History Main / GreatBallsOfFire

* Russian composer Alexander Scriabin's tone poem ''Prometheus: The Poem of Fire'' from 1910 includes a part for a specially designed color organ, which projects colored light onto a screen during the performance.

* Pyrotechnics became so ubiquitous in the mid- to late-80s that at the 1987 {{MTV}} Music Video Awards, a bomb blast was used during the performance of Los Lobos' "La Bamba." "La frickin' '''Bamba'''," people!

-->-- '''MitchBenn,''' "Never Mind The Song (Look At The Stage Set)"

** By the way, Alice invented this stuff. He's vaudeville. Which is why [[TheMarxBrothers Groucho]] was such a fan.

* The video game ''BrutalLegend'' combines this with MagicMusic: Guitar solos cause cataclysmic events, stage lights burn people and pyrotechnics do damage in combat.

* Music/{{Lordi}}. First of all every member of the band has an elaborate monster costume. When they participated in the EurovisionSongContest in 2006 (which they won, by the way), there was some discussion about would their pyrotechnics be safe to use. They got to use them in the end. Videos of their song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" are easy to find on Youtube, though the compression quality is likely to render them as bloody vomit.

* The BlueOysterCult pioneered the use of lasers onstage to enhance a performance. This was in 1975, some years before MTV, an age where most groups stuck to music only. The band's laser equipment was cumbersome and frequently unreliable, but when it worked, it was spectacular. It even provoked a Congressional investigation into how safe lasers were as a form of entertainment.

** Floyd havce a long history of enhancing their stage performances. Even in 1966-67, the psychedelic light show and backscreened film loops which accompanied their spaced-out music made them notorious to MoralGuardians scared of the deleterious effects of LSD.

* In an illustration for ''The Literature/{{Discworld}} Calendar 2015'', Stephen Player shows the [[Discworld/SoulMusic Band With Rocks In]] playing at the Mended Drum. On either side of the stage is a [[OurDragonsAreDifferent swamp dragon]], sending out a burst of flame.

[[quoteright:250:[[{{KISS}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/GreatBallsOfFire.jpg]]]]

* A similar effect in Whitesnake's DressRehearsalVideo for "Here I Go Again." Interestingly, lead singer David Coverdale gave an interview shortly thereafter in which he forswore the use of pyrotechnics altogether, saying he didn't want an explosion to get a bigger cheer than his own performance.
* DefLeppard's 1983 tour featured more fireworks than a Fourth Of July celebration in Washington D.C. Understandable, though, as the album was titled ''Pyromania''.

* Gene Simmons of {{Kiss}} is most famous for breathing fire during their shows.
** How can we forget Ace Frehley of {{Kiss}} playing a guitar while it was on fire? Or his rocket launcher guitar?
*** A move he most likely aped from Jimi Hendrix.

* Music/{{Queensryche}}'s "Building Empires" tour featured wall-sized twin projection screens on which relevant imagery could be displayed. These screens were a hold-over from the videos for their previous album, ''OperationMindcrime'', and were utilized in a presentation of ''Mindcrime'' in its entirety (this formed the basis of the ''Operation:Livecrime'' video and album set).

* In ''AlanWake'', the band The Old Gods of Asgard were apparently quite fond of pyrotechnics, which turns out to come in handy for fighting creatures that are weak to light.

[[AC:Avante Garde/Misc]]
* During her 2003 live tour, [[{{Bjork}} Björk]] used firethrowers as a musical instrument(!)

* All of this is parodied, of course, by the titular band in ''ThisIsSpinalTap''.
** However, their drummers blowing up are apparently not due to pyrotechnics, but rather to spontaneous human combustion. This has happened to at least two of them; the others died under equally bizarre circumstances.

* JAMProject has a habit of spicing up their songs' instrumental introductions with fire and lasers when in concert. ''During'' the song, they prefer to rely on stage presence, {{Hot Blooded}}ness, and raw energy. The combination is a working formula.
* NineInchNails. The Lights in the Sky tour. Full stop. Killer performance. Stunning light show. Need more be said?
* Slightly different direction, perhaps, but the {{Animusic}} rendition of "Pictures at an Exhibition" [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q259PP4HdzM features fireworks]].
* {{Slipknot}}'s bonus drummers are heavily involved with the design and creation of their custom pyro sets. Rather than a huge, glorious shower of sparks, it's an array of ugly, burnt-out steel cans spitting red flames.

* In 2003, a band called Great White playing at a not particularly large nightclub in Rhode Island called The Station decided to use a fair amount of pyrotechnics on the very first song. Soundproofing foam around the stage ignited. 100 people were killed, including the band's drummer, and over 200 were injured. Kind of puts in perspective the comedic fictional use of people dying....

* And don't forget Music/PinkFloyd's "flying pig."

* Creator/NanaMizuki might have become famous due to her GenkiGirl personality and amazing vocal range, but her concerts are most memorable for featuring massively over-the-top decorations, pyrotechnics, OrchestralBombing and audience that gleefully gets into the act. For instance, live performances of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'' intro song, the aptly named "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZFPVAOrdXQ Eternal Blaze]]" is ''always'' accompanied by bursts of flames shooting all around her. This includes things like her Live Grace concerts, where she shares the stage with a full blown orchestra. Many other performances involve stunts of their own, such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhweFpeT_Xo singing on top of a moving airplane]].

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'' intro song, the aptly named "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZFPVAOrdXQ Eternal Blaze]]" by Creator/NanaMizuki, will always be accompanied by bursts of flames shooting all around her whenever she performs it on a live concert. This includes things like her Live Grace concerts, where she shares the stage with a full blown orchestra.

* A central tendency of ''{{Metalocalypse}}'' is for Dethklok's concerts to typically wind up causing impressive body counts. In one episode, for example, the band's unnamed adopted child plays with the controls to the laser light show and winds up murdering a good part of the audience and the entire London Philharmonic orchestra. Other concerts included Dethklok's attempt at a blues concert (so depressing that it could be likened to the ending of ''Raiders of the Lost Ark''), and the episode where Dethklok accidentally summons a troll (which proceeds, of course, to go on a bloody rampage). One wonders how Dethklok has a fanbase considering that anyone becoming involved with them, in any way, has a tendency to die in an exceptionally brutal fashion.

* BonJovi's video for "You Give Love a Bad Name" has GBOF all the way through.
* {{Queensryche}}'s "Building Empires" tour featured wall-sized twin projection screens on which relevant imagery could be displayed. These screens were a hold-over from the videos for their previous album, ''OperationMindcrime'', and were utilized in a presentation of ''Mindcrime'' in its entirety (this formed the basis of the ''Operation:Livecrime'' video and album set).

* Somewhere between the monster masks, blood/semen splatter and explosions, {{GWAR}} apparently plays music as well.

* A Finnish band named Lordi. First of all every member of the band has an elaborate monster costume. When they participated in the EurovisionSongContest in 2006 (which they won, by the way), there was some discussion about would their pyrotechnics be safe to use. They got to use them in the end. Videos of their song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" are easy to find on Youtube, though the compression quality is likely to render them as bloody vomit.

* And don't forget PinkFloyd's "flying pig."

* Even ElvisPresley wasn't immune, and he died four years (almost to the day) before MTV.
* All live PaulMcCartney versions of "Live and Let Die" include explosions. What sort depends on the show: the pyrotechnics have ranged from smoke pots to huge rocket firecrackers. On occasion, the huge rockets had been placed dangerously close to the piano Paul was using--though clearly nothing's gone wrong on that front yet.

* Famous aversion: DireStraits deliberately avoided on-stage theatrics during their shows. When they played small venues, they often turned the volume down so people could talk to each other.
* In an early example, a 1967 performance by TheWho on ''The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'' was capped off by Keith Moon igniting a pyrotechnic charge he'd smuggled inside his bass drum. The charge, which Moon had made himself, proved so powerful that it temporarily blacked out the studio cameras and singed Pete Townshend's hair, and the sudden explosion caused Bette Davis to faint backstage.
* OkGo '''[[TropeMaker are]]''' the geeky subtrope. Pyrotechnics, no. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w Spectacular]] setpieces, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA oh yes]].

* Just take one look at the "Famous Last Words" music video by MyChemicalRomance. Wow.
* In the movie biography of JerryLeeLewis ('''titled''' ''GreatBallsOfFire''), he's depicted as setting a piano on fire during a performance of the eponymous song after finding out that Chuck Berry's contract stipulated that he, not Lewis, would be the closing act, then walking off and telling Berry "Follow ''that''". However, this should perhaps be in the fictional category below: Lewis himself says he never set a piano on fire, though he did indicate that the idea appealed to him.

* Classical example: in MrHollandsOpus, the school orchestra gives a concert with unusually many lighting effects (no pyrotechnics, but ''lots'' of flashing spotlights). Mr Holland is trying to help hearing impaired children, like his own son, to experience the music.

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'' intro song, the aptly named "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZFPVAOrdXQ Eternal Blaze]]" by Creator/NanaMizuki, will always be accompanied by bursts of flames shooting all around her whenever she performs it on a live concert. This includes things like her Live Grace concerts, where she shares the fairly cramped stage with a full blown orchestra.

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'' intro song, the aptly named "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZFPVAOrdXQ Eternal Blaze]]" by Creator/NanaMizuki, will always be accompanied by bursts of flames shooting all around her whenever she performs it on a live concert. This includes things like her Live Grace concerts, where she shares the stage with a full blown orchestra.

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'' intro song, the aptly named "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZFPVAOrdXQ Eternal Blaze]]" by Creator/NanaMizuki, will always be accompanied by bursts of flames shooting all around her whenever she performs it on a live concert.
** Yes, this includes concerts where she's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq0JZTpTuGk sharing the stage with a full blown orchestra]].

* J-rockers Guitar Wolf had a ''flaming microphone'' in their in-movie concert in ''WildZero''.

* Music/MichaelJackson was well-known for using pyrotechnics, as well as dance moves (obviously), costumes changes, and trap doors. At the end of each concert during the Dangerous Tour he switched places with a stunt double who flew off in a real jet pack. Never mind that in 1984, during the making of a Pepsi commercial, a loose spark hit Michael's hair and engulfed him in flames before crew members smothered it.

** From ''QuestionableContent'':