Laser Iceland

The first laser show I ever attended was in a symphony hall in 1991 or 1992. Accompanied by a classic rock soundtrack, green lines flashed around the room, sometimes joined by a smoke machine. I wasn’t particularly impressed.

The next laser show I attended was Northern Lights, part of the annual Taste of Iceland Festival. Hosted in the Pacific Science Center Laser Dome, the free show was set to an hour of Icelandic indie music curated by KEXP DJ Kevin Cole. It was a little different from what I remembered.

Those in the know brought blankets and spread out on the floor where they could look straight up at the ceiling. My kids and I took theater-style seats and slouched down, nibbling on Milk Duds as we looked up toward the “front.”

The music started out with quiet, instrumental piano, and moved through a lot of more obscure artists and tracks, building throughout the hour to finish with bigger hits from Bjork and Sigur Ros. I felt like I recognized all the music, but I can’t find a playlist anywhere online to confirm that I identified things correctly. (It was tempting to use Shazam, but an opening announcement strongly discouraging cell phones as a distraction from the light convinced me not to.)

The multicolored lights started out focused toward the front of the dome, but spread out during the hour until the whole space was used. Eventually smoke brought the light show down into the space so that it felt like you could touch the clouds rolling by just overhead. Not only were the lasers so much more intricate and colorful than the old days, they were much more connected to the music.

I loved the lotus-like exploding mandalas that kept pace with music from Mammut, and lines the color of a jaguar shark slithering above my head at the beginning of Sigur Ros’ “Staralfur” made my day. (When I explained why I was so excited to my kids, they demanded to see The Life Aquatic, so I’ve got another reason to be happy.)

Now I’m curious about the guy who did the show. I hadn’t given it much thought, but I guess I assumed the lasers were like a screen saver, or maybe based on some sort of algorithm linked to the music. But there are actually laser artists, and I really want to know how that works. Are they more like lighting engineers or DJs? Do they program the lasers in advance, or is it more like improv? I need to find a publication to pitch laser artists so that I can do the research to find out.

I’m still more interested in live music than in light shows set to music, and my priority for nights out will still be concerts, but Northern Lights was so much more engaging than I expected, and my kids had a blast. I would consider going again, if the theme and the price are right.

Pacific Science Center hosts laser shows all the time. It looks like tickets are usually around $12. Classic rock is still a staple, it seems, but in the next few weeks they are also performing Laser Gaga, Laser Lemonade, and Laser MGMT. That last one does sound pretty cool…