Electronic dance music has its haters who find it to be too loud, too repetitive and too obnoxious. But even the haters should admit one thing: EDM's practitioners deserve credit for having successfully brought back the old-fashioned arena rock light show. Last week, Krewella performed atop a giant, sliver spaceship-like structure before a sold out crowd of House of Blues. While Big Gigantic didn't draw as well (the venue was only about a half full) last night, the guys brought their own impressively ginormous light show to House of Blues and delivered a satisfying high-energy 100-minute set.
The light show was certainly the show's star. The duo were positioned atop five giant curved LED video screens that flickered with different images throughout the night. Another set of giant LED panels hung behind them. At one point, the video screens turned into a giant Pac-Man game. At another, the image of a cat floated from screen to screen. All the while, lasers and strobes flickered as if the stage was some kind of runway lit up at night for incoming planes. "Rise and Shine" featured the image of a giant glowing sun that rose above a the outline of generic city skyscrapers. Operated by the band's own lighting guy who sat in front of a console of computers near the soundboard, the light show constantly shifted and changed throughout the set, making the show seem like kind of giant video game.
While the duo's fans came for the extended jams that would conclude nearly every song of the set, Big Gigantic isn't your stereotypical jam band. The guys delved into hip-hop, offering up a cover of Jay-Z's "Can I Get A..." that they delivered with their own unique spin as Dominic Lalli wailed away on his saxophone and Jeremy Salken provided jazz fills on the drums. They also reworked Macklemore and Lewis' "Can't Hold Us," emphasizing the jazzy elements of the tune. And they debuted several of their original compositions from a new studio album due out at the beginning of next year. While many of the pre-recorded dubstep beats were indistinguishable from each other, the live instrumentation kept the set from becoming repetitive.
