A Token Of Their Extreme...
Oct. 19th, 2019 07:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanA thought-provoking op-ed in the NME...
Live Albums Are Pointless... - which makes the argument that they're a useless memento, or an inferior document, of what makes the band, or at least their shows, special... I suspect that, for a sizeable percentage, that's pretty true. I don't listen to many concert albums (I do like watching concert DVDs though, but I think that's a different thing), even some of those considered 'classics' like Kiss 'Alive' & Alive II' - with too much audience screaming, hammy banter & bum notes, the Rolling Stones 'Get Your Ya Yas Out' - which is a muddy mess sounding like it was recorded from somewhere in the middle of a stoned crowd, or 'The Who Live At Leeds' - for all its supposed energy, listening to it just sounds like an overdriven mess with Roger Daltrey shouting over it
On the other hand, I love listening to 'The Allman Brothers Live At Fillmore East' - minimal crowd noise, clear recording & fantastic playing all round... as well as being sufficiently different to their studio recordings as to be worth repeated listening. Ditto for Yes 'Yessongs' for much the same reasons & the Band 'The Last Waltz', though I sometimes prefer to watch the movie instead...
I may be tempted to go even further than the article though & wonder why some artists/bands play live at all?? I've certainly seen some concerts that made me wonder why I was there & not at home listening to the CD instead... The Aphex Twin leaps to mind, as do Justin Timberlake & Lady GaGa - whose shows were more about synchronised dancing & backing tracks than the music itself... & Bob Dylan - not just for his bloody awful Sydney show in 1989, but for any of his live performances since he grew beyond the New York folk cafés - tuneless mumbling & rambling over shambolic, mostly sub-standard country & blues that wouldn't get a gig in Nashville on a Tuesday night, let alone a run at the Ryman... In fact, 2 of the worst live albums I own are his (you'd think I would have learned after the 1st one!?) - 'Before The Flood' & 'Hard Rain', appropriate titles for such a shower of drab, drizzling dreck...
Live Albums Are Pointless... - which makes the argument that they're a useless memento, or an inferior document, of what makes the band, or at least their shows, special... I suspect that, for a sizeable percentage, that's pretty true. I don't listen to many concert albums (I do like watching concert DVDs though, but I think that's a different thing), even some of those considered 'classics' like Kiss 'Alive' & Alive II' - with too much audience screaming, hammy banter & bum notes, the Rolling Stones 'Get Your Ya Yas Out' - which is a muddy mess sounding like it was recorded from somewhere in the middle of a stoned crowd, or 'The Who Live At Leeds' - for all its supposed energy, listening to it just sounds like an overdriven mess with Roger Daltrey shouting over it
On the other hand, I love listening to 'The Allman Brothers Live At Fillmore East' - minimal crowd noise, clear recording & fantastic playing all round... as well as being sufficiently different to their studio recordings as to be worth repeated listening. Ditto for Yes 'Yessongs' for much the same reasons & the Band 'The Last Waltz', though I sometimes prefer to watch the movie instead...
I may be tempted to go even further than the article though & wonder why some artists/bands play live at all?? I've certainly seen some concerts that made me wonder why I was there & not at home listening to the CD instead... The Aphex Twin leaps to mind, as do Justin Timberlake & Lady GaGa - whose shows were more about synchronised dancing & backing tracks than the music itself... & Bob Dylan - not just for his bloody awful Sydney show in 1989, but for any of his live performances since he grew beyond the New York folk cafés - tuneless mumbling & rambling over shambolic, mostly sub-standard country & blues that wouldn't get a gig in Nashville on a Tuesday night, let alone a run at the Ryman... In fact, 2 of the worst live albums I own are his (you'd think I would have learned after the 1st one!?) - 'Before The Flood' & 'Hard Rain', appropriate titles for such a shower of drab, drizzling dreck...
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-18 10:01 pm (UTC)I avoid most live albums, the notable exceptions being Cheap Trick's Live at Budokan and Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive!
I remember being young and naive, expecting a concert performance to match the chart recording note for note. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-19 07:34 am (UTC)'Frampton Comes Alive' is another good one, as the songs are different to, & in some cases better than, the studio recordings which, until that live album went multi-platinum, nobody had bought really...
I'm trying to think of any bands from this millennium that have released 'live' albums, apart from those of the 60s-80s old guard who are still going (the Stones can always be relied on to put another live album out once a decade or so - usually as some kind of contractual obligation I suspect...) As noted above, I like watching concert DVDs, even of shows/tours I saw, because the sound quality & vision is better than I probably had at the show, with someone tall in front of me, sloshing beer around & singing along loudly... & badly!!
The only 'new'...ish band/artist I can think of is Rammstein - who released both a live DVD & separate CD. Most 'Millennial' artists will just go the DVD option...
Your young self would love the modern pop concert - the performance is note-for-note... mostly because it's all on backing tracks... often including the lead vocals, with the 'star' just lip syncing... or worse...!!
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-19 12:15 pm (UTC)I'm not familiar with Rammstein except for an anecdote about a Denver performance. They wanted to hang so many tons of gear from the ceiling (more than any other show that the present staff could recall) that they called in an engineer to assess the roof structure. They got the green light -- the 1950 thin-shell concrete roof was more than capable. But having spent time at Ramstein, Germany, I've always been intrigued by the name.
Ugh, not a fan of lip syncing or backing tracks, though I know they are both here to stay.