Deltron, Computron, Tron

Although technically true of all moments, every now and then you experience something you are acutely aware will never happen again... or at least not in the same way.  One of those times for me was the day of this performance.  Many moons ago, Deltron 3030 was invited to perform on The Late Show with David Letterman. 

Growing up in the 80s/90s I would watch David Letterman often. I'd especially enjoy the segments with the musical guests. How our alt-hip hop group ended up being one of those musical guests still baffles me. I always thought it was for more mainstream acts. How we were even on their radar remains a mystery to me.  But we got the invitation and were excited to do the show. They requested that we perform our song "City Rising From The Ashes" which we thought was more of a b-side but go figure!

Here are some things I learned that day...

The Late Show is EARLY

Although it's the "late" show, it's actually recorded in the daytime.  Load in and Soundcheck starts at 7am.

It's cold in the studio

They keep the studio pretty chilly, probably so no one sweats on television.

You perform the song twice

The first time is a run through for the camera operators and techs. They watch your performance and figure out their angles and how they will shoot your performance. The second one is the one that goes on the air. They are seasoned professionals!

The backstage/green room area of the Ed Sullivan Theatre is pretty cramped

To be fair, we did roll in with over 20 people.  Mr. Letterman made a joke about it on the air "Pretty good turnout!"  LOL.  Del had just got a new skateboard and was practicing his ollies in the hallway for hours. 

The audience is far away

This was our first time performing for a "live studio audience".  Imagine being in a theatre where the first 15 rows have been taken out completely.  There is a vast, empty floor space where all the cameras roved around. Even when the audience is laughing or applauding at full volume, it kind of sounds like they're in an adjacent room.

But the most mind boggling thing I learned was this:

That city skyline is real!

For years I always thought that NYC skyline behind the stage/interview desk was either an actual window, a photograph or a 2D painted backdrop.  I was amazed to see that it is actually a giant model built in forced perspective and lit with thousands of miniature practical lights.  It was very impressive. 

At the end of the song, David Letterman told me to "Cut that out! You're going to ruin those records!"  At that very moment, my parents, who were watching at home probably felt extremely vindicated as they had been telling me that for years! 

But what's that got to do with Computron?

Well, nothing, apart from the "tron" suffix.  And the fact that sonically, I'm always in search of devices that create "futuristic" sounds or synthesize speech. Shout out to Sarah, one of my patrons here on Patreon, for informing me about the existence of this device: The Talking Computron from 1986.

I was able to locate one here in Canada and my daughters and I have been playing the educational games on it. One of the activities is a reading/pronunciation program where it shows you a word, pauses a few seconds so you can read it, and then pronounces it for you. It pronounces "computer" beautifully.

Oddly, when it got to the word "desert" it actually very clearly pronounced it as "dessert" which was amusing. If you have one of these, try it and see if it does that on yours also.  Maybe this one is defective or just messing with me. 

But what's any of this got to do with Tron?

Also nothing, I just happened to find this story album in the record shelf. For those who don't know, it is a story about a programmer who is "molecular-ized" digitally and trapped in a computer.... needing to battle through a bunch of video game programs in order to escape and get back into the real world.  

A lot of life and social interaction feels more trapped in a computer these days. Not as exciting as Tron's light cycles, it actually feels more like typing letters. A bit like everyone is 15 rows of seats away. But I guess it'll have to do for now. Thank you for reading and listening. I'm looking forward to seeing you all again someday.

e