We look forward to the day when visualists on music tours are norms, rather than exceptions. And no, playing lots of pre-rendered footage and/or hiding someone in the back of the house does not count. Fortunately, our own Jaymis has been lucky enough to hook up with a very lovely musician on tour in Australia, and has been right up onstage during gigs and playing live visuals that are tightly integrated aesthetically and in terms of timing with the music. This has had the effect of: a) creating wonderful touring for Jaymis and b) creating a large void in posts on CDMotion. The tour is nearly done, but while we wait, here are some snaps of what the action looks like! It certainly inspires me to push my live music sets that much further/harder/better.

Jaymis has promised lots of info from this tour, including some production/performance tips picked up along the way. Stay tuned! Really, please, stay tuned!

Related: Bobby Flynn and the Omega Three Gig Report or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Rock

I spend most of my performance time with electronic musicians, and suppose most CDMo readers would be in a similar situation. I don’t think it’s necessarily that live electronica requires a VJ to be visually stimulating (Ponyloaf prove this gig after gig), but those whose music making time is centred around synths, samplers and laptops seem to be more aware of the firepower that a fully armed and operational visualist can provide.

So I was surprised to get a call last week from local Alt/Folk/Rock hero and Australian Idol 2006 finalist Bobby Flynn (If you’re not from Australia and haven’t encountered Bobby, Youtube and Wikipedia can get you up to speed). Apparently Bobby is putting together an Australian tour, is at least partially aware of the power of a fully armed and operational visualist, and had heard that I was such a creature. So after conversation, dinner, beers, and a couple of hours with my python wrapped around his girlfriend’s arm, it was decided that I should join his merry little band. Oh, and there’s a gig in three days at QPAC. Ready? Did I mention that I didn’t have a reliable gig machine as I managed to spill beer on my Thinkpad at Elements:6? No? Well I guess I’d better sort that out before Saturday then.

So I put together a Small Form Factor PC based around the Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard and a Lian Li PC-V300B case (writeup coming), organized mounting of a projector and improvised screen (QPAC can’t provide us with any screens at all? Stage managah, please!), managed to squeeze in time for rendering some new materials and a practice with the band and still arrived at the venue on time, with all my gear, and having had over 4 hours sleep the night before!

It turns out that VJing for a folk rock crooner is quite a different experience to the DJs and electronic acts I usually work with.