Week 2-Soundgarden

Back in February of 2013, I went to the Fox Theater in Oakland to see Soundgarden.  At the time, and to this day, I'm still a huge fan.  The show didn't start until 8:30p.m.  It was a particularly cold night making the entrance in to the theater all the more majestic.  The air was crisp with the cold.  The bright white light emulating from the marquis was dulled by the frost in the air.  The doorway opened to a grand, old theater.  The Fox Theater was built in 1928, and was influenced by middle eastern architecture.  The building had been refurbished in the early 2000's, but it was the musk of the theater that permeated the air.  The lighting was low, but there were no heavy shadows.  It was like the building was grey.  The grey lighting dulled out the audience, and accentuated the blue hue coming from the stage.  The lights cast a dark blue aura around the drums and amps that were set up.  It was really the only light in the room except for the bar.  The bar was lit up with simple lights embedded into the ceiling.  I stood in the dark grey atmosphere in the room.  Until, the lights went black.  Pitch black except for the projection screen that was lighting up with grey, white flashing images of different animals until the Soundgarden logo came onscreen.  The crowd roared from the anticipation.  The stage once again lit up, but this time it was fully illuminated, and not with the blue tone with a vibrant white that illuminated the four members of the band.  Chris Cornell immediately launched into "Been Away Too Long".  The lights would change radically with each passing beat.  Blue, orange, red, white, green.  Each passing note caused the lights to illuminate different colors, as spotlights swung around the room illuminating the dark corners of the high ceilings.  The colors would stay consistent for certain parts of a song.  For instance "A Thousand Days Before" was struck with a vibrant green.  This brought a forlorn, almost perilous sound to the song.  It changed the sounds of the notes by infusing different colors with the song.  The picture above was taken when they played "Spoonman" which was cast with an orange light.  It didn't have any impact on the song however, but it did accent the fast-paced, frenetic aggressiveness the song carries.  The song "Flower" was accented with a purple lighting and a kaleidoscope  projection.  It was so beautiful, and oddly fit the song, giving power as the instruments became quiet during the song's break.  The concert continued well into the night, and some songs would have a color scheme, others would just have a scope of colors thrown at the audience.  I left the concert about as happy as I could be.  The night had turned out better than I could have ever hoped.