When an artist names himself “Pretty Lights”, it puts a certain degree of expectation on the live production. People certainly want to see pretty lights, and throughout his entire career, Derek Vincent Smith has never ceased to let the fans down. From humble beginnings with basic lights to monstrous full-scale set-ups, we take a look back at the evolution of the Pretty Lights stage production.
Beginnings with Corey Eberhard
When the original Pretty Lights duo of Derek Vincent Smith and Corey Eberhard began, stage production was a main focus of the show, but strictly depended on venue. Simple backdrops with lights were common, and visualizers and lasers were a rarity unless at a festival appearance, such as Pretty Lights at Coachella (below).
Introduction of Adam Deitch
As Adam Deitch replaced Eberhard as the drummer, the live production began to improve. Tour stops featured multiple visualizers, usually as a big screen behind the two and sometimes Derek’s booth was a visualizer as well.
As time progressed, the visualizers became better structured and more elaborate.
Despite the new visualizer technologies they had access to, lights and lasers were still a dominating aspect of the live show.
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2011- Introduction of the “Towers”
The beginning of 2011 introduced giant LED towers that stood behind the duo. This new production soon became a staple for Pretty Lights. The towers themselves were visualizers, usually accompanied by Derek’s booth which also displayed the visualization and underneath Deitch’s drums as well.
The combination of lights, lasers, and the added towers made for a very unique and innovative live show.
The Split – Pretty Lights solely becomes Derek Vincent Smith
By mid 2011, the duo split. With Smith being now the sole member of Pretty Lights, a greater emphasis was placed on the visual aspect of the show. Visualization on the towers, as well as improved lights and lasers, became a primary force in the Pretty Lights show.
Improved Towers
By late 2011, the “towers” set-up immensely grew in size. More towers were added behind of various size, as well as the DJ booth growing from a single box to a triple-layer visualizer. This allowed for a much greater range of visuals when performing on-stage.
Late 2011 began to showcase the use of large-scale visualizations behind the towers. This was in-frequent and only at select venues but it was a forerunner of what would come with his later set-up.
Going into 2012, the towers became bigger and taller. Visuaizations became more elaborate as well. Lasers began to become flawless, with multi-color and various textures.
2012 – New with the Old
Late 2012, around time of the Illumination Tour, showcased a new stage production that was inspired by the old. The towers were still present; however, a set of “waves” stood behind Smith as well as a giant visualizer screen above him. His DJ booth went from the massive triple-decker to a smaller, rounded visualizer booth.
Lasers became more precise, and often would over-shadow the rest of the set up when they came out.
Today – Simple yet Effective
2013 has shown that Smith has decided to ditch everything; the towers, the visualizers, the waves. His set-up now is purely lights and lasers. He DJs out of a massive booth that can emit lights out of it. Some shows feature a “disco ball” in front of the booth which is used to project lights and lasers off of.
The “disco ball”
More Pretty Lights:
- Pretty Lights Produces “All These Lights” by The Grouch & Eligh (Music Video)
- Pretty Lights – A Color Map of the Sun (Full Album Review)
- 21 Rare Pretty Lights Tracks
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