by just swirling a few different gobos with a prism.”
