…or two! I think the pandemic caught us all unawares. The entire entertainment industry has suffered, especially live entertainment (and ESPECIALLY small-time live entertainment!). While we’re clearly not out of the woods yet, I’m happy to say that the business is still alive, and still occasionally booking gigs.

Let us know if we can light up your night! Or day, or whenever! We’re good at it (at least, we like to think so!) and we don’t charge an arm and a leg (we don’t like arms; they’re chewy). Click that contact us link up there and let’s make it happen!

As mentioned in my previous post, it’s been a very slow year so far, with not much in the way of advance bookings.  But!  I am happy to say that my regular client Swade & Satin have finally come along and made several advance bookings.  Turns out they’d just had a series of daytime outdoor gigs, where lighting just doesn’t make much sense.  Swade called me today and we set up five gigs, the first of which is this Friday.  It’s a private event, so no details to share or invitations to extend, but it’s good news!

Here’s my new bookings:

• 16-Aug-2019, private event with Swade & Satin
• 31-Aug-2019, public event with Swade & Satin at Ben & Jerry’s in Greensboro
• 6-Sep-2019, private event with Swade & Satin
• 5-Oct-2019, private event at Cree
• 26-Oct-2019, public event with Swade & Satin
• 28-Dec-2019, public event with Swade & Satin

I’ll put up posts about the public events as they come along.

There’re still lots of weekends left in the year that we’re not booked!  Get in touch today and let us make you look amazing!

It’s a slow year for Lights By Brian™.  That means we have plenty of time to light your next event!  So give us a call, or fill out the contact form, and let us make you look amazing!  Some things that’ve happened since the last post:

• Picked up eight Epsilon PixCube 16 fixtures
• Acquired eight ADJ COB Cannon Wash RGBA fixtures (I like to buy things in eights, okay?)
• Brought in two Chauvet Geyser P-7 illuminated fog jets
• Realized I’m really bad at keeping a blog going!

We’ve also updated our SSL certificate, so your browser should show this site is secure.  It was secure before, but we had a problem with our certificate that made browsers show it as insecure.

Lights By Brian™ is still at it! Business is growing slowly. Here are some highlights of the past few months:

• Swade and Satin has become a regular customer; we’ve done six shows with them so far
• We’ve done a show with Capital City Soul, who shares a bass player with Swade & Satin
• That same bass player and another Swade & Satin member are in yet a third band, The EFunk Experience, whom we have not yet lit but hope to soon
• We had repeat business with a fundraiser garden party we did last year
• Lights By Brian™ bought a truck! Photos maybe coming soon…

Our next gig is with Swade & Satin again, at a private event this weekend. We still have plenty of open space on our calendar! Give us a call at 919-809-7469 or fill out the form to take your event or show to the next level!

Lights By Brian™ lit Swade & Satin in Raleigh on June 2. That gig went well; we were in a parking area on the ground floor of a building. It rained, but aside from some drainage issues (there was the occasional river meandering through the parking area), we didn’t have any real stuff-getting-wet problems. I took a handful of moving lights to expand on equipment that Swade & Satin own, along with haze…of course, the hazer ended up being on the wrong side of the stage as far as prevailing winds (the bugaboo of atmosphere effects at outdoor events), but now and then some haze made it onto the stage! I took video, which I’m suffering through to find some good clips to post. Unfortunately some of the best visuals are from a segment where I forgot to turn the camera’s external mic on… D’oh!

The following weekend, June 9, LBB™ made an appearance at a large company party thrown by CREE (the LED folks) in Durham. It was in a big parking lot, set up like a carnival; the stage at one end, and several different forms of entertainment scattered around in tents, along with food and refreshment. The sun was shining and the high temperature was about 92° Fahrenheit. Suffice it to say, setup (from noon to 4 PM) was brutal! Also my lights barely made any impact at all until the last half hour of the event, when the sun finally set behind a lovely opaque cloud bank. Once again my hazer was victim to the breeze…I gotta get two of those things so I can blow haze from either side! Didn’t get any pictures of the CREE event, sadly.

Lights By Brian™’s next gig will be June 16 at Ben & Jerry’s in Greensboro on West Friendly Avenue; another Swade & Satin event. It’s a public event; if you’re in the area between 4 PM and 8 PM, swing by for some free entertainment!

Lights By Brian™ isn’t dead…I just suck at keeping a website updated!  Here’s what’s happened lately:

In April, LBB illuminated four death metal bands at King’s Barcade in Raleigh, with Eldritch Horror the headline act.  It was a paying gig; discounted heavily but still a decent amount of money changed hands.  Unfortunately I was too busy actually running the show to get any pictures or video.  Naturally.

I’m working on a new business relationship with a local act called Swade and Satin, a wide-interest band that plays about 15 gigs a year.  Their next gig is May 19, but it’s looking like that may get rained out.  Following that is on June 2.  Hopefully I’ll be lighting one or both of those events and making a good enough impression on Swade to be hired on the regular.

That’s all for now!  Thanks for visiting!

Though Lights By Brian™ has been operational and gigging for a few months now, all our gigs so far have been done gratis in order to get exposure.  I’m excited to announce that we have booked our first fully-paying gig!  The event is a private fund-raiser gathering, and we will be providing just some simple decorative lighting in the form of string lights.  It’s a small event, but it represents quantifiable profit!  Hooray!

I’ve also had a very encouraging conversation with a friend of mine in local alt-emo band Harm, which will hopefully be the start of some regular business down the line.

Stay tuned!

The next gig for Lights By Brian™ will be to illuminate local blues sensation The Groovynators at the Nash Street Tavern in Hillsborough, NC.  The band starts playing at 8:00 PM.  Don’t miss it!