U2inSL Concert!!!

Once I came up with the GREATEST idea of ALL TIME... Get KISS into SL!!!

It would be a simple gig for them! They're used to touring all year round, the meet & greets, all the traveling a hoopla... Playing gigs in SL would be A BREEZE by comparison! They could do it from their homes, just log-in, wander around, still do meet & greets, preform a show by pointing and clicking... And people could tell their friends they saw KISS!

Then I saw a poster in SL, and someone had already had my idea, and implimented it, and IMPROVED UPON IT...

U2inSL!

That's the name of a tribute band who is actively supporting the ONE Cause, and they have apparently worked out some deal with the Lindens (LindenLabs, the company that created and runs SecondLife) where they have avatars that are exact replicas of U2, AND they sport U2's names -- Bono Vox, The Edge, Adam Claton and Larry Mullen. (SL avs have to have a first and second name, so that's why Bono is "Bono Vox" rather than just "Bono". I want to say the earliest incarnation of his name was one word, "bonovox", but I could be mistaken.)

And these cats play gigs in SL! For FREE, even! Their souveniers are even free! (I got a T-shirt and a poster... I'm not greedy.)

So anyway, my sweety got hung up in RL -- we had planned to hang tonight -- so I thought I'd attend tonight's U2inSL concert.

I crashed out (more on that in a sec), but I got to enjoy several songs and quite a show!!!

A note about concerts in SL...

Whenever you get a bunch of people together in a confined space, it messes with the computers that create SL.

SL is essentially a game. Think about the detailing and graphins in your favorite video game versus the graphics in a PIXAR flick -- the game isn't nearly as detailed and perfect, right? That's because the game has to facilitate human spontaneity. It has to be able to respond to any command you make in nanoseconds (or else you'd become very cross). Whereas PIXAR can put all the computers' resources into the image, the game has to factor in human responses, dividing the resources between graphics and function.

Okay, so SL is like that... BUT...

More than one player.

In fact, tonight's concert facilitated 70 audience members -- in adition to the 4 band members, any techies they needed to make the show work (granted, not nearly as many as an RL rock show, but still, the band doesn't pull it off along) and I saw a few security people as well (because people want to get up on the stage in SL, too... AND it's a lot easier, as you can FLY in SL).

So whenever you get a lot of people together in a single space (or "sim", short for "simulator") it really messes with the computers. Movement starts to lag, and weaker computers (even stronger computers) crash.

So SL has created some rules for concerts.

In SL you can do just about anything to your avatar. You can wear all sorts of stuff to make it move not just like a human, but in a sexy way, or like an animal (if you're what's known in-world as a "Furry"), you can wear shields to protect against people with weapons, you can were belts that make you fly higher and faster, you can be decked out with jewelry -- all of which has a script that makes is shinier than real jewelry... Just no end to it.

But every script and every prim you wear has to be accounted for by the computers that draw the world ever nth of a second, and FOR every person in the sim.

So in SL you're limited to how much of the computers' resources you can take up. Basically, you can't wear ANYTHING with a script (unless you're a Furry, but even then you're asked to keep it to the bare essentials) and you're not allowed to wear Prim Hair.

After you've been in SL for a while you notice that there is Noobie (as in "new-by") skin and hair and clothes, then there is the GOOD stuff. The stuff you or other people make, the stuff you buy, the stuff that looks closer to PIXAR than the default hair you make for yourself when you first join.

It took me a while, but I finally succame (is that right?) to the social stigma and bought a skin and prim hair and all that stuff.

Then this concert comes along, and I had to go back a make some prim hair, and take off all my scripted stuff, so I could attend the show, lol. (In fact, I've recently gone Furry... I now sport cat ears and tail, and dress a great deal butch-er than I used to, lol!)

So even though earlier SL pics show me as I currently look, in these pics I'm stripped down to bare-bones, Noobie style.

I wanted to point out this little lady. She's a friend of mine. When my gf can't be in SL, a lot of times this lady keeps me out of trouble ;P She loves U2, so she joined me at the concert. (Also, she often dresses a LOT RACIER, lol!)

What I got to see was a fun show!!!

A lifetime goal was fulfilled a few years ago when U2 came to Austin and I was able to see them live. (I've been a HUGE fan since high school!!!)

I can't honestly tell you that seeing U2inSL was the same experience -- there were some aspects that were better (like being able to zoom my view RIGHT UP NEXT TO the performers) and many that weren't (there's a spiritual feeling at a U2 show that you can't even get watching a dvd of the show) -- but it was REALLY COOL!!!

Now... if someone could figure out how to do Blue Man Group in SL...