This will be a little ramble-y. Bare with me.

If so; what do you use? We have had some killer 42" led bars on backorder FOREVER and I am about to think about going in a different direction and getting some led par lights instead.

Do you set up custom scenes or do you just set it to run a basic sound activated chase pattern...? We have the sound reinforcement down really well to where we can do almost every gig ourselves on that front. But the lights we currently use need replaced in the worst of ways.

Not yet, but I want to do it next year. I know nothing about it though so I am interested in any feedback here.

This is interesting
https://www.dmxis.com/dmxis/
Especially for someone running tracks/playing to a click/automating their light show in any way.

We have a couple of rows of static colored can lights up front and two "towers" of can lights boxing in the drummer in back. They run on a simple dmx controller. I want better lights up front. Brighter and more interesting looking. We have some plates that sit on our mains that lights can be mounted to and I would really like to add some rotating or otherwise in-some-sort-of-motion fixtures there.

the issue with programming scenes is the same as having a preset PA: every room is different. So maybe a scene that looks great on one stage won't work well on the next one. I am thinking of just getting something that reacts to sound. But some programmability would be nice, like having certain colors/patterns react to specific rhythm patterns.

I'm definitely not an expert, but I've done a little light programming.

I've used dmxis, which I've found ok but does have some
cool features), also show buddy, which is software from the same company, for programming shows.

As mentioned, programming is fine if you're using a click/backing track, I did find the process a little tedious (I am a noob) and couldn't imagine how much time it would take to program a full set list.

Most of the led lights have a sound active mode, but imho they look terrible just flashing randomly, in fact I'd rather
have no lights than bad lights.

Also, I see many cases when bands have lights behind them but not in front, or they put the front lighting on the floor. Lighting the artist is priority. Amber is good for the front.

Another issue is venues. Most lights, especially movers really look better with smoke/haze, many venues wont allow smoke/haze because of smoke alarms.

There are some decent led bars (4 cans) on the market at reasonable prices, a bit more for rgba (worth it imho). Even the moving spots are coming down in price.

I think it's well worth it to watch some band vids and see how the use different colours, movement, eg phish (with the sound turned off).

Thanks for the informed reply, SBG! I always try to listen to Phish with the sound off

If you want to be able to leave the sound on - check out some Gov't Mule live shows.
Great light shows - and there are never spotlights focused on the band members - they are there strictly for ambience/atmosphere/effect.

Oh, meant to add, dmxis/showbuddy doesnt have a visualizer so you have to program with your lights set up, I believe there is some other software that do have this feature.

Cool topic.

I bet you EDM forums have people with lots of info on this topic too.

I bet they do, too. It's honestly a deep gear topic that I kind of want to be cool with just living on the surface of

There were some great threads on the old HC lighting forum.

Also, if there are any DJ equipment shows near you they're a good place to check out the latest lighting gear.