Photo by Tim Dwenger
Photos Below By: Jim Mimna, Dan Page, Kirsten Cohen, Dan Melnik
Spring is always an amazing time to be in Colorado. Blue skies, the air is warm, sun dresses make their first appearances of the year and, if we are lucky, the Front Range welcomes The Disco Biscuits to Red Rocks for Bisco Inferno. This year, the Philadelphia based quartet will be joined on stage by Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart of The Grateful Dead to celebrate The Dead’s 50th Anniversary. In addition to hosting the first concert of the season at Red Rocks, The Disco Biscuits will be playing at The Ogden for 3 other performances in Denver this week. Of course, it wouldn’t be a true Bisco experience without the dazzling lighting design of Johnny R. Goode III. Listen Up Denver! had the pleasure of talking with the Biscuit’s long standing LD about what made him fall in love with The Disco Biscuits, keeping things in the moment, and more.
Listen Up Denver! Where did you get your start in Lighting Design?
Johnny Goode: I was in school at Auburn and I was into web design when a band called Skydog Gypsy came to town and I met their manager. We spoke about doing a website together and after doing their website and graphics for about 6 months they said they had a guy in Tuscaloosa they could rent lights from. They wanted to know if I was interested in meeting the guy and having him show me how to run them. He showed me the ins and outs of setting it up and between him and a few others from his company and Scott Kennedy from Tuscaloosa, they showed me how to run things and get by. After that I bought a program called Light Jockey and kind of self taught myself how to program lights using that.
After working with them for about 2 or 3 years I got a call from Marc Brownstein, who I knew from being a fan of The Disco Biscuits. Back in the day, when they would come through the South, there were only a handful of people that would go to every show, so you got to know the band if you followed them around and I met the guys that way. Marc called me before Halloween in 2001; they had some differences with their LD at the time and didn’t know if he was going to finish the tour. Marc asked if I’d get on a plane and fly out to tour if they needed me but they ended up working things out. I told him that I was available if they needed me and then next spring I got a call from [John] Lesser, their manager at the time, and he said they might be making a change.
At that point I didn’t know if I would be their LD or the assistant to their LD and wouldn’t find out until tour started. I flew out to Colorado for my first shows and when I got to The Gothic they said “It’s all you” and I started running lights for them right then. After a bit, so this was in spring of 2003, I moved to Austin, TX to work for a company called Midnight Lighting to learn what I didn’t know and couldn’t teach myself. A guy name Hawk was the guy who taught me all the things I didn’t know and some things I thought I knew but was wrong. He was an older guy that had worked for Willie Nelson, Lynyrd Skynyrd and bands like that. I toured around with him when I wasn’t doing shows with The Biscuits and learned from him as we went along.
LUD!: What was exciting to you about getting the gig with The Disco Biscuits?
JG: Well I was fan of them so it was exciting to work with my favorite band. I mean who doesn’t want to work with their favorite band? [Laughs] I was a big Phish fan up until around 1999 when I first saw and met The Biscuits. Then I didn’t listen to anything but The Disco Biscuits [Laughs]. The big turning point for me was in 1999, when everyone went to Cypress to see Phish for New Years, I went to Philadelphia to the TLA to see The Disco Biscuits.
LUD!: What drew you to their music?
JG: I’d never heard anything like that before. It was high energy, Phish had moments of peaks but this seemed to be a peak all the way through the show. I had just never heard anything like them before and the first day I heard them I was like “Where can we go see these guys?” A few months later they came through Atlanta and the next time they came through the South I went to Atlanta, Savannah, Auburn, Tuscaloosa, Mississippi, and did all their shows. I was just hooked. It’s really hard to describe when you become hooked on something as to why. It just struck me in a place that made me want to listen to nothing but them. [Laughs]
LUD!: I think every Biscuit fan has had that moment where it locks in and obsession kicks in a bit.
JG: Absolutely. I think some of it had to do with the fact that one of the first times I went to see them I hung out with them for four hours after the show. So, not only were they blowing me away, but they were completely approachable and on our level. It was really eye opening to see that. Like these guys are so good but when they get off stage they just want to hang out, aren’t pretentious, and are are like “Where’s the party?” [Laughs]
LUD!: How does that high energy and excitement play into what you do for the band and what your approach is to lighting them?
JG: My approach isn’t completely different from anyone else who’s done lighting before but how it does differ slightly from say Saxton from STS9, Greg from Pretty Lights, or Andy Cass from String Cheese Incident. They take more of the approach of “Queue Stacking,” where you know where the song is going to go and you know what you are going to do for the different parts of each song. There’s always some free styling over the top of it that everybody does, but instead of sitting down and syncing everything out, I hit the ground running and came up with themes to songs. Not necessarily the same look that would be stored in my desk and would look the same every time they play “Caterpillar” or “I-Man.” Mine was more like, “I-man” is going to be red, then white changes, and then blue for a drop and everything else in the middle is what I come up with in the moment. I think it fits [The Disco Biscuits] even more than some Jambands. I mean all Jambands jam, but some aren’t as free form and open ended with it. I felt like to try to pigeonhole the lights into a certain way that they would look like all the time wouldn’t be as exciting to me or the fans and, especially with this band, wouldn’t always work. I’m more actively operating the lights the whole show to follow the mood, the pace, the tempo of everything. So the energy helps me because I need it to follow the band and be into it. I’ve had chances to change and go to a more uniform, Queue Stack show but it just doesn’t work for me so I just can’t do it like that.
It also helps me when I am working with someone besides The Disco Biscuits. I’m so used to just flowing with stuff. I don’t really need to know a lot before the show. The less I know the better [Laughs]. A lot of times, I’ll run another band with DSI or an opener and someone will ask “Man, how did you know their songs so well?” I don’t. I’ve just been doing it long enough where its easy for me to just punt off the cuff as they call it. Just punt the show out without a lot of pre-production or anything like that.
LUD!: Thats pretty cool because I think thats what a lot of fans of bands like The Disco Biscuits are really after. That energy and excitement in the moment. So it’s cool that even the lights are coming from that angle.
JG: Yeah, that’s kind of how I look at it. There are certain shows where you can see why those shows are time coded and there are some where it’s better they are not.
LUD!: Do you have a certain songs that you get excited to see come on the setlist or hear come up during a show?
JG: [Pauses] I have a few but I’d have to say “Helicopters” is probably my favorite. Just because its so simple and there isn’t a ton going on either lighting-wise or song-wise but it has that point in the song where it just drops to Jon [Gutwillig] on guitar and I get to hit him with a heavy spot. You know it is what it is, it’s got quick verses and choruses and then there is always a sick jam where we get to do whatever we want to do. I guess if I had to pick a favorite it would be that. If I had to pick a big dog favorite it would be “Crickets.”
LUD!: Definitely great choices. So over the years you’ve brought some exciting new stuff to the shows. I remember the floor lights in ’06 and of course the lasers have played a prominent role over the last few years. What is your process of integrating the new technology that is out there?
JG: The creative part of the light show is pretty much left open to me. A lot of people ask me how much input the band has in the lights and a long time ago I sat down with Marc and Jon and went through songs. We basically sat down and talked about different songs and about colors for songs. This was in like 2002 or 2003 and as an artist for them, if they had written a song with a special mood I didn’t want to mess that up with a color that doesn’t match that mood. But other than that it’s up to me and I keep my eyes out all the time looking for stuff and new tricks. There are trade shows and different blogs for lighting that highlight new things and what’s nice is about DSI, the company I work for now, is that if we want to try something new we can do a demo of it. A lot of times it comes from seeing someone else’s show and being like “Damn, that one element is sick. We gotta try to incorporate that into our show somehow.”
LUD!: Can we expect anything new for this run?
JG: Yeah, Red Rocks will be the next big push forward in terms of lighting for us. We’re going to have two new fixtures to the Red Rocks show. One is a this BMFL Spot, made by ROBE. This new spot has capabilities to go even brighter and with more effects. I’m really looking forward to getting that one into the show. We will have the old MAC 3s at the Ogden so anyone who wants see the difference can compare the big spotlights from The Ogden and Red Rocks.
The second new thing we are going to bust out is a new LED Wash Light that is being used by STS9. They are using the K-10 which is a little smaller, and [Chris] Kuroda with Phish is using the K-20 which we’ll be using and its just a new wash light that you can do all kinds of cool stuff with. We’ll be adding both of those at Red Rocks and is going to surpass what we’ve done in the past with those types of fixtures in the show.
LUD!: That’s exciting to hear there will be some new looks at Red Rocks. So with Red Rocks, I think everyone has heard about why fans and musicians love that place. As an LD, what makes lighting Red Rocks exciting for you?
JG: I mean the history of the venue and what it means for a touring guy like myself to get to play there is really it. You know as an LD, I love being at Red Rocks, and it’s special, but if I had my pick I’d love to be inside just because I can control the environment better. That said, working out of Denver at DSI, I get to do a lot of shows up there and everybody steps their game up at Red Rocks. Nobody does their normal show. Everyone tries to do more there because its such a special place. Another reason is that everybody shows up there. I mean think they sold out 85% of the shows there last summer. People are gonna come and people are going to be watching so you want to put your best foot forward. You always want to do that, especially when you’re on a big time stage, at a big time venue. It’s such a special place that everyone wants to play at and some people never get to do, so you definitely just want to shine when you are up there. You want everyone to walk out of the venue saying “Damn, another great show at Red Rocks. I can’t wait til these guys come back to town again.”
LUD!: What are some of your other favorite venues to light up?
JG: My favorite one here in town, and maybe of the ones I’ve worked in, is 1st Bank Center. It’s just like a black hole and everything looks so good in there. We [DSI] do a lot of pre-production and demos up there because it lets you look at what things will look like in a perfect environment. I also love The Ogden. Its tight, everyone is standing right on top of me at Front of House but everything looks great in there. I mean you take a 35 Watt Laser that you are going use at Red Rocks into The Ogden and its going to blow people away. I also like the Electric Factory in Philly, The Theater at MSG is a lot of fun, but I would have to say right now, and for the last few years, its been the 1st Bank Center.
LUD!: Yeah, it’s definitely cool seeing you guys in that arena setting.
JG: That’s the thing. When you are talking about about indoor venues, the bigger the room, the more air space, the more I am going to like it. I don’t really like places where you have low ceilings and boxes around the stage that don’t have a lot of height. It’s as if you are watching the show on an HD Compressed format through a little window.
If its going to be outside I want it to be in the middle of nowhere with no ambient light. Nothing to interfere with what’s going on.
LUD!: Is there anywhere you haven’t lit that you’d love to do?
JG: The Gorge. We played there for Identity Tour but it was during the day so… I’d love to do Bill Graham in San Francisco, that would be cool. The Fox in LA and The Fox in Atlanta. There’s a bunch we haven’t been to yet that I’d love to get to light up.
LUD!: Would you rather light up one of those rooms or see Alabama win the Iron Bowl this year?
JG: Of course I would rather see Alabama win the Iron Bowl.
LUD!: You are a big Alabama fan, as is Jon, but there are also a few Auburn fans in The Disco Biscuit crew and family. Does that get dicey at all?
JG: [Laughs] No not really. There aren’t really too many Auburn fans except Allen. But no it doesn’t get too dicey. We keep ourselves quiet for fear of what could happen if we lost. I don’t like to talk too much shit because I don’t want to hear it later. I just let people talk shit and let Alabama keep racking up the championships. [Laughs]
LUD!: Thats probably a good way to do it. Well, thanks for taking the time to talk today. We are all stoked for the shows.
JG: No problem. Tell the kids to get ready. Its time to make to the biscuits.
The Disco Biscuits
April 15th, 16th, 18th – The Ogden Theater
April 17th – Red Rocks w/ Bill Kreutzmann & Mickey Hart
PURCHASE TICKETS
That was pretty much the highlight of my day. Awesome interview.
Great interview. Johnny is obviously a huge fan, and his approach to lighting the Biscuits is perfect.
[…] about his love for The Ogden in a recent interview with Listen Up Denver! (which you can read here) and his familiarity with this room shows every time the band comes here. Of course, this run was […]