Story by Lauren Messman
Photo by Catherine Couture
This Friday, the concert series “Life in Color”, will be sure to paint the Cuthbert Amphitheater shades of neon pink, blue, and green. University of Oregon students and residents are in for a night of high-energy music, dazzling performance art, non-stop dancing, and massive amounts of paint, as “The World’s Largest Paint Party” hits Eugene.
“Life in Color”, formerly known as “Dayglow”, started six years ago as a live concert and paint party that traveled to college campuses in Florida. Since then, it has expanded and become a one-of-a-kind production that brings world-class electronic DJs to college campuses across the nation.
Those in attendance can not only expect music from local and international DJs, but also stunning performance art in the form of aerialists, confetti cannons, pyrotechnics, and stilt walkers, just to name a few.
The concert’s name and uniqueness undoubtedly derives from its most memorable feature: guns and cannons shoot out blasts of multicolored paint throughout the performance. Concertgoers are encouraged to wear white and, as event coordinator Matt Meyer says, “Embrace the paint.”
“It’s a truly unique experience. We bring the most insane production to college markets,” Meyer says, “We provide a festival like experience, at a concert price.”
Seattle University student Catherine Couture attended Life in Color in Seattle last April and confirms that the show is unlike anything else.“I loved it […] the lights were insane and there were huge LED clocks counting down to ‘Life in Color.’ When the countdown got to the final minutes, everyone counted down the last ten seconds together and then gallons and gallons of paint shot from cannons and guns all over the crowd and everyone went nuts!”
While Meyer assures that the paint is non-toxic and will come out of clothes, Couture advises those in attendance, “Wear sunglasses or goggles, for sure.”
Couture, who will be in attendance this Friday, believes that the Eugene show will be even more fun than the Seattle show, which boasted 10,000 people.“[Life in Color] Eugene will be half as big as Seattle so I personally think it will be more fun. Less people equals more paint…People should go to listen to amazing music and dance in paint all night.”
Life in Color will host legendary DJ Dirty South at the Cuthbert Amphitheater. The Australian DJ is listed as one of the top 100 DJs in the world, and his collaboration with Alesso, City of Dreams was the number one track on electronic music site Beatport for two consecutive weeks. In addition to headliner Dirty South, the show will feature Miami-based DJ Crespo, DJ Sidestep, as well local Eugene act DJ Scoot.
While Meyer expects that the show will sell out, so far four thousand tickets have been sold and 500 are still available for purchase.
