People think of him as the 80’s synth guy, but he’s a lot more than that. Thomas Dolby brought his “Imaginary Lighthouse” project to one of my favorite venues, the Crest Theater, and most people missed it. The theater was about half-full, but it should have been a sell-out crowd. The show was great and the crowd was enthusiastic.
Note: This post was also used at www.sacmusicblog.com
Review and photos after the “read more”…
The show started with a film, nearly an hour in length, with Dolby and his sound/foley pal doing the narration and all the sound effects and music. Pieces of Dolby’s songs (old and new) were used in the film, which told the story of a lighthouse near where Dolby grew up and how it was going to be decommissioned and shut down. In reality, there was a lot more in the film, with music and insight into Dolby’s life too. The man who did the sound effects has worked on big-budget films, which people like James Cameron, the Coen Brothers, and other top-level filmmakers.
After that, there was a question and answer period with audience members asking question (surprisingly intelligent) and Dolby answering, providing a lot of insight into his career and his songwriting and creating process. He was smart, engaging, and personable and this portion was very interesting. After that, the two of them played some songs, a half-dozen or so, including Dolby classics like She Blinded Me With Science, One Of Our Submarines, Europa And The Pirate Twins, Airhead, etc, as well as newer songs like My Evil Twin Brother. For the encore they played Hyperactive.
This was the last show of the tour and if you missed it, well, you missed it. But you missed a really cool show…
