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Trio constructs concert for Chattanoogans to hear the music and feel the emotions

Carl Cadwell heads up the band Summer Dregs with his songwriting and his vision. Carl Cadwell heads up the band Summer Dregs with his songwriting and his vision.

By Barry Courter May 9, 2016 4 min read

As Summer Dregs, Carl Cadwell, Paul Smallman and Josh Green, from right, have created a performance piece featuring songs that are synced with programmed lights.

If you go

* What: Summer Dregs with Napoleans World and DJ* When: 8 p.m. Friday, May 13.* Where: Granfalloon, 400 E. Main St., Suite 120* Admission: $9 advance, $10 at the door* Phone: 661-3185

When everything is synced up just right, the light tubes attached to three 4×8 sheets of black-painted plywood behind Carl Cadwell’s keyboards and Josh Green’s drum kit become as much a character in a song as the licks they play or the lyrics Paul Smallman sings.

The emotions in the words and the musicianship can be seen – and felt – in the changing colors and the drama in the lights, which have been programmed not only to follow the beat but to follow the mood of the song. The lights can be whimsical or ominous, depending on the moment.

It’s more like a Daft Punk or older King Crimson art show than an electronica or DJ concert filled with throbbing, blinking lights and laser beams.

“We are calling it either the ‘Illuminati Light Show’ or the ‘Sensory Inversion Light Show,'” the 33-year-old Cadwell says. “I like the second one better right now.”