Ray LaMontagne Concert
On Sunday we went to see Ray Lamontagne. The show was at the Warwick Arts Center and I was really impressed with this place. It is a nice medium-sized venue with decent acoustics and sound system. They seem to have interesting acts coming through on a regular basis. The biggest bonus was the free parking right next to the concert hall (something that never happens in the UK).
The opening act was an English singer / songwriter called Kathryn Williams. She had an amazing voice although her songs didn't really grab me. She had a really good sounding group which included herself on acoustic guitar, another accompanying acoustic guitarist and a cello player. Both of the accompanists sang background vocals, and they did some really nice and unique harmonies. A couple of times she used a tape delay to create some really interesting loops with her voice that she sang along with. The first time it was really effective, the second time, the loop was slightly off tempo and the whole thing ended up sounding a bit muddled up. Overall it was an enjoyable, well performed, and well mixed performance.
Next came Mr. Lamontagne whose album has been my favorite new album of the last year. His songs and voice are so unique and powerful, yet familiar the first time you hear them. He has a reputation for being a very shy performer and not really enjoying being behind the microphone. He certainly lived up to that reputation, seeming like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown everytime he tried to talk to the crowd. Most of the time when he spoke, you couldn't really understand what he was saying. But when the songs began it was a whole different story. His voice broke loose at times overpowering the microphone and causing all kinds of difficulties for the rather inept sound man.
Which brings me to my biggest bone of contention about the whole evening...Ray's songs were obviously performed well by himself on acoustic guitar, his bass player, and by his drummer, but the mix was quite pathetic. For some reason, they had a hard time getting Ray's voice and guitar to cut through, they made up for it by cranking up the bass guitar so that was just about all you could hear along with the kick drum (one of those obnoxious clicky sounding kick drums) and the snare drum (sounding like the drummer was pounding on a wet shoe box). They had a rough time with Ray's voice throughout, at times inaudible, at times overbearing. There is a device called a compressor that is designed to deal with these problems and they need learn how to use it.
Still, I felt like I got my money's worth out of the evening. Both artists were very entertaining, and I found Ray's terrified demeanor to be refreshing. It was a nice change from all of the performers who try to have a great "stage presence" and end up annoying me with innane comments..."How's everybody doing tonight!!!?" (screams from the crowd) "Are you having a good time!!!?"(more screams from the crowd) "Are you ready to rawk!!!?" (yet more screams from the crowd) etc. etc...
4 Comments:
Ah yes! I understand your disappointment with the show John. I too live in a world where I am continually confronted with 'sound issues'. I think my brain operates the same as yours at a live show. I want to turn the judgement off in my head but it won't go away. It makes it so risky to go out and hear music. Maybe one day I will overlook it all and only receive the good coming from it. One day.
Pablo
Ah, to live with a sound snob...What about the obonoxious people behind us? I wish I could've been critiquing the sound, but couldn't get past the rustling of crisp packets and chatting myself. And while we're discussing sound, are you going to blog about what we did this fine evening? Something about getting free tickets to a band we've never heard of (not good), trying to work out what sort of music it was going to be by the crowd of middle-aged men in leather (again, not good), and how when the band finally took the stage it was like Meatloaf meets generic British tat. And was that a cricket bat he was playing?
///they made up for it by cranking up the bass guitar so that was just about all you could hear along with the kick drum (one of those obnoxious clicky sounding kick drums) and the snare drum (sounding like the drummer was pounding on a wet shoe box)///
But...dude...that's what makes an awesome sound guy!! It's if you can get a huge kick drum! Huge!! More subs - forget about mids or highs. More subs!
Boom! Boom! (beautiful lyri)BOOM! (deep thoug)Crack! Boom! Thud!
There is (in seriousness) actually a fairly prevalent "de-facto assumption" that a good engineer makes big low end. It seems like it's losing some steam as an opinion, as the ridiculousness is being recognized, but it's still out there to some extent. (I sometimes experience it as self condemnation - if you can't feel the kick and bass, then I have the tendency to believe that I must have failed somewhere.)
I know what you are saying Danny. The thing is I love good solid bass! I love subwoofers and music that I can feel. But, I think subwoofers should be outlawed for live music effective immediately. The problem is that so many engineers seem to loose sight (or hearing) of the everything except what is going on from 100Hz to 20Hz. They forget that 99% of what is going on is happening from 100Hz up to 20kHz.
Come to think of it, subwoofers should be outlawed everywhere... the back of kids cars, dance clubs, restaurants. With one exception...me! I reserve the right to crank up the sub in my home theater so that it shakes the house and scares the dogs! fun fun fun
JE
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