Shpongle!
I wanted to share my experience with Shpongle and the Shpongletron at the Paramount that I saw on Saturday.
First off, for those not in Seattle, here is what the inside of the Paramount theatre looks like facing the audience:
How fucking cool is that? The whole place is super-ornate and just over the top with chandeliers and golden leaf everything. If the creators of this place ever had in mind something like Shpongle, the world might be very different ;)
I arrived with Angelo at around 8pm walking from his place on Capitol Hill down into Seattle. First up was a DJ, then a group called Beats Antique, and then Shpongle. The DJ set was surprisingly good, and they had the entire floor of the Paramount open sans any light source so the place was completely black except for the DJ booth. It was actually really conducive to dancing and a lot of fun. The bottom floor had all the seats removed so it was all open. The balcony had seats where you could go and rest if you got tired. Kinda cool!
Beats Antique came on afterwards which consists of a drummer, a guitarist who also does electronica, and a belly dancer. They *really* rocked it and people were super into their show. Very much tribal/rock, but with an ethnic/world twist.
Shpongle was otherworldly. First of all, the show is basically made for drugs. They don't really make too many bones about it. The songs make heavy reference to hallucinagins with their titles and it's pretty obvious that the type of music being played is designed to be listened to by that crowd. In other words, the show was packed with people tripping balls. Ravers and people dressed up in lights were just packed into this place. They definitely attract a very particular crowd, but everyone seemed very friendly. And everyone danced! I've never seen so many people dancing at a show before. Just the vibe alone was awesome.
His set up is this multi-"horned" thing on a transparent base with a convex mask on the front of the thing resembling a face with 3 pairs of eyes. The whole set up is this white fabric that is transparent to a degree and it does a fantastic job of displaying HD video/colors instantly. There's also multiple layers of the stuff so he can do things like have layers of effects and it's very well-executed. But the real treat is the face in the middle.
The show begins with this "face" taking the form of a jellyfish-like creature and peering into the audience. It's very eerie and works well. You get the sense that this thing is curious of the set up and wants to inhabit it. Suddenly it pulls off to the right and then slams into the center where it takes the form of the face mask... And here is where shit goes crazy.
It's hard to tell in the video, but the mask on stage is a 3D relief of every possible state the face can be in. They light it from behind and the illusion is extremely convincing. It absolutely looks 3D, fluid, and alive. Suddenly it then inhabits the stage and you get the impression that the face is playing the music- not the DJ. That it is having a good time and that it has a mood or a consciousness.
Here's the effect I believe that they're employing to some degree on stage:
And here's a video of some of the intro I was describing above. There's a flash around :25 seconds where you can see the mask in front that I'm referring to. At around 1:15 it takes on the mask form.
Good video is hard to find of the show since the music doesn't translate well to video being captured by phone, but it was downright amazing. You'll just have to believe me! :)
First off, for those not in Seattle, here is what the inside of the Paramount theatre looks like facing the audience:
How fucking cool is that? The whole place is super-ornate and just over the top with chandeliers and golden leaf everything. If the creators of this place ever had in mind something like Shpongle, the world might be very different ;)
I arrived with Angelo at around 8pm walking from his place on Capitol Hill down into Seattle. First up was a DJ, then a group called Beats Antique, and then Shpongle. The DJ set was surprisingly good, and they had the entire floor of the Paramount open sans any light source so the place was completely black except for the DJ booth. It was actually really conducive to dancing and a lot of fun. The bottom floor had all the seats removed so it was all open. The balcony had seats where you could go and rest if you got tired. Kinda cool!
Beats Antique came on afterwards which consists of a drummer, a guitarist who also does electronica, and a belly dancer. They *really* rocked it and people were super into their show. Very much tribal/rock, but with an ethnic/world twist.
Shpongle was otherworldly. First of all, the show is basically made for drugs. They don't really make too many bones about it. The songs make heavy reference to hallucinagins with their titles and it's pretty obvious that the type of music being played is designed to be listened to by that crowd. In other words, the show was packed with people tripping balls. Ravers and people dressed up in lights were just packed into this place. They definitely attract a very particular crowd, but everyone seemed very friendly. And everyone danced! I've never seen so many people dancing at a show before. Just the vibe alone was awesome.
His set up is this multi-"horned" thing on a transparent base with a convex mask on the front of the thing resembling a face with 3 pairs of eyes. The whole set up is this white fabric that is transparent to a degree and it does a fantastic job of displaying HD video/colors instantly. There's also multiple layers of the stuff so he can do things like have layers of effects and it's very well-executed. But the real treat is the face in the middle.
The show begins with this "face" taking the form of a jellyfish-like creature and peering into the audience. It's very eerie and works well. You get the sense that this thing is curious of the set up and wants to inhabit it. Suddenly it pulls off to the right and then slams into the center where it takes the form of the face mask... And here is where shit goes crazy.
It's hard to tell in the video, but the mask on stage is a 3D relief of every possible state the face can be in. They light it from behind and the illusion is extremely convincing. It absolutely looks 3D, fluid, and alive. Suddenly it then inhabits the stage and you get the impression that the face is playing the music- not the DJ. That it is having a good time and that it has a mood or a consciousness.
Here's the effect I believe that they're employing to some degree on stage:
Click to viewAnd here's a video of some of the intro I was describing above. There's a flash around :25 seconds where you can see the mask in front that I'm referring to. At around 1:15 it takes on the mask form.
Good video is hard to find of the show since the music doesn't translate well to video being captured by phone, but it was downright amazing. You'll just have to believe me! :)