Live vs recorded music

[oznob]

In my opinion the people THAT CAN play normally have good live sound. One of my long time favorites, Frank Zappa did never disappointed me in all the concerts I was on.

Right on the mark Rolf!

If you played in Zappa's band, you had to be good! When Anysley Dunbar was playing drums for him, AWESOME.

I recently saw Sir Paul McCartney in the Echo, I mean Arco, arena in Sacramento. Even in the nose bleed section the sound was very good. Leave it to him to have the best sound guys money can buy! I saw Tom Pettey there also and the sound was terrible! Maybe it was Tom???

I live in the relatively small town of Redding, CA, which, until recently, was a bastian of Country Hell! Last year the old movie theater was re-modeled and is hosting some decent concerts. I saw Robert Cray and Buddy Guy there and both were fantastic! There house PA leaves a bit to be desired though. Not a red label to be found! I think the Mains are Reinkus-Heinz but I'm not sure. Couldn't get a good look at the amps.

As far as live vs recorded, I agree it depends on the band and the recording. One of my favorite live bands was/is Little Feat. I feel they were much better live than in the studio. "Waiting for Columbus" is on the top of my list of favorite live recordings.

The best live show I ever saw was The Allman Brothers at the Concord CA Pavillion. They were ON that night and did three encores!

I am re-listening to all my live CD's through my recently aquired 4430's. I am enjoying that thoroughly! All in all, I am more partial to good live recordings than studio.

Mark

[Hamilton]

Great concerts :

Jefferson Airplane, Mountain, Emerson-Lake & Palmer, Yes, Deep Purple, original Journey, Vince Gill, Ray Price, Judas Priest, Jethro Tull, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Johnny Winter, original Black Sabbath.

Bad concerts :

Grateful Dead, Doors, Bon-Jovi, Quick Silver Messenger Service.

[4343]

Round and Round Tour with the rotating stage was great, fifth row floor seats... All those W-Boxes and JBL mids and highs were great too.

Winterland, King Crimson opening for Steve Miller. Those guys understood dynamics. The got LOUD for a few notes, and then so quiet you had to stop breathing to hear 'em. The last note ended in stunned silence that went on for quite some time before people realized they had finished, just great sounds!

Steve Miller knew nothing about dynamics, the amps came on during the break, and the HUM was louder than I could handle, one the noise started I had to leave...

[jim campbell]

i blew off that same yes concert up here because the building here had sounded so awful in the past.people i knew went and said the sound was great.never did get a chance to see king crimson and court of the crimson king is numero uno on the desert island list.fripp did a show here once in his frippertronics period in this neat little 300 seat hall in the art gallery.i never got steve miller at all.there is an old tv performance by king crimson and i have it on a poor quality vhs.i hope that i see it on dvd soon.(elephant talk, indicipline etc)

[johnaec]

Steve Miller knew nothing about dynamics...

While I won't disagree with that, I do have to say it was the sound their bass player got out of four Sunn dual 15 bass cabinets with JBL's that first made me aware of what true low frequency reproduction was all about. I just had to find out what he was using, and once I did, it was JBL for me ever since...

John

[4343]

a few years back, all the Meyer or whatever gets a bit much, at times it hurts.

Saw Little Feat acoustic during an AES in LA, the opening act sucked bigtime! Of course I went with some friends , one of them knew the sound crew, and we were warned ahead of time it would "hurt". Had fun sitting as far away from all the loaner EAW PA stacks as we could get (some new model just released at that AES), the singer was sooo BAD, my friends just couldn't help but start yelling at him "you suck", booing, etc...

Once the headliners came out and it was just acoustic, it sounded great! EAW notwithstanding! Still, I do prefer acoustics to be mic'ed with a large condensor mic, hearing them with the standard 57 or whatever was dissapointing. Leo Kottke, eh? I just might have to catch a show...

[whizzer]

In terms of pure sound quality, the best big rig I ever heard was used for Stevie Wonder's tour, circa 1991, a Stanley's Screamers system; dual 15-inch Altec subwoofer systems had to be heard to be believed--how'd they do that? Frankfurt, Germany, late 1970, Humble Pie--watching and hearing this performance was like a religious experience--all the stuff from Live at the Fillmore; Old Federal Theater, NYC, could have been 1969--I can't remember the whole era that well--Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, performing Absolutely Free, live--ruta-ba-a-g-aa-aa-gaaa! The Police, I think it was their first tour of U.S.--Andy Summers was consummate sometimes less IS more. Joni Mitchel at Kent State. 1980--Jaco Pastorious and Keith Jarret--what more can you say? Disappointments--idiot sound metal head crew screwed up Christine McVie--a continuous incoherent mass of over-amplified ringing--what were they thinking? Stevie Nicks--couldn't remember the words to her own songs. Ten Years after, somewhere in deepest Ohio, muddiest mix of all time. Pat Benatar, Portland, Maine, mid-'80's--never could hear the vocals-- nothing but guitar.

[jim campbell]

saw 10 years after w/ humble pie 69 70 ish was a wall of noise for both bands.rush seating caused a near stampede as the front of the building had glass doors all along the front and the idiots opened one door only.the surge from behind sent a few people thru the panes of glass and i still remember bracing against the frame and watching the things flex.but i think that no lessons were learned until after ohio later when people were trampled at a who concert

[hapy._.face]

The Dead were legendary live performers. I saw the Dead 21 times. Some venues were certainly better than others. Hard to say 'they sucked' based on one night. Hard to say any band sucks based on one night. You have to take in the whole tour, etc.
Even when Garcia died, and "The Other Ones" began touring- they were decent. Not GREAT, but decent. I remember when Hot Tuna opened for them- Now THAT was a great live band! Rusted Root was good too.

[oznob]

I heard the Police were great live- stands to reason why I love my Police albums so much. I did see Sting perform live and it was very nice (not a big fan of his stuff, though). Same with Peter Gabriel- not a big fan- but WHOA! A great live performance/sound.

Anyone ever see Earth Wind and Fire perform? Don't laugh! What about Neil Diamond? Two GREAT live perfromances with great live sound- wouldn't get caught dead with either's recordings in my collection, though.
Funny how that is...

Sad to hear Little Feat didn't have a good live thing- excellent musicianship.
Speaking of Stevie- That Fleetwood Mac release The Dance- was a (mostly) a terrible mix! if the live thing was anywhere near that- I would have left.

My greatest desires for live performances are that of musicians no longer alive.
I would LOVE to have heard Coltrane, Art Pepper, Muddy Waters, Hendrix, etc...(fill in your own great). Would love to have been front row during Brubek at Carnegie!

I would have disagree with Little Feat not being good live! At least when Lowell George was alive, I thought they were better on stage than in the studio! Just my humble opinion.

[johnaec]

Sad to hear Little Feat didn't have a good live thing- excellent musicianship.

I've heard Little Feat live on numerous occasions, all the way back to including Lowell George. I'd have to say about half were above average, with a couple excellent ones, (especially one particular one with Lowell George), but the other half varied from below average to poor. Outside shows have generally been their best sounding ones, though I did hear them a few months ago in an excellent indoor theater seating situation. Their FOH consisted of a pair of Meyer UPA, (one 12" + horn), and two dual 15" subs total, and the sound was excellent, (true concert theater with only a few hundred capacity).

John

[hapy._.face]

Little Feat rock- glad to hear they have some great live shows!

[norealtalent]

You ALL know the one about opinions, yeah, everybody's got one. Garcia is a god!

[whizzer]

I saw The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Noel Redding was truly great) onstage at the Charleston, West Virginia Municipal Auditorium after his first album appeared. There were no PA's capable of doing what had to be done, so he had about 30,000 watts worth of Marshalls stacked across the stage behind him. It wasn't what you might call a balanced sound, but, then again, you sure could hear him play. Who among us, at the time, knew that it was history?

[Titanium Dome]

I got to listen/ear bleed to the Grand Funk Railroad a couple of times. There was no way the sound those three guys put out could ever be contained in the studio. Only the highly commercial stuff (American Band, I'm Your Captain) ever sounded okay on vinyl. The rest of it was just too big.