United States

George,

Our singer has a couple of little laser units. You need smoke machines to make lasers effective. Some venues we play are too small for smoke machines so theres really no use in setting the lasers up unless you use smoke. We ussually set a fog machine up in front of the drums with a laser pointed thru the smoke. When we do this we just leave the lasers on the whole time. We have a timer on the fogger and it shoots about an 8 second burst of smoke. Im not sure of the makes and names of this stuff cause my end is the sound equipment. The little lasers look really good wth some smoke. It can liven up your performance, but be careful with the smoke. Our large smoke machine shot a burst out one night that filled the little room we were in and we had to open doors and let the smoke out. Im glad you asked this cause we play this room this weekend and you reminded me of the limitations of the room.

Thanks for the info John, and your welcome.

ZXYZ yea I think it was the Eliminator tour.
Being from Texas I've seen those three play many times, and generally severly under the influence.

Gotta love the little old band from Texas!

and generally severly under the influence.

Them or you?

All concerned I am sure. Hersh Memorial Coloseum is Shreveport never needed any fog machines. If ya know what I mean.

Oh Yeah! -- Plenty of fog there already!! -lol-- Ahh, the good ole daze!!

As a matter of fact I just fired up a couple of my lasers about an hour ago for a test and to keep 'em groovin on...

Then I thought I'd bounce 'em off my axe..


.. but then the smoke cleared so you couldnt see the beams anymore, ah well ..

Theres beams in that there smoke!

Yeh i puffed 1 then the air-handler turned on and it cleared the frckin room lol,,,

If you can direct the laser beams thru smoke they will show up a lot better, without smoke the little lasers are nothing more than obnoxious little pointers.

I think a lot of this stuff is very economical these days to buy and can add a whole other element to your shows.

We went overboard with video screens and stuff, make sure if you do all this stuff you get paid for it cause it greatly increases your setup time.

Do stuff to make yourself stand out from the crowd.

What you said is true, but it depends on the power level of the laser projectors. If you are using 5mW 'pointer' type class IIIa, then yes, it will be dissapointing. If you have 5W class IV then very little smoke/ fog will be needed. The high power ones are very dangerous though and can set things on fire!
What kind of laser equipment do you all have? Got any pics?

I got a few of those monochromatic light stimulating radiation emitters.

I never use them to gig.

however....

they worked great for laying out my new house!

Laser -Levels , yeah I've seen 'em advertised on tv. Maybe you could put one on your keyboard.. and twirl it around, like Styx does..
Saw Styx live last year at Smith Mtn Lake here in VA. They were awesome. Outdoor concert. My favorite kind. Perfect weather. Almost rained, but didnt. Just a few sprinkles. No umbrellas were even unfolded.
Waz really cool. He rotates his entire keyboards (and him) 360 degrees around on a stand of some sort. It was sooooo cool.