New ideas for theatrics

[Jessie*Jane]

Hi Dennis! I can't believe i'm actually writing you. I really admire you as a bassist and as an artist in general. Your type of creativity always resonate with me since i come from a visual art background too. Luney Tune it's amazing. Killer it's just pure genius. I've read you used to write about your dreams, and that makes it even greater.

This will be freaky (what a surprise) but i keep having this recurrent dream about me creating and producing new ideas for props and numbers for an AC show. There's so many effects i would like to make!
For instance, during the song Caffeine i would have Mr Furnier with a special inflatable vest under the clothing. Then some other character brings a giant kettle with a big firemen hose, and puts it into his mouth. The real end gets connected into the vest, and they start pumping coffee into him, Naked Gun style. And then BOOM, everyone gets soaked in brown liquid.



Anyway, i know the props were always thought by the whole band, (i wish there would be more footage of the Battle Axe show), and i read the idea of the blood-tainted shirt was yours, so that sparked the question (actually there are two):

a. if you had unlimited budget and no other limitation whatsoever, what ideas would you try in a shock rock show? either AC, yours or other artists.
b. are there any theatrics from other groups that have caught your attention or made an impression? Are you familiar with Rammstein for example?

A big salute from Argentina!

[Dreary]

Unlimited budget would be nice but set-up and take-down time, shipping, and safety are always factors, not to mention bottom line profit over costs.

That said, I do have some grand scale ideas but they will remain secret just in case I ever get an unlimited budget.

I will say that surrealistic dream sequences would be favored and I would avoid looking too slick. I would take advantage of the ability to fly. Pink does it in a spectacular way, but I would use it in more of a Marc Chagall painting way.
I would definitely bring back the original band's faithfulness to the element of surprise (which your exploding coffee idea has, however the first things that come to my mind are safety. Liquid and electricity can be dangerous and a wet stage can be slippery. We dealt with that a lot on the plexiglass B$B stage).

Trevor Bolder once said that Bowie brought his bandmates to our show at the Rainbow Theater outside of London to show them that they could glam out and still look tough. But he said they would do it classy, not cheesy.
I like that they were inspired by what we did and I also like that they intended to use that concept in their own way, however, what Bowie called "cheesy" (our shabbiness) was what made us look tough and that made it much easier, and more affordable, for our fans to imitate us.