Most weekends you can find me out and about in pubs, bars and music venues in Essex drumming in bands, often depping last minute for anyone who needs a drummer.
This rather nomadic approach to local music is quite refreshing; I get to play a variety of music genres and styles, to different crowds in different venues. This also means that I am also often walking into the unknown, and for this, preparation has always been key.
Aside from learning the songs and arriving on time and setting up in a timely manner, I’ve started to come around to the idea of being prepared for almost anything the gig can throw at me. Most recently, I have decided to include a few stage lights with my gear.
Too many times I’ve arrived at a gig in a pub and the band haven’t bought any lights, meaning we face playing in darkness, struggling to see our instruments and each other, or we play in awkwardly bright spaces with the pub house lights on, making it look like we’re playing in someone’s front room.
Lights for bands provide ambience and vibe. They indicate to the audience that there is a gig happening. Darkness on the audience side seems to loosen people up, making them relaxed enough to dance whilst stage lighting turns the band into the focal point of the room.
Whatsmore, having some sort of lighting on the stage helps me see the set list, see my drums and catch cues from other band members.
Frustrated after yet another gig in the dark, I decided to buy some affordable lights to take with me to gigs, for use in case whatever band I’m playing with need some lights. I didn’t want anything too expensive and over-the-top because most times I wouldn’t need them, or they’re just additions to someone else’s set up. After looking through Electromarket’s extensive lighting collection, I settled on the Fuzzix Comet M16 LED Par Cans.
Now, the level of gig I’m talking about here is your weekend-warrior type, local pub covers band, where no one coming to the gig is expecting a full blown light show. If you’re a professional function band you’ll probably want something that does more, but this article is all about how I settled on these lights specifically, how I use them and what I truthfully think about these lights.
The puritans among the gigging fraternity may turn their nose up at these lights, believing you need to always buy the best your budget can stretch to, but in this instance I disagree.
My criteria for selecting these lights are as follows:
Don’t Be Scared To Use Them
Gigging can be brutal on our gear and I don’t want a set of pricey lights that I will be worried about if they get knocked over, a bit of beer spilt on them or if they’re packed a little awkwardly into the back of the van. No, I don’t plan to be punting the par cans into the van at the end of the night with a rugby style kick, and I would really rather people didn’t spill beer anywhere near the stage area, but to use something in a normal gigging situation requires an acceptance of the fact that you’re dealing with a lot of variables you can’t necessarily control, and having worries about my lights is the last thing I need.
Lightweight For Easy Load-In
I’m not getting any younger and the gear I load in most weeks seems to be getting heavier. I don’t want any more weight added to my load-in.
Easy To Control
I am but a simple drummer, I don’t want to go on an advanced lighting engineer’s course or study an instruction booklet just to use these lights, I want plug-and-play and I want to point and shoot to adjust them on the fly.
Fuzzix Comet M16 LED Par Cans
The Fuzzix Comet M16 Party PAR Can Light Set is a straightforward, budget-friendly lighting kit designed to add colour and atmosphere to parties, home setups, and small event spaces. It includes four compact PAR can lights, each fitted with 18 bright RGB LEDs for bold colour mixing and ambient lighting.
Designed for ease of use, these lights operate via built-in automatic programs, allowing them to run pre-set colour cycles without any external controller. Simply plug them in and position them where needed, ideal for quick setups at birthdays, house parties, or casual gatherings. There’s no DMX or sound-activated mode, making this kit a great choice for users who prefer simple, no-fuss lighting.
Each unit features an adjustable mounting bracket, so you can floor-mount the lights for uplighting effects or attach them to standard lighting stands or truss systems (hardware not included). The lightweight and compact build makes transport and setup easy, especially for mobile users or temporary installations.
Each light has 18x 3-in1 LEDs. Each beam has an angle of 22 degrees and a field angle of 40 degrees. They have red, green and blue colour mixing and 4 automatic light “shows” and fixed colours. The lights are controlled by the remote control only and they are mains powered.
The first thing to say about these par cans is that are very affordable, and so it’s important to purchase these lights with the understanding that these are not built for huge professional stage set ups or festivals and such. That said, I was surprised by the brightness of these lights and the versatility of options available.
Fuzzix Comet M16 Party Par Cans - Pros
First things, first: wow. For under £100, you really can’t go wrong with these lights. Four diverse, bright DJ lights that you can control with a remote control - it’s a no brainer when it comes to convenience.
Being plug-and-play, you just find need to find a power socket, plug it in and you’ve got light. The remote control is very self explanatory, you just point the remote control at the light you want to control, choose the mode or static colour and off you go. I figured it all out in a couple of minutes.
These affordable stage lights are plenty bright enough and more than capable of lighting up a good sized area. I’d say that they would benefit from being paired with other lighting fixtures, but for what I need them for they are great.
I enjoyed the light shows, the fade is gentle, the smooth is an even gentler smooth fade, the strobe and flash modes aren’t just a constant barrage of light flashes, they are cyclical so you could use them in a gig setting without annoying everyone on and off stage. For me, the static lights were perfect, I could create a nice even wash that bathed everything in an atmospheric hue without dazzling or blinding people.
Fuzzix Comet M16 DJ Par Cans - Cons
Some may dislike how lightweight the lights are. At just under 0.36kg per unit they are super lightweight. It could be easy to see this as them being flimsy but I actually prefer them being so light, it makes them easy to load in and out and I can set them up easily, nudging them into place with a foot without a struggle.
A downside is that they are only controlled by remote control, so you really don’t want to lose the remote control otherwise you can’t change the colour mode. There is no screen on the fixture itself and so it will default to ‘Flash’ when plugged in.
That being said, it is a standard IR remote control, so if you lose it it is easy to replace, just give Electormarket a call and someone can help.
Another negative (which is quite minimal given the price of this set of four par cans) is that there is no memory with the lights. If you unplug the lights the lights will revert back to the default setting, which is flash mode, however turning the lights off using the remote control and then turning them back on doesn’t reset the light, it will go back to whatever function or colour you had it on before turning it off.
Conclusion
For a set of lights to keep in the van for emergencies or a set of lights for adding to an existing set up, you can’t go wrong with the Fuzzix Comet M16. No, these aren’t high-end lighting fixtures that can be synced with a light show, but that’s not why you would be buying these in the first place. For local bands, cover bands, DJs playing out at the weekend, these lights are ideal. You can put them up, turn them on and forget about them and it’s this zero fuss approach that makes these par cans so accessible and useful.
Buy yours now.
