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(And I don't mean "live" recordings; rather, attendance in the flesh---- pre-Covid, of course).
For myself, nothing compares to a live performance. The sneezing, coughing, elbowing, poor seating (as often as not), imperfect orchestras/ensembles--- I enjoy the spectacle and the sound "live."
Follow Ups:
You probably will never beat a great sounding live performance for sheer musical pleasure. But then, how many live performances are truly great ones ?
Maybe not that many of them?
Great recordings heard on great sounding systems, on the other hand, can more reliably provide us with repeatable pleasures. But then, again, how many hifi systems are truly great sounding systems ?
Maybe not that many of them ?
I am absolutely a recorded music proponent. There was a period in my life where live music was very important and I hope to someday soon see live music again. But, recorded music has been my breath of life of most of mine and that is the one thing in my life that I could never imagine being without.
even just an impromptu jam on a rooftop with a friend, just guitar and bongos.
Beats any recorded playback I have ever experirenced...
If art interprets our dreams, the computer executes them in the guise of programs!
For me I have spent so many more days with recorded music versus live performances there is no way that live has had more impact on my life than recorded music. I no longer attend live performances but I listen to recorded music each and every day of my life.
Live
There is no comparison
Having said this-
Having a dedicated room has been the biggest boon to my listening-
The system has always been able to disappear - but smaller spaces have always intruded with limitations...
Happy Listening
Only once did I ever get good seats for classical music, during a rehearsal. The halls are generally smaller for Jazz, which ALWAYS helps.
When I attend Atlanta Symphony concerts or New Orleans jazz club performances I often think that there is no way I could enjoy the music as much at home. On the other hand the last few big rock concerts I attended (a long time ago) I was struck by how much better the music would sound at home on my stereo.
This might be related to me becoming a geezer.
I dream of an America where a chicken can cross the road without having it's motives questioned.
Some greats I've been lucky enough to attend:
Osmo Vanska conducting Minneapolis in Mahler's Sym. #1 at Avery Fisher some years ago. Absolutely shattering. Afterward, about a third of the audience just milled around outside, saying nothing, just recovering.
Pink Floyd in the Meadowlands, summer 1982. For my 30th birthday, friends bought me a ticket, a tab of acid, and took care of me. Vivid memories of that one. (I still have those friends.)
Van Cliburn, Eugene Ormandy, and the Phili Orchestra opening the Garden State Arts Center in 1968.
Rufus Wainwright in Toms River a couple years ago. Charming, lots of personal stories from his amazing family, kinda goofy (didn't expect that) and musical chops for days.
Springsteen "surprise" gigs in Asbury Park. Been to several of those, mostly docu films on Asbury. At the end, the curtains part and there they are.
Artur Rubinstein recital in Milwaukee around 1971. A boyfriend who was an usher at Uilein Hall got me a ticket on stage right next to maestro's left hand, and I got to meet him back stage.
Great perfs at the Met, 1965-ish to 2018. Nothing comes close to a great opera performance in a great hall.
Great perfs at Carnegie - too many to list, though Garrick Ohlsson playing Chopin comes to mind.
Rock concerts at the Beacon, maybe the best pop/rock venue on the planet. Big enough for the sound to bloom, small enough for the audience to rock the place (the balcony can be scary, but it hasn't fallen down yet.)
Anything at the Apollo - another scary balcony.
Opera in Central Park - nothing like being part of an audience of 50,000 picnicking on a summer's eve with the Met's orchestra, chorus, and the best singers on the planet.
Live gigs of singer/songwriters at the great little New York joints, like Cafe Vivaldi, Sugar Bar, Webster Hall, Arlene's Grocery, Drom Bar, Living Room, and Rockwood Music Hall.
The Martina Arroyo Foundation's perf of La Bohème a the Kaye Playhouse some years back. Stunning performance that had me crying in Act 3, which never happens. Bonus: Sonia Sotomayor was in the house.
Joey Defrancesco, the king of the Hammond B3, at the gorgeous oh-so-civilized Dizzy's Coca-Cola Club, looking out over the snowy Central Park and city through its enormous glass wall. Great acoustics there, btw.
All the great shows in the crampt jazz joints, including Les Paul's Monday shows that ran for years and years, Joey Defrancesco (I'm a fan), and meeting Celia Cruz several times. She may have been the warmest, most open-hearted person to ever walk the planet.
Darlene Love, Lisa Fischer, and Mary Clayton in the studio rehearsing the national anthem for the Rose Bowl. It was a Saturday morning during a blizzard, and I had no idea who they were, as "50 Feet" hadn't been released yet. I was assisting for Bob Power, so we were an audience of two, completely bowled over by all that talent.
So many other greats in the studio, like Eric Andersen, Bobby McFerrin, Buskin and Batteau, Duduka Da Fonseca, and... Leslie Gore! She was a tiny wisp of a thing, as warm and open as Celia, and a great voice with stunning technique.
It's all good.
WW
"They got a handful of gimme and a mouthful of much obliged." Alberta Hunter
The best live shows I've attended are some of the highlights of my life. Recorded music could never give me the same level level of enjoyment. However, most live shows I've attended weren't very good, and the good ones weren't that frequent. So if you're asking what gives me the most enjoyment overall in total, it's recordings.
I agree that some live shows aren't very good. Two that I saw which come to mind are (1) Gordon Lightfoot in Chicago, where he did all of 25 minutes, was obviously under the influence and essentially phoned it in; and (2) Van Morrison in Minneapolis, where he was onstage for about 45 minutes, but spent most of the time bitching about the sound system and lighting.
But on the whole the great ones far outnumbered the bad.
Live, if the seating arrangements are even half-way decent. Some live performances that come to mind: Thelonious Monk, numerous times at the Five Spot; John Coltrane's 45 minute take on My Favorite Things at the Village Gate; Charles Mingus numerous times at the Jazz Showcase, also at the Village Gate; Bruce Springsteen at the No Nukes concert at Madison Square Garden; Cleveland Orchestra doing Schubert's Ninth at Severance Hall; Chicago Symphony's Mahler 3rd; Joni Mitchell at the Blossom Music Festival; Tony Bennett at the Copacabana and the Chicago Summer Festival north of Chicago; Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center; MJQ in St Paul, MN.
Hi-fi brings the dead back to life in a way. So for most acts, you can't see them live so this audio stuff is the next best thing.
And better systems can allow me to suspend my disbelief enough to make me believe the artist is there.
I also prefer the theater over movies. Even without the wonder of CGI.
Posting judgments as veiled questions " just to spark discussion "
Everybody had to answer " live " or be seen as unrefined
Cheap trap of a post
... hearing the musicians around you.
Recordings, no matter how evocative or even of the same music you played, are never the same experience.
Any Damned Fool Knows One Horse Can Run Faster Than Another
Recorded pieces are far more consistent with great sound. The live show isn't too let down by less than great sound because you have the band there with you, and the atmosphere to stimulate the senses.
Your system is your own doing so when it sounds great its special.
The only thing better than listening at home is a Musical. The cast, the colors, the motion, music all aligned with good sound transcends the best musical experience I've had at home.
I imagine live Classical music in a great venue could be similarly engaging.
I have been to numerous classical performances. They can be outstanding. More often than not it is the case as they are generally in symphony halls and suchlike.
Musicals offer many layers of entertainment. I have been to a few. Every one of them bored the shit out of me, but that's my issue, not a slate on musicals. It just strikes me that everyone on stage is over-doing it, and working too hard to get the attention of the audience. But then how do I explain being transfixed by the stage antics of Ozzy, Angus Young and Freddie Mercury?
'everyone on stage is over-doing it'
as if they're 'playing' to the cheap seats at the back of the room?
well they are, stage ensemble performers are taught that AND want to stand out
that's why so many, despite having fine vox skills, have a hard time transitioning to solo or more intimate settings; their acting is exaggerated for the back row and mezzanine as well
I agree ... mostly a snooze fest or downright annoying, it's not just you
[and Opera! almost traumatizing!]
regards,
I agree with you guys. But the best musical listening experiences I've ever had were at musicals. Unfortunately bad experiences at musicals are common - I put it somewhere in between being in jail and waiting to be discharged from the hospital level of pleasure.
There's less chance of me having great musical experience at a concert than at a musical. Though I usually enjoy concerts.
With the stereo though great music is the status quo.
,
I've seen a few poor ( <10) performances that made the experience bad, but probably 100 or more that more than made up for the bad ones. MC5 at a grungy joint in Baton Rouge, The Speakeasy, with bathroom floors covered in spilled warm Schlitz draft and piss, and people packed like sardines, still ranks as the # 1 listening experience. Perhaps being there with the luscious Ms. Marie Turner had something to do with it but I digress......
----------------------
"E Burres Stigano?"
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While attending college, watching the Cleveland Orchestra in the flesh, from 1980 to 1985, back when it was the best symphony orchestra on the planet...... Saw them on roughly 40 separate occasions.
The best of these was when I saw Erich Leinsdorf doing Stravinsky's "Firebird" Suite...... It was electric. (Nothing on a stereo system comes remotely close.) The big "bass drum thwack" about midway through the piece..... I remember the Severance Hall patrons assuming different positions in their seats for about a five second period afterwards......
nt
"I know just enough to get into trouble. But not enough to get out of it."
As a single example, I heard Clark Terry and Chris Woods live twice, doing
their fast-as-a-bastard scat singing routine. Absolutely nothing like it.
Brought down the house both times. But I also have a live-in-concert
recording of them doing it. It's one of the top 100 recordings in my
collection. I wouldn't trade the recording or my memory of the live
performance for anything in this world.
I can make the same case for any number of other musicians: I saw 'em
live and I have their recordings. A partial list: Les Paul, Dick Hyman,
Harry Edison, Clark Terry, Zoot Sims, Flip Phillips, Kenny Davern, Buddy
Tate, Gus Johnson, MJQ, Hank JOnes, Tommy Flanagan, Paul Smith, Teddy
Wilson, Maxine Sullivan, Big Joe Turner, Doc Watson, Dan Crary, Tony
Rice, the list goes on and on and on. Most of them are gone now, but
the memory of those concerts lives in my memory forever ... and I have
their recordings to remind me of their greatness
Whether or not you can observe a thing depends upon the theory you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed. - Albert Einstein
Nt
as usual
There are always those LIVE albums...still no good? :P.
For those who prefer live, what say you if it was a Brittany Spears' concert (no disrespect to the Britany fans here)??? Haha.
d
m
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
.
Back when I first retired and got to D.C., I was a volunteer at Bluegrass Country (WAMU). My primary task was digitizing the LP collection.
But most every day, whoever was passing through or playing town would stop by the station to do a live set. Man oh man, I had a front row seat in pristine sound to some really excellent folks. Bela Fleck, Seldom Scene, Bruce Cockburn, Abigail Washburn, and plenty more.
Otherwise, live arena stuff (with the exception of Bruce Springsteen) doesn't do anything for me.
Most live concerts I've been too sounded horrible and the performances were rote. You could tell the act didn't know if they were in Pittsburgh or Jablib, Wisconsin. Didn't care either. They were touring because it was in the contract with the record company.
One of the biggest disappointments was ELO at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in 1977. They brought along batteries of reel-to-reel tape decks which provided most of what we were hearing. They didn't even play the fucking music.
The only live show I ever truly loved was Marty Stuart at the Allegheny County Fairgrounds late summer of 1992. Maybe 50 people in the audience. Marty and his band played their asses off, and he came out to talk to us after the show.
Other than that, I'd rather listen to the studio LP on my own system.
The problem is not that there is evil in the world, the problem is that there is good. Because otherwise, who would care?
"They were touring because it was in the contract "
I guess I have been very lucky. I can't remember a single live performance where I got that feeling.
And many - perhaps most often - the performers were there because they loved playing live.
A good example would be Rolling Thunder Revue in my home town university gym, or perhaps Van Morrison at Tanglewood. Or Bob Marley at small club in Boston, etc. etc.
I guess I have been lucky!!
If art interprets our dreams, the computer executes them in the guise of programs!
I enjoy concerts. It's something I usually do with my wife - thank God she has 0 interest in my audio stuff (other than hassling me about the mess) but I appreciate being involved with her and music. Whether it's at a giant venue, a nice small venue or at someone's home they are almost always a good time regardless of the amount of musical enjoyment derived from it.Just a few of them have been truly musically enjoyable but it's fun to see a good band with the wife, other family member or friends. I usually enjoy watching the crowd and take concert photos and have an opportunity to pick up some swag.
Yea these days it's not unusual for some bands to pipe crap in off an iPhone or iPod, apparently it saves them having to bring in an extra musician or two.
This pandemic is really a drag for concert goers.
Edits: 02/04/21
The band runs through its set just like it has 25 times before it got to my town.
The lead singer yells, "How ya feelin' tonight, Pittsburgh???!!!" and we're all supposed to roar back like trained seals.
The Marty Stuart show I referenced as my all-time favorite didn't sound like the recordings at all. For one thing, he was playing songs from his new album that I hadn't heard yet. He was working with his actual band instead of studio musicians. He did a set of acoustic bluegrass songs. His encore was the great Faron Young tune, "Wine Me Up," which he's never recorded.
My ex-wife and I saw Jimmy Buffett once and that was a pretty good show. Other than that, the concerts I've seen none were memorable in the least.
The problem is not that there is evil in the world, the problem is that there is good. Because otherwise, who would care?
Edits: 02/05/21
I am embarrassed for the band when the vocalist holds the mic out to the audience expecting them to sing along. I've seen this happen many times and I think maybe once was the response not laughable - but that laugh is value added for me. Sometimes a concert is a good musical experience but it's usually enjoyable just to see people whose records I have been buying play live.
We had purchased a seasons worth of Broadway shows and had shows for Drive By Truckers, Squirrel Nut Zippers and Joan Osborne (which we bought a year in advance), cancel because of Covid-19. And I don't even expect it to come back (at least for us) until next year.
Live but high.
Black And Blue Sunday at the Colosseum, Ritchfield, Ohio.
We had all kinds of pot, I figured out a way to get booze inside and our little crowd was all high on T. (PCP) For one I knew every word.
Yeah, Blue Oyster Cut and Black Sabbath, and that was right after Ozzie left them.
A classical live performance really impressed me. They took the Cleveland Orchestra, which is pretty damn good, and stuffed them into an auditorium at Lakewood High School in Lakewood, Ohio.
The acoustics, well it was a small hall so not much echo. Extremely clear sound.
I, however have the shame of being there you see, I DID NOT but other there were throwing spitballs and the orchestra walked off stage.
but I didn't do it.
View YouTube Video
Gsquared
Stuff like Hair and Chicago (and others) deliver other worldly musical pleasures. Recordings next, in the privacy of my own home I can make up the movies to go with the music. Lastly concerts which are very much a different experience but can be pretty awesome too.Flip side is a musical that doesn't work for me is probably the worst experience - argh.
Edits: 02/04/21
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