Empty Space/Stage

The Empty Side of Things

One of the great things in theater, that modern rock music audiences are not used to is what is known in theater as "The Empty Space". In his book, Peter Brook explains this and continues it on his follow up book. The idea is that with an "empty space", the audience has one thing, that is a massive advantage to a lot of acting, and specially theater. 

You know what that is?

Imagination!

With an empty space, Mr. Brook explains an actor can say one word and take you to a lot of places, which will be slightly different in each audience member, but in general, the idea is there. Now, take this to another area ... since the late 19th century, we got to see photography. Some 50 years later, film.

And today? Just about anything we know is a "photograph" or has to be just like a film. Everything is in front of you so you know what is going on. This, actually is just like saying that all the literature for hundreds of years is crap, because it doesn't give you the hints or the details that you need to know what is going on!  By contrast, an empty stage/space, takes this "being told" away and you use your imagination. You know this works, the imagination part, when you tell the stories to children and they listen, specially at bedtime. Their visualization, no matter how small it might be, is huge for them, but sadly, as they grow up it gets turned off. TV, and then film, eventually take away the "imagination" side because it is right there in front of you! You can even create your own stories (I used to do this!) to make up a new story!

My main reason to mention "unplugged" so much, is just this. We want to find that "empty space/stage" where you can find your own imagination illustrating the work. You end up feeling, later, that these moments were the best, because you remember what, and how, you felt.

When we read many of the reviews and the comments about a lot of music, what do we find? Folks not enjoying the passages of music that would be a sort of "empty space/stage", and we end up not liking it or thinking that it is just boring, or as some folks commented here many times ... a waste of space and meandering to nowhere. Well, that would not be possible since it obviously went "somewhere" for at least one person that put the piece together ... but did that listener bother to try and find out what it meant, or was about?

Heck, go tell a film director that is considered one of the best that one of the longest and incredible shots in film history is in the desert complete with illusions and the heat rising from the sand right in front of the camera, and no "trickery" to make that shot come alive. I suppose that we, the lovers of "action" will find that boring, but in reality, what you see on that moment in the film, is ... pretty damn close to reality ... so you are saying that reality is boring and crap ... and it doesn't mean anything, except (maybe) a slight comment that some of the things in the film might be considered an illusion, or at least an attempt at recreating a history in some form!

The main important thing in a lot of jazz, specially in the 60's, and then later in the psychedelic days of the long cut, was that it made room for your imagination. Regardless of the idea that you were stoned or not, IN A GADDA DA VIDA was a perfect example ... and anyone listening to it now, specially the thrashing troops, will find this utterly boring and just a solo ... as if a solo did not have something to say, in words -- as in POETRY or in LITERATURE, although this might be difficult in a painting ... the veritable "photograph" that came alive. 

A history of ART that I took in high school (Jansen's massive book was what we had to have as main source!), kinda explained to us how a lot of the arts in the past 500/600 years were a sort of "photograph", that took 300/400 years to come alive on its own. Thus, by the time you get to the Romantics, the visuals are very strong, and there were various sub-divisions for it depending on the setting and context.

Move this forward to today, and you can see how we have been "fed" what everything is supposed to be ... and we have become "The Children of the Lost City" that had all their dreams and minds taken away ... by ... who knows who, right? 

One of the things that bothers me, about a lot of rock music is how bland, and sometimes very idealistic it is. Specially when someone tells me/you that or this part in the music is about this, because the lyrics say so. That same music without lyrics in an "empty space/stage" would have a different meaning for us all if we did not know the song or the piece. But we accept the lyrics as the "reality" of it all, thus, forgetting that this is not about your feeling or mine ... but theirs. It is not designed for you to figure out what it is that you see ... it's all about being TOLD what it is supposed to be and its meaning.

One of the main reason why I have (too many time I suppose) asked a band to unplug it, is mainly because so much of it is effects to the point that the message is lost ... now, the MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE ... instead of the way it should be which is the opposite that we are not capable of seeing. Thus, within a bare stage, empty space/stage with no effects, the music and its words would be down to its simplest and most primal moments ... and how many bands can do this? Not many at all ... because there is too much in their music and words that does not quite translate to the bare feel.

All I want from all the arts, is its ability to "wake us up" from being told all the time what is and is supposed to be. It doesn't always seem  to make a lot of sense, and sometimes it is rather strange (Nirvana is a good example) but the reality and feel, is special ... and something that is very obvious that not many bands have.

I would love to see us respond to "progressive music" and "prog" a lot less as just a song, and instead remember it as a very special moment that you will always see and remember something ... and the moments that you did this on your own, stands out in your mind a lot more than just loving a melody or a song that is special to you ... are you aware of that? That part opened up something that you saw, with or without the lyrics, that helped you live it better, but when it becomes unplugged ... will it have the same strength and feel? It should ... it's like a poet, reading the same poem 20 different nights, and it will always be slightly different ... not the same, and it would be unfair to say that you didn't like that presentation you paid for because it did not do to you what the "original" did. That would translate to ... you missed the current feel, although one could say that the reader was not as well tuned to the piece as we thought, and it sounded off.

Granted, this likely means a lot of bands won't sound the same, and will not exactly bring their well known stuff to mind, but the best are capable of doing something else ... re-interpret the whole thing yet one more time, and not sound the same, which the rock'n'roll fans and fanatics "demand" over and over again.

But the quality of the work itself, will always shine. So for the many bands out there, that think that 132 effects and such is the cool thing, try many of those bands without the growl and then see if they still stand up for you ... they likely won't, because their work is not about the "empty space/stage" idea of allowing you to think for yourself ... you are told how to feel and think, instead.