Live music disappoints

[Still-One]

The two best events acoustically I have heard at a pop/rock venue.

Brandi Carlile in the Corson Auditorium at Interlochen. The acoustics were so good they did several songs a cappella .

Leonard Cohen at the Fox Theater in Detroit. The sound and mix was perfect and as close to his Live In London recording as you could get.

[GaryProtein]

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

As I get older, I find I appreciate live music less. If it isn't too obnoxiously loud in the venue, then the attendees distract me from enjoyment.

Perhaps this was how it always was, and I am now more picky as I really like what I hear at home. Also, I'm disappointed with how much many folks drink until they are completely wasted when they attend concerts. Maybe I didn't notice as I used to attend concerts, but there seems to be an increasing number of people who get so drunk they cannot function normally, and totally disrupt the ambiance.

I'm not talking about rock concerts either, last time I saw Tim McGraw live it was a horrible experience that made a frat party look sober. (He seemed to play into this and even his commentary was disappointing to us)

Next time I want to hear Tim McGraw, I'll listen at home.

The exception for me was seeing Garth Brooks on his national tour a few years ago. Sound was great, he was every bit the showman you'd expect, and more. He was extremely classy, and really professional. He made the giant venue seem small and intimate.

I'm less motivated to go to concerts as it is very hit and miss for me.

I completely agree with you.

Give me a good studio recording and no one making any noise around me and I'm in musical heaven.

The "listening with an audience to share the experience" is for the birds.

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by GaryProtein

I completely agree with you.

Give me a good studio recording and no one making any noise around me and I'm in musical heaven.

The "listening with an audience to share the experience" is for the birds.

Gary
You have a right to your opinion but in general I'll take live music in most instances. The only exceptions might be artists in large stadium venues or where when drunks are the target audience.

Then again I think watching movies at home rather than on large screens with audience sharing gasps, laughs, shock etc is a waste of time. (I can't remember the last time we had an issues with cell phones, people talking at a movie)

Listening to a recording is excellent for what it is a representation of live music. A recording is is like taking photographs of painting in The Louvre, del Prado, Hermitage. They are nice and clear but it is not the same.

[GaryProtein]

Originally Posted by Still-One

Gary
You have a right to your opinion but in general I'll take live music in most instances. The only exceptions might be artists in large stadium venues or where when drunks are the target audience.

Then again I think watching movies at home rather than on large screens with audience sharing gasps, laughs, shock etc is a waste of time. (I can't remember the last time we had an issues with cell phones, people talking at a movie)

Listening to a recording is excellent for what it is a representation of live music. A recording is is like taking photographs of painting in The Louvre, del Prado, Hermitage. They are nice and clear but it is not the same.

Stadiums are definitely a no-go for me too.

I don't have a home theater, but I do have a 65" TV with very good powered speakers and I can say I don't feel I miss anything compared to being in a theater. I guess I'm not a very discriminating movie watcher, which is not to say I don't appreciate a fine theater system.

A musical recording is much more than a representation of live music to me and I can sit in my chair about 20 feet from the speakers and bring myself into the performance and feel like I am at the concert. I agree that a photograph of fine paintings is not the same as seeing the painting. I do like to look VERY closely at the detail in paintings. I like to look closely at individual brush strokes and see if they accidentally left any brush hairs in the paint. Gail hates when I do that, but I like to check for the painter's attention to details and to see how well the very old paintings have been cleaned or restored.

[80B]

Originally Posted by Antonmb

You know the old saying, what doesn’t kill you...

LOL Tony! Was scrolling this on the 75" TV with my wife in the room and we both felt we smelled smoke just by looking at Keith's picture! Maybe that's because both of us read his autobiography a few years ago.

[Catcher10]

Wife and I attend several shows a year, mostly rock based like classic or progressive rock, the occasional R&B show.
Biggest issue is volume, which seems to have been getting louder so we take and wear plugs almost always. Made an error and left plugs at home for Scorpions show last year, with Megadeth open act, and they had the volume past 100!! It was insanely loud, ear piercing and hurt. I am not a Megadeth fan, so had my fingers in my ears walking around asking people for plugs....even offering money!

Finally got 2prs and enjoyed the rest of the show.

Flipside, saw King Crimson last year and the volume was pretty high but never put plugs in as the dynamics were fantastic. We walked out of that 3 hour show and could still hear and talk afterwards, venue acoustics play a big part clearly as this show was at The Moore Theater and Scorpions at Tacoma Dome, horrible sounding venue......

But in general there is not much better than going to see and experience live music.

We love it

[80B]

One aspect in smaller venues is that there isn't a need for (much) amplification for jazz and blues, and the engineers typically seem to overdo it. We had a great jazz club here in Atlanta, Churchill Grounds, that probably spoiled us, and sadly shut down about two years ago.

[bart]

Last year we were in a small village in England, looking for a pub to drink something.
We entered a nice one, and there was a live concert with a blues band.
We sat at 2m distance, and they were good!
The interaction with the (small) crowd drove them to higher and higher intensity.
We cheered and applauded.
This is the kind of experience you only have during live performances.
We love it!!

[Formerly YB-2]

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

As I get older, I find I appreciate live music less. If it isn't too obnoxiously loud in the venue, then the attendees distract me from enjoyment.

+1. Seems we live in the era of "who can act the bigger ass in public".

[jkbaker1]

Common knowledge that the warm up band does not get use the entire sound system as the main act. This is why the opening band usually sounds really bad. Usually the mix is without the lower end and pearling loud. Then the main act comes on everyone thinks wow.