I went to the recent JamieXX concert – not totally my cup of tea, but it was fun and interesting and important to step out of your little bubble every now and then.
Interesting:
- Clean & Comfortable. Wow. I have never been to a concert where I have not sweated _at all_. No sticky floors, no trash… Clean.
- Ethnically Diverse: lots of people from lots of different backgrounds. A few young ladies sitting on shoulders, some in head scarves. Cool!
But what was really interesting was the concert visuals. I’ve seen a lot of shows with stunning visuals (Brian Eno’s video installation for U2 back in… 1985? Comes to mind), and this one had a good light show. Weirdly – the lights were very ‘stroby ‘ which I kind of hate, but it made for great photos.


When they started projecting images, it seemed fairly abstract. Gradually it morphed into a recognizably human crowd (rather than some artificial landscape). And the crowd did crowd like things: swaying, arm waving, a bit of dancing. But to me it looked staged.
Until it didn’t – it looked like us. A little at first, then more and more until you could see the light show in the projection & real people’s faces.
Genius: what would be more compelling than seeing yourself on the big stage? I think that’s a fair bit of the reason people go to big concerts (a little bit of personal projection: that could be me up there!). And it totally appeals to a pretty current mind set: See, it’s me – having fun.
I doubt it’s unique, but it really struck me what a good and subtle approach it was.
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