Rocking the audience

HIGH NOTES

The Iron Maiden concert in Mumbai last week proved once more that concert organisers in our country are well on their way to achieving the best in global standards when putting up major shows.

If there was any lacking in infrastructure or facilities, they should be excused as these will undoubtedly be ironed out very soon. Also, there's always something to complain about if you really want to.

About the performance itself, it was very good and it felt like money well spent. I say this as a person who has grown up with Iron Maiden music but has never been an ardent fan.

Much unlike my fellow audience which comprised thousands of Iron Maiden-T-shirts clad people of varying age groups to whom the experience was probably awe inspiring.

Watching the iconic rockers thrill the audience from the two levelled stage with signature Maiden art serving as background was as exciting 200 feet away as it was standing right in front of them or even watching them on the large side screens (for the record, I tried all three views).

And while it wasn't my first concert experience, it did manage to leave a lasting impression on me that had me thinking that music is rarely experienced better than when it is played in person for you (well, sort of).

But I have been compelled to change my opinion after reading about U2 3D, a U2 concert filmed for 3D for cinema screens complete with higher than high definition audio and visual quality making for a super enhanced live experience and prompting Wired writer Eliot Van Buskirk to call it, "The best rock show I've never attended".

The thought of watching a concert in a cinema might sound lame at first and understandably there is some nostalgia attached to the endless traffic, queue and crowds encountered at regular concerts.

But when you think about the latest 3D technology (called 3ality hyper-realistic 3-D video-capture technology,) being used to make you feel as if Bono from U2 is literally singing directly for you is when you know that virtual reality is well on its way change the way we experience music and possibly everything else.

Unfortunately, the $15 million and upward cost to create this cinematic extravaganza makes it less user-friendly to most musicians.

But if they still want to play for their audiences without actually playing for them in the flesh, all they need to do is get a broadband connection and a Synchronicitylive.com account that will allow the band to stream their live concerts free of cost over the Internet and across the world.

To be honest, few things will come close to actually attending a concert with a bunch of otherwise anonymous fellow fans.

But with the lines of virtual and actual reality getting blurred these days, it's good to know that if you wanted to go to the loo in the middle of a concert without running the risk of missing your favourite song, you will now be able to do so by quite simply by pressing "pause".

(craig_fernandes@hotmail)