Brian Courchine colors pink talking fish with Chauvet Professional

USA – A little over ten years ago, a researcher at the University of California, Berkley, conducted a study with 100 volunteers who listened to music from almost every genre for hours while playing with a 37-color palette wheel. Their conclusion: The human brain associates different colors with different types of songs.

Brian Courchine could have saved these researchers a lot of time and money. Like all lighting designers, New Hampshire-based LD, designer of the renowned Northland Music and Arts Festival, has made his career studying the inexorable connection between music and color.

Courchine recently delved into this knowledge while designing the light show for a sold-out Pink Talking Fish concert at Infinity Hall in Hartford. Among the most successful and unique tribute bands around, Pink Talking Fish brings together the music of Pink Floyd, Talking Heads and Phish, each evoking a different aura and lending themselves to a different palette. The addition of Beatles songs added to the set added a little more spice to this special evening.

Courchine followed the music with his color reproduction skills, bathing each song in hues that fit it like a glove. “I try to differentiate between the three musical performances on the Pink Talking Fish show,” he explained. “Talking Heads” is usually a more straightforward vibe. Even though this band performs these songs, the palette I choose remains limited. On the other hand, Pink Floyd tunes can be a roller coaster ride. Some of their more epic songs can range from a single solo spot to explosive, room-filling looks with bright, beautiful gobos.

“On the other hand, they also have straight-up rock ‘n’ roll songs like ‘Young Lust,’ where I keep the same vibe throughout,” Courchine continued. “With the Phish songs I kind of go on autopilot. I’ve seen Chris Kuroda light up for Phish so many times and I just think, “WWCK.D” if he still only had 16 movers. The evening in question also included a fair amount of Beatles songs, although I tried to maintain a consistent palette. I also realize that everything I just said may go out the window right now.”

Courchine utilized the color rendering power of 32 Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures to create his multi-colored show. He had eight R1 spots and eight R1 washes in his floor package to complement the eight R2 spots and eight R1 washes in the venue’s house layout.

“All my spots and washes usually end up in a row in front of the stage,” Courchine said. “I try to keep them away from the background when I want to project gobos onto them. It helps that PTF is positioned throughout the stage area so I never have to fight for space.”

Courchine used the lighting fixtures in his rig to create a richly textured background of colorful aerial gobo patterns. “I’m not a big fan of videos. “I don’t want to choose the unique image or feeling that an audience will associate with a particular song,” he explained. “Other than that, I saw it was done very, very well.

“I definitely use the background sparingly. The song accompanying the image with a lit background was “Tomorrow Never Knows” by The Beatles. It’s one of the more psychedelic songs I know from them, so I went with this old school oil projection look by just swirling a few different gobos with a prism.”

At a previous show, Courchine had intended to create the same look for the same Beatles song, but he changed his mind when he was inspired to try a different idea. “My plans sometimes fly out the window in the moment,” he explained, and when those design visions suddenly take flight, Courchine is always there with colors to match the music and ready to enjoy the flight.

December 4, 2024