Derek Smith Debuts His New Pretty Lights Live Band
This past weekend Derek Vincent Smith introduced the new Pretty Lights band to his home state of Colorado for his seventh year headlining Red Rocks Amphitheatre, in the second stop of his Episodic Festival tour. This is not Smith’s first time touring with a band, but instead of bringing the Future Analog band along for the ride as in past years, he has assembled what is being billed as the Pretty Lights Live band. The new band features familiar faces such as the mastermind behind it all, Derek himself on the analog synthesizer and occasional bass, Borahm Lee and Brian Coogan on keys, frequent live collaborator turntablist Chris Karns, and one brand new member, Alvin Ford, Jr., of New Orleans, who aims to fill previous drummer Adam Deitch’s plus-size shoes behind the drum kit.
The other Analog Future band members aside from Deitch that did not make the transition to the Pretty Lights Live band include trumpet player Eric ‘Benny’ Bloom and trombone player Scott Flynn. When the new band was announced and the horn players were left off the roster, many fans were concerned, as horns are such an integral part of not only Pretty Lights studio production but the live performance as well, so the big question coming into this weekend for anyone who was not in attendance for last week’s shows was how the new band would overcome the hurdle of having such a big piece missing from the Pretty Lights shows fans have come to love.
Last week’s stop in New Hampshire opened with an analog-heavy first night that left many concerned for the rest of the tour; however, the second night alleviated all doubts as all reports were positive, those who were in attendance left riddled with excitement for what was to come. That excitement made its way to the lots outside the iconic Colorado venue this past weekend as it was smiles for miles, with a vibe of nervous anticipation being felt throughout the crowd.
It has been clear this tour has a great deal more thought behind it than your standard ‘eight-stop, show up, play, on to the next one’ tour, with each city/episode having its own theme. Before the first episode last week, Smith posted to the Pretty Lights Facebook page that “Expanding Perspective is the theme for the first Pretty Lights Live Episodic Festival. This is the ‘prelude’. Talk about it… The five-stop PLL Episodic Festival will tell a story about an experiment while also being an experiment in telling a story… Just before each episode, the PL film crew and myself will post a short prelude video that visually explores an idea that will be a theme for the episode.”
This concept of posting videos before each episode seems to be an evolution of Smith’s plan to integrate a visual component into Pretty Lights’ music that was initially announced during the release of his last album A Color Map of the Sun and carried through the release of visual accompaniments for each individual song.
As mentioned above, last week’s episode in New Hampshire was titled “Expanding Perspective.” What this means Smith leaves up to fans to discuss and decide for themselves. This weekend’s episode was announced as “There Is a Light” via Facebook 21 minutes before the band took stage. By the end of night two, it was clear that there is indeed a light, and the Pretty Lights Live band seems intent on magnifying it to extraordinary levels.
Friday night, Alvin Ford, Jr.’s drums popped from the get-go as the band opened up their set, nearly invisible behind a storm of fog and lights. For the thousands in attendance who had been crossing the days off on their calendar for weeks, the time had come. Guesses of what the opening song would be all went out the window as the band kicked into a slow-building, bass-heavy new song, featured in the video Smith posted to his social media pages just before the PL Live band took the stage. While the sounds were new, there was something so familiar and unmistakably Pretty Lights about them.
The band ran with the theme of new music as their first new jam faded into their second, featuring a simple hip-hop drum beat enhanced with synth noises unheard in any previous Pretty Lights’ studio or live material. These two songs were clearly playing the part of build-up, as the set really got in the swing of things as they broke out into “Understand Me Now,” where both “Laser Shark” Greg Ellis and turntable master Chris Karns made their individual presences known. Ellis gave the audience a quick taste of why they call him the Laser Shark when he surrounded the band in a grid of both vertical and horizontal lasers, a feature new to the live Pretty Lights experience, while Karns got his evening started with a little light scratching.
Another new element to the visual aspect of the live Pretty Lights experience is the camera found in front of each band member that streams on the big-screens occasionally, giving audience members a more intimate view of what’s taking place on stage.
From there, Smith drew from his most recent album A Color Map of the Sun a noticeably slower-than-usual version of Opiou’s “Done Wrong” remix. “Still Night” came next, at which time Smith addressed the crowd for the first time and introduced his new band to Colorado for the very first time. Shortly after having his name called, Chris Karns let his tables talk and gave his real introduction in a blistering scratching exhibition.
Karns’ display faded into a newer, jammier version than heard on previous tours, which gave way to another new song dripping in the analog sound Smith has become smitten with over the past year. When the analog synthesizer first started making appearances in Pretty Lights live shows, there were noticeable kinks needing to be worked out. It was clear night one that these kinks have been worked out and that Smith has made great strides in honing his skills with his new toy.
Moving past the new jam, the band worked its way through “Take the Sun Away,” a funky little disco jam session, then took a moment to let the bells, bass and whistles of “Karma Police” reverberate throughout the rocks while band members found themselves again confined within a grid of lasers. While energy was high coming off “Karma Police,” the crowd seemed to boil over to the “How We Do” rendition that followed, eager to let Smith know how they do.
After “How We Do” the crowd was hit with the haunting keys of “If I Could Feel Again,” at which point the usually talkative Smith addressed the crowd for only the second time, asking excitedly “What if I could suddenly feel right now?” The band really seemed to find a groove here, trekking flawlessly through “Out of Time,” “You Get High,” “Million Tomorrow’s,” and a very new and very cool version of
“Where I’m Trying to Go.”
This string of heaters nearly reached fever point when the band settled in on “Forever Lost,” a song typically driven by horns, the lack of Benny Bloom and Scott Flynn was almost unnoticed as the crowd had the horns sections covered with their best trumpet/trombone impressions. From there, the band made its way through an extended “Bump n Hustle” jam, “High School Art Class,” and a deep, dark version of “Prophet” the crowd ate up.
The home stretch of the night began with “Time Has Come,” during which Smith shouted out the fans, letting them know “I always get so nervous ’cause y’all are so intense… you guys are just so powerful.” After this acknowledgement, the band kicked right in to his drum n bass remix of rap classic “Five on It” (previously only heard in his New Years set in Las Vegas this year), finally closing with “I Know the Truth.”
After night one, Smith was said to have referred to the nights nearly three hour set as “mellow.” For those who were stunned by that description, night two provided a bit of context.
The second night of Episode Two in Pretty Lights’ ‘Episodic’ tour began with a similar nervous excitement pulsing throughout the crowd; concert-goers were still beaming from the night before.
When the new Pretty Lights band stepped on stage it only took seconds to understand that tonight’s set would be an entirely different beast from last night’s; opening with his juggernaut remix of “Time,” Smith set the tone right off the bat. Not giving fans much time to breathe, the band sped right on through new and improved versions of “Gold Coast Hustle,” “Shining Bright Despite the Plight,” “City of One” and “King of Rock.” Never officially released, “King of Rock” almost felt like a declaration on Smith’s behalf, as its heavy-rock-influenced sounds made Red Rocks feel like an ’80s rock show for few minutes.
From there, Smith and the band worked their way through “Let ’em Know It’s Time to Go” and “So Bright” into the heaviest version of “Around the Block” he has played to date, thought by many attendees to be the heaviest Pretty Lights sound they had ever heard.
Again, not much for giving the crowd a break, Smith moved right into “Aiming at Your Head,” “Fly Away Another Day” and “If I Gave You My Love,” then teased “More Important than Michael Jordan” into the energetic “I Can See It in Your Face”. The band followed this up with a streak of “Gazing at the Glare,” “Hot Like Sauce,” “My Other Love” and a “Hot Like Sauce”/”More Important than Michael Jordan” mash-up that had the crowd bursting at the seams.
The second and final chapter of the second episode of this tour came to a close with a funky analog jam version of “Don’t Cost ya Nothin’,” the Pretty Lights/Nine Inch Nails/Radiohead/Nirvana remix, “Color of My Soul,” “Future Blind,” “Total Sunday,” and, at last, “Finally Moving,” where he begged the crowd to sing along, a request they happily complied with.
Calling night one “mellow” in hindsight actually makes a good deal of sense after the uptempo heaviness Smith and his bandmates brought to the table Saturday night. Another thing that is worth noting is that while Friday strobes and stage lighting were the focus of the light show, Saturday Ellis cut loose with the lasers, utilizing the new laser-grid addition to the lighting setup far more than the night before. Also, instead of the inline, parallel lasers concert-goers are so used to seeing, Saturday found Ellis using lasers at multiple different angles, creating the unfamiliar sight of normally tidy lasers looking messy and tangled.
So after the second episode had come to a close, this what I have learned. First: with Derek on the analog synth, Borahm and Coogan holding down the keys, Alvin Ford smashing the drums and Karns scratching away, the new band rises to the challenge of filling the void the lack of live horns left as if there were none to begin with.
Second: the near-orchestral Pretty Lights sound fans have come to expect from live performances with the Future Analog band have at least temporarily been shelved. The Pretty Lights Live band is an analog synth jam band, and thus new sounds are on the horizon. When the new band is playing your favorite Pretty Lights song from back in the day, they’re really not. They’re using the old songs as intros into extended groovy analog jams; essentially the old songs are used to tether listeners to the Pretty Lights they have known as they are being introduced and enveloped in an entirely new sound.
For years, Smith has called out during sets, saying that with his music he’s trying to look back and take things forward at the same time; the music the Pretty Lights Live band played this weekend was a complete embodiment of that sentiment. The core DNA of old Pretty Lights is still around, but crunchy, heavy, deep funky analog jams are the sounds of new Pretty Lights live shows, and based off the overwhelming positivity surrounding both nights from fans, it seems the intense Pretty Lights Family is cool with it.