A City Alight

Jeremy and I were really into photography back in high school (and still are). When we heard that the French new age artist, Jean Michel Jarre, famous for his over-the-top-light and laser shows, was coming to town to celebrate Houston's sesquicentennial, we knew we had to caputre in on film.

I will never forget that day...and all these years later, when I drive down Memorial Drive or Allen Parkway, and I see the imposing skyline of downtown Houston, I still cannot help but think about the Jean Michel Jarre concert.

This guy takes things to a completely different level...he uses the entire city as his stage...and lights it up with fireworks, lasers, huge video images on the sides of 80 story buildings, he plays an enormous laser harp (see photo below) and on and on.

It was such an enormous concert, people could easily watch it from miles away (and listen to it too because it was simulcast on the radio). Major interstates came to a stand-still because people just stopped where they were and watched the spectacle.

That night was pretty balmy...it was August afterall in Houston. It had rained quite a bit the day before and the day of the concert was very London-like...not quite raining, but very overcast and misty.

The weahter wasn't ideal - the lights and lasers were not quite as sharp as what I imagine he intended...and since the cloud ceiling was so low, some of the fireworks on the tops of the buildings were literally illuminating the clouds.

Despite the overcast skies, the effect was still quite overpowering. Jeremy and I staked out our place along Buffalo Bayou very early that day and just pretty much camped out that day, waiting for the concert to begin. Once it did, we couldn't stop snapping (except of course to reload film -- digital cameras were still a long ways off).

A half million people watched the concert and it was a huge success. Jeremy and I got some great shots and even made several of them into huge posters.

It was a great time with a great friend at a great spectacle.