So, I went to my first rave this weekend. It was a bit strange for me, but it was definitely "sense overload". I was looking at everything from a critical eye, and with a theatrical perspective (probably because I'm a drama kid, in a lighting class, who's new to raves, and was absolutely sober).
This was just one of the many shots of the lighting I got. I love this one because it was right during the drop of a song early on in the night, so this was one of the first major uses of light. (I learned later that they don't let the earlier DJs go all out, the let the whole event build into a big finale at the end. SO since this was a smaller DJ around 6:30pm, this was the first use of extreme cued lighting timed specifically for a drop). They keep blowing fog throughout the entire event so that the colored lights catch on it and show the purest color possible. These fans of blue light bounced up and down and eventually cause everyone to bounce their raised arms in the same fashion. Since the "show" isn't the actual artist (like it would be watching Beyonce with her dancers, or a boyband with choreographed solos and whatnot) the show is really the lighting. A couple of the people in our group were telling me one of the things they love is how well put together the lights are with the music, and how it all combines to make you feel good. Although this person was highly inebriated when he told me this, I couldn't help but agree. It's all to put on a show and please an audience! In short, raves = theatre. Lol.
I was actually thinking about Lani's comments about lighting needing other elements (bodies, people, etc) to tell a story and I while I agree with that whole heartedly, if you took the lighting portion of this rave by itself (no music, etc) you would still get a reaction from the crowd, just a completely different one. I think each design element depends on the others to a degree, but I think an "experience" relies mostly on the person doing the "experiencing" (inebriated or not ;)
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