Pretty Lights
Bojangles Coliseum
Nov. 10, 2012
What if we could taste the color three? Of course, three is not a color, and even if it were, you can't taste it, right? Pretty Lights, the brainchild of Derek Vincent Smith, is the collective meeting and blending of our innate senses, packaged in the most inspirational away. Coupled with an obnoxious amount of lights and lasers were strategically placed smoke machines, creating a multi-tiered dimensional light show which danced above the crowd. Not only is Pretty Lights the complete embodiment of the word "artist," but he is still humble and well-connected to the many people he has come to enlighten with his inventive brand.
Where many producers create a prefabricated conception that "louder is better," Smith sets out to create a resounding emotion. Every beat he makes and every corresponding visual is a small piece of a dream state's overall convergence. Those visuals collide within a masterfully orchestrated and hand-crafted audible imagination. Unfortunately, the very title of "Pretty Lights" takes away from how stunning the entire show at Bojangles Coliseum on Nov. 10, 2012, was to witness.
To briefly touch on Smith's sheer creative ingenuity, I need to mention one of his well-crafted mashups. This man flawlessly combined and reworked Radiohead's "Everything in its Right Place," Nirvana's "All Apologies" and Nine Inch Nails' "Closer." He blended the melodies and lyrics as they seamlessly converged within each other while juxtaposing a high-energy, trip-hop beat. Through moments like that, redefining what production is thought be, Pretty Lights is able to evoke pure, organic emotions that everyone in attendance can experience together.
As the music culture continues to worship mundane producers who are wanting to capitalize on the misguided trend of overly distorted glitchy angst paired with annoyingly schizophrenic sampling, it's refreshing to hear someone who can create an original idea and then mold it to his own styling.
Pretty Lights is able to convey his own ways of thinking to the audience in a way that is engineered, molded and structured perfectly. Before this, I had never been to a show that could actually make me feel like I became a better person just by attending.