Look, like you, we all want to pretend that we’re sophisticated and that we only care about musicianship and aren’t at all interested in pagentry and showmanship. We certainly would never cop to being impressed by something as crass as laser or fire or explosions, but let’s be honest, we’re among friends here. All of those things are pretty cool, right?
Below, a list of the awesomest of onstage lasers and pyro.
Rammstein
OK, he’s swinging around a piece of equipment that’s shooting out sparks. That is amazing.
Mötley Crue
There are a lot of things one can dislike about Mötley Crue. You can find them sexist, or silly, or be annoyed by the members’ love of doing reality television. There are two things you cannot deny about them, though: 1. “Kickstart My Heart” is the best cardio workout song ever; 2. they know what they’re doing when it comes to onstage pyrotechnics.
Disco Biscuits
Disco Biscuits are part EDM, part jam rock band. They’re basically what would happen if Tiesto and Phish had a baby. They call themselves “trance fusion.” Either you’re really, really into this, or really, really not, which is a thing that one can actually say about jam bands as a whole. That said, if you don’t like their laser show, you’re probably lying.
Beyoncé and Jay Z
We were near the front for the On the Run Toronto tour stop, and the towers of flame that shot up from Beyoncé made us feel like we were in a blast furnace. This clip isn’t the highest quality, but it shows Bey-Z’s dedication to fire. There is fire shooting out in the cheap seats. They are nothing if not thorough.
Deadmau5
A Deadmau5 concert kind of resembles what people in the 1970s through 2014 would look like, with dozens and dozens of lasers pointing and windmilling everywhere. That, or that old Frankie Goes to Hollywood video on steroids.
Iron Maiden
If you’ve never seen Iron Maiden live, you’re living an incomplete life. Let’s start off with that. They are one of the best live bands working today. They are a must-see band. Those of you who have seen them live know that every show has two major highlights: when everyone sings along with “Fear of the Dark,” and the other is when a giant animatronic Eddie pops up and does something awesome. In this particular instance, he has a flame shoot out of his brain. Look, if you wanted subtlety, you shouldn’t have come to a Maiden show.
Scissor Sisters
We did not realize that the Scissor Sisters have this many lasers in their live show. We knew that once upon a time there was some occasional nudity, but we didn’t realize that had been replaced with dozens of lasers being reflected around the stage at different angles and shimmering walls of light. This is fantastic.
Jane’s Addiction
We spent like two hours trying to make a joke about how either Nothing’s Shocking except for these lasers, or about Jane’s Addiction getting caught stealing these lasers, but we couldn’t make it work, so we decided to just let the lasers speak for themselves.
Kiss
Kiss have been lighting things on fire onstage since before most of us were born. They have it down to a science by now.
Nickelback
It is super easy to make fun of Nickelback for their profound lack of subtlety in everything they do, but the upside of that tendency towards bombast is that they do not mess around when it comes to pyro. They end their set by spending about two minutes just blowing things up.
by Chris Dart via Electronic RSS
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