in philly i was surprised at how little they used their light set-up. they had these LED "light poles" around the stage that they lit up exactly twice - was a waste IMO, they could have been used a lot more effectively. hopefully they did more with them in DC.
i used to subscribe to the school of thought that the more to look at during a concert was generally a bad thing. you can be distracted by how bad a bad band is when there are all these distractions on stage. (another way to think of it: would anyone enjoy or even see a kelly clarkson concert, for example, if they didn't have all the dancing, wardrobe changes, pyrotechnics, etc?).
however, i've changed. i realize how much good lighting can really make a good band that much more awesome. the arcade fire's show at dar a few years ago comes to mind as does a lot of wilco shows i've seen.
the point of this is that the lighting at the dcfc show seemed rather amateur. in fact, the whole stage looked rather..."meh." the band played so well but the lighting didn't do anything worthwhile.
i'd just like to point out that i'm not the only one who thinks DAR can be a perfectly fine venue. all those people on auto-hate need to open their minds. maybe it's because it doesn't always sound great that people are up in arms? in that case blame the sound techs.
agreed. of the handfull of shows i've seen at dar, i've always enjoyed them. what really sucks, though, is when the show is sold out, there's a line out the door for both the bathroom and the bar, and the only atm in the house is broken -- like last night.
also, if i may step up on my soapbox of show courtesy, it drives me up the wall when people head for the exits halfway through the last song - especially in large numbers. so many people were fleeing to the metro halfway through "transatlanticism". i always wonder if they all stayed and clapped, we'd might get a chance at another encore from the band.
