01/10: Cultural differences
I’m still around. Just had a busy week. Two concerts, a day in Boston, another helping a sister-in-law move.
The concerts were cool. Tuesday, we saw Yo-Yo Ma and Emmanuel Ax doing a buncha Beethoven. Friday, it was the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Yeah, you could say there were contrasts. Notes on the differences:
1) When watching Ax and Ma, you are vastly less likely to get sprinkled with beer due to the drunk guys behind you moshing unstably, than you are when watching the Peppers.
2) At the NAC, the loudest noise from the audience will be the annoyingly bitchy octogenarian with an inflated sense of entitlement noisily shushing the seven-year old cello student seated next to you (the noise he supposedly made to earn this put-down is not, as you’d only expect, actually audible). At the Peppers, the guy two seats over with his shirt off wins. He’ll do so, incidentally, well before the band even takes the stage, screaming his head off already. “Premature screaming,” my lovely wife will comment. “Poor guy.” Indeed.
3) At both venues, it is expected the audience shall cheer loudly and lustily to coax the performers out for an encore. But at the Peppers, the encore will be their most popular material (Give It Away and Under the Bridge), saved up especially for just that purpose. Ma and Ax will throw in something short, just to be nice (I didn’t actually recognize it, but it was pretty). Also, at the Peppers, it seems expected the audience (or some of them, at least) shall scream their heads off actually before the show, just to get the band to come out in the first place. See also (2), above.
Okay, actually, that last bit sounds kinda hard on the Peppers. So, to make this clear: they started pretty much on time, and did play their whole two hours, no breaks apart from the gap before that contrived ‘encore’ call. Hardworking band, considering the energy that particular canon presumably takes to crank out.
But yeah, as is now the standard at shows of such scale, there was a blinding light show, huge video monitors wandering around showing the performers up close, and PA volumes which, frankly, seemed more than a bit over the top to this listener, anyway.
Yeah, I like the Peppers. A lot, actually. And yeah, I get that it’s kinda supposed to be loud music. But seriously, what’s the point to amping it so hard it actually mangles the sound? The Peppers’ stuff has that tight, precise, punchy quality, at its best—smashing it against the concrete and your eardrums so it’s all shattered and scattered reverb is just stupid. Lets try, oh, 15 db less, guys, next time, please?
Oh, and the lightshow. It was pretty, sure. Gilding the lily, a bit, too, but hey, yeah, I know, it’s what folk expect.
So I don’t mind so much that there actually is one. But hot white spotlights shining right into the eyes of the audience kinda make it kinda hard to see the show. Not to mention painful.
Just sayin’. Not, I’d think, that you couldn’t figure that out. People, if my watch is glowing brightly enough to notice under the house lights afterward, that’s too many photons for my retinae, too. thanks.
Anyway. Both good fun, in their respective ways.
The concerts were cool. Tuesday, we saw Yo-Yo Ma and Emmanuel Ax doing a buncha Beethoven. Friday, it was the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Yeah, you could say there were contrasts. Notes on the differences:
1) When watching Ax and Ma, you are vastly less likely to get sprinkled with beer due to the drunk guys behind you moshing unstably, than you are when watching the Peppers.
2) At the NAC, the loudest noise from the audience will be the annoyingly bitchy octogenarian with an inflated sense of entitlement noisily shushing the seven-year old cello student seated next to you (the noise he supposedly made to earn this put-down is not, as you’d only expect, actually audible). At the Peppers, the guy two seats over with his shirt off wins. He’ll do so, incidentally, well before the band even takes the stage, screaming his head off already. “Premature screaming,” my lovely wife will comment. “Poor guy.” Indeed.
3) At both venues, it is expected the audience shall cheer loudly and lustily to coax the performers out for an encore. But at the Peppers, the encore will be their most popular material (Give It Away and Under the Bridge), saved up especially for just that purpose. Ma and Ax will throw in something short, just to be nice (I didn’t actually recognize it, but it was pretty). Also, at the Peppers, it seems expected the audience (or some of them, at least) shall scream their heads off actually before the show, just to get the band to come out in the first place. See also (2), above.
Okay, actually, that last bit sounds kinda hard on the Peppers. So, to make this clear: they started pretty much on time, and did play their whole two hours, no breaks apart from the gap before that contrived ‘encore’ call. Hardworking band, considering the energy that particular canon presumably takes to crank out.
But yeah, as is now the standard at shows of such scale, there was a blinding light show, huge video monitors wandering around showing the performers up close, and PA volumes which, frankly, seemed more than a bit over the top to this listener, anyway.
Yeah, I like the Peppers. A lot, actually. And yeah, I get that it’s kinda supposed to be loud music. But seriously, what’s the point to amping it so hard it actually mangles the sound? The Peppers’ stuff has that tight, precise, punchy quality, at its best—smashing it against the concrete and your eardrums so it’s all shattered and scattered reverb is just stupid. Lets try, oh, 15 db less, guys, next time, please?
Oh, and the lightshow. It was pretty, sure. Gilding the lily, a bit, too, but hey, yeah, I know, it’s what folk expect.
So I don’t mind so much that there actually is one. But hot white spotlights shining right into the eyes of the audience kinda make it kinda hard to see the show. Not to mention painful.
Just sayin’. Not, I’d think, that you couldn’t figure that out. People, if my watch is glowing brightly enough to notice under the house lights afterward, that’s too many photons for my retinae, too. thanks.
Anyway. Both good fun, in their respective ways.
Scott Garten wrote:
City group, the Elders, whose work Louise and I had enjoyed on several occasions. But five years ago, we attended an Irishfest where their sound man was as sensitive to sound as a cinder block. Louise actually told him that he was spoiling good work; he threatened to call the cops on her.
I didn’t threaten him, but I fantasized shooting him through the skull. Fortunately, I wasn’t packing heat at the time, and applying hot lead to that part of his anatomy would have done little good; there were no vital organs there anyway. Since that time,we have more or less shied clear of their concerts; we desire to keep what is left of our hearing ability.