Ed Waldick is moving the light show from the garage to the big stage this weekend.
Waldick, the sound and light technician for The Jam, will be performing a Pink Floyd laser light show Saturday at 9 p.m. and Sunday at 8 p.m. at the venue. This will be the first laser light show The Jam will produce.
Ocala resident Waldick, 65, has been in the music business for over 20 years but never produced his own show. The idea for the laser light show came to Blake Briand, the owner and manager of The Jam, after watching Waldick perform a mini light show from his garage at Christmas.
“I said ‘game-on,’” Waldick said. “And when I say ‘game-on,’ I mean ‘pedal to the floorboard.’”
Waldick and Briand have been planning the event for about three months, with Waldick’s partner Iver Thue helping with projections and mapping for the show. The two have designed an entire set that is not just limited to lasers and lights.
The set includes four moving heads, 16 LED cams, 12 strobe lights, four fog machines, two bubble machines, four lasers and other props Thue has, Waldick said.
The show will have music from Pink Floyd’s album “Pulse.” Waldick will perform the actual lights as he said he does not believe in relying on a computer program.
“Music is emotion, and emotion changes,” he said. “Computers can’t pick up on that.”
The show has sold 80 presale tickets so far and is expected to sell out, filling The Jam with 400 to 500 people, Briand said.
“This has crushed the previous record for presales,” he said.
Waldick said he hoped 50 people would show up, but over 1,300 people have said they are interested in the event on the Facebook page. The increased interest led to the idea of hosting another show Sunday night, Briand said.
The addition of the second show will give people the opportunity to attend the same event, but the shows will not be identical. The music will be the same, but the show will not be because Waldick said he won’t feel the same emotions every time.
“I can’t paint the same picture two times in a row,” he said.
Waldick said he believes the show is going to be one of the biggest local events to hit Gainesville. He chose Pink Floyd because he said he believes everyone loves Pink Floyd.
“Communicating through lighting to Pink Floyd’s music is a bullseye,” he said. “Put a blindfold on me and I could still hit it.”
Taylor Rapaport, a 23-year-old UF graduate student, plans to attend the show Saturday.
“The combination of modern technology and classic rock is a really unique feature that I have never experienced before,” she said.
Rapaport said she also thinks it’s a new way to enjoy some of her old favorites.
Tickets to the show are $6 presale and $8 at the door; however, Briand suggests arriving early because he believes people will have to be turned away. People attending are also encouraged to bring blankets or folding chairs to sit in.
“This is going to be like eye candy on stunts,” Waldick said.
