THE ROLLING STONES AT THE MAX On Thursday, July 24, 2014 I was able to attend the showing of ‘Rolling Stones at the Max’ — an IMAX film presentation of the Rolling Stones 1991 Wembly Stadium Steel Wheels Tour concert at the Ontario Science Centre (thank you Louise Hypher). Though I had attended the original concert in Toronto with great seats, the experience was nothing like seeing Mick and the band up close and six-stories tall. IMAX movies, a Canadian invention, are a great experience, offering a screen 4,500 times larger than a TV and 44 speakers pumping out 13,000 watts of sound. The film provided a unique opportunity to catch the intimate expressions and banter between Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood while being able to see their fretboard fingering. Numerous camera positions, wide-screen shots, and panoramas of the stage, crowd, and blow-up people and animals, transported the viewer to various ideal vantage points from which to take in the show. It was easy to conclude that generations from now people would still be viewing this film and experiencing the next best thing to seeing this legendary band live. THE SCIENCE OF ROCK ‘N’ ROLL After the film our little group checked out the ScienceROCKS! exhibit, occupying four areas of the Science Centre. The Great Hall included a performance by Tom Wilson, the RockBand videogame, and DJ Holly. The the lower level included a Music Dissection Lab with Blake Martin, and the Science of Music and Memory — where people were invited to join together to form a ‘brain’ to learn about how a person experiences music, and DJ Misty at specific times, including a ‘Name that Tune’ game. The Science of Rock ‘N’ Roll Exhibition began with a display along a corridor that included the opportunity to listen to interviews with famous rock ‘n’ roll personalities (e.g., Bill Haley, Elvis, Buddy Holly, etc.), and a booth to get your photo taken with a Höfner 500/1 bass, similart to the one used by Paul McCartney, against a green screen — with a suitable background added on computer. Moving along, one could read about the history of popular music and some of the technological changes that had occurred over the years, accompanied by glass cases displayed music memorabilia, divided by decade. The corridor opened into a room with a variety of exhibits. People were invited to try to play a real instrument (drums, guitar, bass, keyboard), sound booths were provided to sing karaoke, computer monitor mixers to adjust the levels on a popular tune, tables where one could ‘assemble’ an original song (sort of) by placing lucite blocks representing different instruments, a video showing a time-lapse view of a concert setup and breakdown, and a room with playing a concert video of The Who. A NICE IDEA POORLY EXECUTED I learned from the Science Centre staff that the Science of Rock ‘N’ Roll Exhibition was not created by the Science Centre, but brought in from elsewhere; it’s likely a traveling show. While the idea of an exhibit revealing the science of rock ‘n’ roll music is great, unfortunately the execution of this show left much to be desired. The initial walkthrough provided too much pop culture trivia and not enough meaningful science. Instead of displays containing mostly momentos of music history, there should have been exploded views of instruments, amps, and the technology of music making and production — along with detailed diagrams and text explanations of how things work. Photos and video interviews (where available) of famous music technology innovators could also have been provided. Except for the karaoke booths, the different areas of the exhibit were not soundproofed and isolated — thus for many exhibits that required listening (e.g., musician interviews, song mixing, music making, etc.), it was impossible to hear what you were doing, making the exercise futile. The ‘concert’ exhibit was apparently supposed to provide the experience of being at a Who concert; for the band once dubbed the ‘loudest in the world’; you could barely hear the video. Several of the exhibits were either not functional (e.g., one of the karaoke booths), not working properly (e.g., a music-making table, the song mixers), or their software was not easy enough for the public to intuitively operate alone (e.g., the instruction video for the guitar). The instruments for playing could have been soundproofed and isolated but linked up so that each person playing could opt to hear the others, and their combined efforts could be (temporarily) recorded and played back to be heard by all. More opportunity should have been provided for people to experiment hands-on with the use of real and digital effects, filters, and the mixing of music — both historical and modern. Multiple people could have cooperated in appling different types of sounds to different tracks of the same song over a five-minute period, after which it would be played for all to hear. The karaoke booths could have worked properly and offered more than 3 songs. Though this exhibition could have been better, it seemed that many people were enjoying themselves. Other similar shows on different subjects (e.g., Whales) were superior. The Science of Rock ‘N’ Roll continues from June 11 to October 26. INFO: https://ontariosciencecentre.ca/rocknroll/ IMAX DOME FILMS SCHEDULE: https://ontariosciencecentre.ca/Imax/
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 11:38:06 +0000
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