Audio becomes visual for band of brothers

To keep costs under control, their new tour sees The Walls sharing the stage with screen versions of their band, writes KEVIN COURTNEY

THERE WAS A TIME when having an audiovisual element to your live show was a sign of limitless ambition, bottomless budget and an ego the size of a planet. Giant screens, inflatable pigs, Trabants hanging from the roof – nothing screamed success quite as loudly as an onstage barrage of multimedia, dazzling the fans and leaving them blinking for more.

These days, however, audiovisuals can help a band save money, reduce touring costs and connect with their audience in a new and interesting way.

Just imagine: instead of forking out to bring the whole band on tour, you simply have a virtual band, neatly packed away in a little hard-drive, and always ready for action at the click of a mouse.

That’s just what The Walls have done for their current tour, and it’s proving to be almost as good, if not even better, than the real thing. Any band can have real members, but how many bands have had their members pixillated and put up on stage in glorious 2-D?

The idea for a virtual stage show came three years ago, after the band, led by brothers Steve and Joe Wall, went on an Australian jaunt to support Crowded House that almost broke the bank.

“It was an offer we really didn’t want to turn down, even though we knew it was going to be expensive,” recalls Steve Wall. “It was Crowded House’s reunion tour, and we knew it was going to be a big deal down there.

“The trip nearly bankrupted us, because we went with a full band, and when you added up everything: flights, shipping CDs down there, hiring the backline every night. So basically we were scratching our heads and thinking, how can we still go abroad and showcase our music to people?”

They were reticent about using backing tracks, but then an idea started to take shape.

“We thought, what if you could see the person playing the instrument? Would it still come across as a backing track? So we started experimenting with it, and did a few little gigs around Ireland in small venues and pubs and stuff, and the drummer used to walk out on the screen.”

Soon, a bassist and keyboard player were added to the on-screen ensemble, then a brass section, and then some eye-catching footage by DJ and film-maker Donal Dineen and artist Claire Langan, who has done visuals for Sigur Rós.

“Then we’ve got some photographs and bits of footage that we’ve come up with ourselves. So it’s not all musicians on the screen, because we know that novelty would wear off if they were on all the time.”

So, what does it look like, Spielberg or Ed Wood? The duo road-tested their virtual band at the small Odessa venue in Dublin earlier this month, and the flatscreen musos put on a rockin’ performance, never fluffing a note or missing a cue. Squint your eyes and it could be a real live band on the tiny stage. Steve and Joe conducted some well-timed banter with their cyber-bandmates, and the show climaxed with a nicely- synchronised hula dance.

“Basically, all we have is a projector and a laptop,” says Steve. And a screen.

“You’re only limited by your imagination, really, but you have to be careful, because you can end up putting an awful lot of time and work into the visuals, but at the end of the day the music has to be really good.”

Happily, The Walls have good ears for a tune, and such new tracks as Phantom Powerand current single Carrying The Fireshould slot nicely into the tune bank alongside some of The Walls' best-known tunes, including To The Bright and Shining Sunand Bone Deep. The duo have completed their new album, Stop The Lights,which they are hoping to release in the US and here by autumn.

“I think The Stunning is something that we can never . . . not that we’d want to escape it, but we’ll be forever associated with The Stunning in Ireland, because we had a period there in the 1990s when we were a part of people’s growing up,” says Steve.

“So for a certain age group, we’re part of their teenage years or their college years. With the new Walls album we were really striving for that, to write some songs that could be around for a while. I think we’ve gotten there with it.”

The Walls bring their two-man audio-visual show to The White Horse, Ballincollig, Co Cork on Thursday and their full band show to Puck Fair, Killorglin, Co Kerry on August 11. Both The Walls (audio/visual) and The Stunning play the Sony Ericsson Temple House Festival on September 10