Besides taking the worst concert pictures anywhere, I had a ton of fun at the Massive Attack concert this weekend (for which I am still paying for today at work). The music: simply lovely and hypnotic and except for some truly obnoxious older rednecks in front of me (look up: combat dancing) and an almost obligatory Vancouver drizzle, I enjoyed myself completely.

One aspect of the Massive Attack show that has to be mentioned is some of the most beautiful visual displays I've seen at any concert. They don't have the scale of, say, a Pink Floyd show (and I know I'm dating myself) but very tightly integrated with their set.

The display, made by United Visual Artists, is mostly font work. Several strips of LED back light the performers and on each strip they have programmed animated words and pixel graphics. All of them can function as one giant screen, however and it seemed what was on the screen could be updated so that it was current to the day's events. For example, the show ended with a big BP (British Petroleum) logo so one got the idea that the band or whoever was responsible for the display could update it when needed.

This blog post on Pixel Type has good photos and video of the display. Really excellent work.