Close Talker puts audience virtually centre-stage in 3D-360 tour

Not everything has been done before.

On its upcoming tour, Saskatoon indie-rock band Close Talker is bringing something new to audiences: a headphone concert that puts the listener’s ears centre-stage, virtually speaking.

“This type of concert hasn’t been done before in the world, from what we’ve gathered,” said Chris Morien, who mostly plays drums in the trio.

To hear the band — or at least to hear it well — headphones are required.

“If you’re walking by, you just are peeking in, you’ll see 64 people just sitting there staring forward and all you’ll hear is drums,” said Morien.

The audience, however, will hear guitars, and bass, and keyboards, and vocals.

After nearly a year of planning, Close Talker debuted its 3D-360 silent headphone concert in a hometown show during the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival in late June. Its cross-Canada tour starts Aug. 2 in Vancouver.

Headphone concerts are not a new concept — the first one dates back two decades — but Morien says the technology for this tour is something else.

The software allows for “live 3D mixing,” said Morien, which “mimics how your ears respond to sound. So you can place any sound source around your head and create this feeling that it’s not just coming from the left or the right; it’s coming from in front of you or behind you or really close or really far away.”

“Basically what that allows us to do is create a really immersive concert experience where you can feel like you’re sitting in the band, essentially,” added Morien, with the band playing onstage in front of the crowd.

Plus, the technology expands venue options because “we’re not limited to a PA system.”

So, from Vancouver to Montreal this month, Close Talker will hit art galleries, warehouses, theatres and breweries for intimate concerts, given a limited number of headphone sets. In Regina, there are two back-to-back shows scheduled.

The Saskatoon 3D-360 concert was at the iconic Bessborough Hotel — an atypical place for a rock show.

“That was probably the most nervous we’ve ever felt for a show,” said Morien.

“It’s a different feeling to walk into the room and everyone’s just sitting there, listening with their headphones on and very calm and not moving around, not talking.”

It’s an ideal setup for a band that would prefer its audience to be quietly engaged.

Close Talker’s music is “not party music … it’s a sit back and listen and enjoy it in that sense,” said Morien. “Typically we’re performing at clubs and bars and stuff where it is sort of that party or drinking environment, or it’s loud and you can’t necessarily hear the music as clear or as nice as we would want it to be.”

At each concert, a local artist will create live visual art to accompany the music.

In Saskatoon, multimedia artist Lindsey Rewuski (Ghost House Studio) dripped dye and food colouring into a plexiglass container of water, in time to the music. A camera captured her work, an ever-changing colourful abstraction that was projected onto a screen behind the band.