I love complex music with layers of harmony and interesting chords. Music with light and shade.

In some situations though, all of those musical subtleties are a complete waste of time. Sometimes what you really need is simple, primary colour music.

The right music for the right venue.

This summer I went to the High Voltage festival. High Voltage is a rock festival that has been going for just a couple of years in London. I wanted to see Dream Theater, who were the headliner on the Sunday, and who I happen to love but there were lots of other acts that were interesting. 

There was also a heay metal stage and a prog stage, creating a mix of acts that was rreally interesting.

I didn’t know most of the acts so if I was going to enjoy them the songwriting really had to stand out. Yes, it also depended on the quality of performance, but these were all professional standard performers. The bands stood or fell on the quality of songwriting.

High Voltage is an outdoor festival. The audience were standing or sitting on the grass. They didn’t have chairs or an acoustically designed theatre, there was the competing noise from other bands and the hubbub of a crowd.  

Although I’m a fan of prog, I have to say in this particular environment some of the prog acts, with all their light and shade, didn’t work. The rock bands playing simpler, more ‘primary colour’ music were far more suitable.

I love complex music, but at this gig it didn’t work. You could hear the drums, the vocal, the thump of the bass and almost nothing else. If the sound man was doing his job properly you could hear the guitar and keyboard solos as well. The subtle flute melodies and complex piano chords weren’t going to come across.

Which brings me to Thunder.

Thunder are a group who had a few hits in the UK charts in the 90s. I didn’t know them at all.

Once they hit the stage and started playing I found I could sing along with pretty much every song. Tracks like ‘Gimme some Loving’ and ‘Love walked in through the door’ were fantastic, entertaining, perfectly written for this sort of gig.

Would I download and listen to them at home? Almost certainly not, but at an open air gig they were perfect.

So what made the songs work so well?

Simple, tried and tested chord choices. Listen to the chorus of ‘Love walked in…’ – you’ve heard that set of chords a hundred times, in several Bonjovi hits for example. Nothing to shock you, nothing that won’t translate to someone three hundred metres back – but it was perfect for the situation, perfect for that gig. The structures were simple and unsuprising, the hooks big and bold. Perfect music for an outdoor summer festival of cheesy hard rock.

As musicians we sometimes get bogged down in the kind of subtle choices that impress other musicians. I love light and shade, but sometimes primary colours are all you need.<