Unique Stage Set Ideas

[tubetonez]

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[RyanVanHalen]

I can't watch youtube at work... can someone explain to me what is in the above movie?

[JBJ]

the TVs sound cool if a bit unpractical.

 

i go to see a guy david ford who sometimes brings a park bench, lamppost n stuff with him on tour and he's playing fairly small stages with lots of musicians.

 

it looks cool as fuck though when he sits on it n strums as if he's on a park bench.

 

maybe not suited to your music though...

 

ive seen damien rice just have lots of candles dotted around the stage. again not your type of artist but that would work with just about any band. got to make sure youre allowed to do it though...

 

 

liking the music btw and im not into heavy stuff at all (if you hadnt already guessed )

[colinwd]

I recently saw an indie-nerd band (think tokyo police club) who had a lay-z-boy recliner and a floor-standing lamp, and they had one of their friends sit in the chair and read a book the entire concert oblivious to the band playing in front of him.

the band kinda sucked.. but the reading-guy was interesting for the first few seconds of the show.

[tubetonez]

 

I can't watch youtube at work... can someone explain to me what is in the above movie?

 

 

It's a compilation vid of Wendy-O and the Plasmatics, shows some creative use of TV's on stage ;-)

[tws!]

My band uses flood lights that we wired switches to so that during certain parts of the set we can turn them on. They are 1000w each and we have them set up behind our stacks pointed straight forward so that it blinds the shit out of the crowd and gives us all a silhouette effect. We also have boxes that we put work lights into. We wired normally off switches into them and mounted them so that they barely pass the top of the box. We mounted some plexiglas on hinges so that it's easy to get in and fix, but protects the wiring and also gives us a platform to stand on. When we step on the box, light shoots up from inside. I want to build two more light boxes and wire a master on/off switch for both of them and then wired two normally off switches to each respective box and mount those switches to underside of our drummers double bass pedal . The master switch would allow him to kick it in during certain parts of the set so it has a nice effect and isn't going all the time. Having independent switches would allow the boxes to actually flash with each beater. It would be really cool for double bass runs flashing on different sides of the stage.

 

There are a couple of drawbacks to all this:

 

1. Room. It sucks to have to transport all the stuff, taking up trailer/van space.

2. Cost. It's not too awfully costly, but there are other things we could have spent the money on. Hopefully it makes people remember us. We do get a lot of compliments

3. Stage room. With the floods behind our amps and the boxes in front it's not too bad, but things could easily get out of control.

4. Power. We've blown the power by just having our amps and the house p.a. running at a small venue before, and some venues aren't crazy about all the extra power drain we bring on em

5. It's not for all audiences. This stuff would probably just piss off the bar crowd, but for all age shows that we play, kids dig it.

[RyanVanHalen]

My band uses flood lights that we wired switches to so that during certain parts of the set we can turn them on. They are 1000w each and we have them set up behind our stacks pointed straight forward so that it blinds the shit out of the crowd and gives us all a silhouette effect. We also have boxes that we put work lights into. We wired normally off switches into them and mounted them so that they barely pass the top of the box. We mounted some plexiglas on hinges so that it's easy to get in and fix, but protects the wiring and also gives us a platform to stand on. When we step on the box, light shoots up from inside. I want to build two more light boxes and wire a master on/off switch for both of them and then wired two normally off switches to each respective box and mount those switches to underside of our drummers double bass pedal . The master switch would allow him to kick it in during certain parts of the set so it has a nice effect and isn't going all the time. Having independent switches would allow the boxes to actually flash with each beater. It would be really cool for double bass runs flashing on different sides of the stage. There are a couple of drawbacks to all this: 1. Room. It sucks to have to transport all the stuff, taking up trailer/van space. 2. Cost. It's not too awfully costly, but there are other things we could have spent the money on. Hopefully it makes people remember us. We do get a lot of compliments 3. Stage room. With the floods behind our amps and the boxes in front it's not too bad, but things could easily get out of control. 4. Power. We've blown the power by just having our amps and the house p.a. running at a small venue before, and some venues aren't crazy about all the extra power drain we bring on em 5. It's not for all audiences. This stuff would probably just piss off the bar crowd, but for all age shows that we play, kids dig it.

 

Your idea sounds exactly like some of the stuff I've been thinking of doing.

 

I'm going to the home depot today to see about how much light boxes would cost to make

[souldonor]

I don't remember the name of the band name, but it was the brother of a singer from a band called "Taste" from DE/MD area. Any how they had a dude sit on stage with a rocking chair just rocking the whole show. That was back in the mid nineties.

 

Old analog TVs are about to be quite useless with the law forcing digital tvs in the US. You could bring a couple each night and just leave them on with static playing.

 

Get a buddy to dress strangely in good will clothes, or a thrift store dress, or trench coat. Have them walk across the stage at random times. With no explaination. People will want to know what the hell is going on.

 

Have folks dress like geeks and dance like Napoleon Dynamite on stage.

 

Another band put up a white sheet behind them and play old kung fu, or wierd B movies, even vintage porno's if they could get away with it behind the band.

[Small Stone]

We once opened for a band who had boxes between the monitors, so they could step on it. No lights in it, though, but it looked cool!

 

 

Bad pic, but you can see the singer standing on one of them.

[3red]

strobe lights is all you need

[KennethNishimot]

Get a projector and one of these:

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Edirol-MDP1S-Motion-Dive-Tokyo-Performance-Package?sku=801313

[Lurko]

THIS WOULD TOTALLY KICK MAJOR ASS: Build some giant alien/insect pods that you and the band could stand in to begin the set. As the song begins, the pods slowly open and you come rushing out onto the stage past a bunch of midgets dressed as druids. Teh {censored}ing Rock!

 

Seriously, though, you want to lug a bunch of heavy ass TVs around with you? You're nuts will not thank you, but your hernia doctor will.

[ggm1960]

 

The TV thing sound like a bunch of heavy lifting, broken glass, an overtaxed electrical supply, and interference with wireless units.

 

 

You're right for all the right reasons although interference is less of a problem these days. Modern TVs are often more like monitors and can accept base band signals while most guitar/vocal wireless units have moved into the UHF band.

 

There are many places I've played where they already have TVs on, above or close to the stage. Often they're used for karoke or sports events on non-band nights and can be "tapped into" for band use. For example, with the proper laptop Mac/PC and the right interface you can create Power Point or other type(s) of video presentations to run while you play.

[sabriel9v]

 

Get a buddy to dress strangely in good will clothes, or a thrift store dress, or trench coat. Have them walk across the stage at random times. With no explaination. People will want to know what the hell is going on. Have folks dress like geeks and dance like Napoleon Dynamite on stage.

 

 

...I hope you're not serious about this.

[ggm1960]

 

It's a compilation vid of Wendy-O and the Plasmatics, shows some creative use of TV's on stage ;-)

 

 

They didn't show it here but she also frequently used a chainsaw to cut up manikins, TV's,guitars and other things on stage.

 

Wendy-O had previously been in porno movies and eventually died, I believe from AIDS.

[ggm1960]

Opps, I was wrong, she committed suicide.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_O._Williams

[hugbot]

White fairy lights over all your gear.

 

Provided it doesent cause problems with noise. {censored} catching fire or something.

[tubetonez]

My band uses flood lights that we wired switches to so that during certain parts of the set we can turn them on. They are 1000w each and we have them set up behind our stacks pointed straight forward so that it blinds the shit out of the crowd and gives us all a silhouette effect. We also have boxes that we put work lights into. We wired normally off switches into them and mounted them so that they barely pass the top of the box. We mounted some plexiglas on hinges so that it's easy to get in and fix, but protects the wiring and also gives us a platform to stand on. When we step on the box, light shoots up from inside. I want to build two more light boxes and wire a master on/off switch for both of them and then wired two normally off switches to each respective box and mount those switches to underside of our drummers double bass pedal . The master switch would allow him to kick it in during certain parts of the set so it has a nice effect and isn't going all the time. Having independent switches would allow the boxes to actually flash with each beater. It would be really cool for double bass runs flashing on different sides of the stage. There are a couple of drawbacks to all this: 1. Room. It sucks to have to transport all the stuff, taking up trailer/van space. 2. Cost. It's not too awfully costly, but there are other things we could have spent the money on. Hopefully it makes people remember us. We do get a lot of compliments 3. Stage room. With the floods behind our amps and the boxes in front it's not too bad, but things could easily get out of control. 4. Power. We've blown the power by just having our amps and the house p.a. running at a small venue before, and some venues aren't crazy about all the extra power drain we bring on em 5. It's not for all audiences. This stuff would probably just piss off the bar crowd, but for all age shows that we play, kids dig it.

 

Taking a wild guess I'd say most of that stuff would not pass electrical code ordinance in most parts of the world, and could get you and others into hot water should someone get electrocuted. Using in-line switches on 1000w lights is not a good idea, and I sincerely hope that your drummer doesn't play barefoot and sweat a lot - you'd have 120V right under a metal pedal that's pounding on the switch. Dimmer packs and controllers are now relatively inexpensive, creative use of lighting is a good thing but it needs to be done safely. You can get controllers designed for floor stomp use, or most modern lighting controllers have MIDI input so you could use a MIDI footwswitch/controller. All have audio input, connect it to an unused aux send and trigger from the kick drum or whatever you want.

 

Please, I've done plenty of similarly stupid things as a youngster, using "light controllers" that were a bunch of dimmer switches and momentary buttons and running over a bunch of extension cords to flood lamps mounted in wooden boxes, using "flash pots" made from a board, tin can & a couple of nails plugged into 110V. I know better now how lucky we were that no one got hurt.

[Dreabfly]

We did a multi-media show for a year using video projection as the primary backdrop. Getting into video editing can be costly, but alternately, you could just project anything by hooking it up to a cheap DVD player. You could project old horror movies or something fun and cheesy. That's only two small pieces of gear to add and can be set up just before the show in a few minutes (as long as you don't have to suspend the projector from something). And just project to a nearby wall.

 

Projectors can be had for cheap on ebay (try to get one with low hours and the highest lumens possible). You can even project the image onto the band for interesting lighting effects.

 

You can see a short video of this in action by going to the Jariya myspace page and then click through to Eve's page. In her videos page, there's a promo that's all shots from those shows.

 

The stages themselves I wouldn't try to emulate. It usually took all day and an amazing light designer to get them looking like that.

[wades_keys]

LOL That and you can get an inverted cymbal. Fill it up with some kerosene, light it up, and get a drunken friend to bang the shit out it.

 

Then burn down the club, and dethrone "Great White" as the king of rock and roll stupidity.