In 2015 I had the distinct displeasure of seeing Blues Traveler at Red Rocks for 4th of July. I'd loved Blues Traveler since I was a teenager and the song Hook came out. I loved the album Four. I loved their sister band the Spin Doctors.
Hanson was the opening act. They were garbage just as one might anticipate.
Guster was the middle act and they were FANTASTIC.
Then Blues Traveler hit the stage and I was ready to be 14 again. Instead, the dude forgot a shit ton of lyrics, was constantly out of breath, and to make matters worse... he brought out Rome from "Sublime with Rome" (an abomination before God and man) and STARTED DOING SUBLIME COVERS.
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
It's Slaughter. Of course they were a studio band. LOL
Those guys were good players, though.
The drummer has toured with Trans-Siberian Orchestra and The Blue Man group for years. Dana Strum is a decent bass player but he's a really good songwriter and producer. Their original guitarist was probably their weakest link but he's dead.
I'm guessing it's probably an issue with the gear or the headliner, as headliners used to really screw with their opening act's sound and mix. [Reply]
I don't think there's even one show that I "regret" seeing live.
I definitely prefer seeing bands that actually play their own instruments and sing their own songs, which is the exact opposite of what's been happening in the concert world for at least the past 15 years, as nearly everyone is using pre-recorded backing tracks for vocals, drums, guitars, synths, etc.
It's like watching an episode of American Bandstand in the 70's when bands would lip-sync to their record and call it "Live". [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Those guys were good players, though.
The drummer has toured with Trans-Siberian Orchestra and The Blue Man group for years. Dana Strum is a decent bass player but he's a really good songwriter and producer. Their original guitarist was probably their weakest link but he's dead.
I'm guessing it's probably an issue with the gear or the headliner, as headliners used to really screw with their opening act's sound and mix.
Fair enough, I missed Ugly Kid Joe before that, so I couldn't compare how bad they sounded. Some of it was the production, figured the vocals were not given enough of the volume as well.
Ht- I was interested to see if they could pull it off live, but it was worse than I could have expected. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Those guys were good players, though.
The drummer has toured with Trans-Siberian Orchestra and The Blue Man group for years. Dana Strum is a decent bass player but he's a really good songwriter and producer. Their original guitarist was probably their weakest link but he's dead.
I'm guessing it's probably an issue with the gear or the headliner, as headliners used to really screw with their opening act's sound and mix.
Yeah, individually and in other gigs, the members were pretty talented. I think they thought they could throw together a "SuperGroup" and put them in the studio. Those kinds of bands often struggle on the road because they were essentially made to sell records.
A lot of the bands I like tour like madmen and write on the road so they're kind of the flip side. Of course, many of my favorite bands sell records by the thousands, not the millions, and most of them have day jobs. :-) [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
I don't think there's even one show that I "regret" seeing live.
I definitely prefer seeing bands that actually play their own instruments and sing their own songs, which is the exact opposite of what's been happening in the concert world for at least the past 15 years, as nearly everyone is using pre-recorded backing tracks for vocals, drums, guitars, synths, etc.
It's like watching an episode of American Bandstand in the 70's when bands would lip-sync to their record and call it "Live".
The only time I can condone backing tracks is for bands, for example, that have one guitarist but the song might have harmonies or a second riff line or something. You don't want to hear half of the song but you don't want them to use backing tracks for everything either. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
The only time I can condone backing tracks is for bands, for example, that have one guitarist but the song might have harmonies or a second riff line or something. You don't want to hear half of the song but you don't want them to use backing tracks for everything either.
Almost every band and artist out there, big or small, is using a click track and backing tracks to "fatten" their live sound and in many cases, the lead singers aren't even signing. I'm looking at you, Ozzy Osbourne, who's had a "Ghost Singer" off stage for the past 15+ years.
That said, I'm generally not into seeing bands live because it's usually disappointing, whether it's the sound of the venue or the coherency and aptitude of their members on stage.
Even if the band is absolutely amazing live, I'm generally bored after about 30 minutes. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Almost every band and artist out there, big or small, is using a click track and backing tracks to "fatten" their live sound and in many cases, the lead singers aren't even signing. I'm looking at you, Ozzy Osbourne, who's had a "Ghost Singer" off stage for the past 15+ years.
That said, I'm generally not into seeing bands live because it's usually disappointing, whether it's the sound of the venue or the coherency and aptitude of their members on stage.
Even if the band is absolutely amazing live, I'm generally bored after about 30 minutes.
I go to a lot of small venue hardcore/metalcore shows. Those guys don't sing so they don't usually use vocal tracks. :-) I'm not really into the "stadium" stuff anymore. The last 4 or 5 shows I've been too had maybe 200 people there. I saw Toothgrinder, Phinehas, and Ice Nine Kills not too long ago and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. Very little fluff, a whole lot of circle pits. :-)
And yeah, Ozzy's deal has been public knowledge for years. It's kind of silly really. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Almost every band and artist out there, big or small, is using a click track and backing tracks to "fatten" their live sound and in many cases, the lead singers aren't even signing. I'm looking at you, Ozzy Osbourne, who's had a "Ghost Singer" off stage for the past 15+ years.
That said, I'm generally not into seeing bands live because it's usually disappointing, whether it's the sound of the venue or the coherency and aptitude of their members on stage.
Even if the band is absolutely amazing live, I'm generally bored after about 30 minutes.
I wish Dokken had used a ghost singer. I assume the prick is probably too cheap to pay one. [Reply]
Originally Posted by MatriculatingHank:
I'm surprised that David Lee Roth hasn't been mentioned yet...
Hopefully it is because most of us were smart enough to avoid that in probably the last 15 years at least. Early VH was my jam back in HS, but damn I saw his lounge act version of some songs on a late night show and about puked. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Almost every band and artist out there, big or small, is using a click track and backing tracks to "fatten" their live sound and in many cases, the lead singers aren't even signing. I'm looking at you, Ozzy Osbourne, who's had a "Ghost Singer" off stage for the past 15+ years.
That said, I'm generally not into seeing bands live because it's usually disappointing, whether it's the sound of the venue or the coherency and aptitude of their members on stage.
Even if the band is absolutely amazing live, I'm generally bored after about 30 minutes.
When I use to answer the phones at my mail-order online CD shop, I would talk to all different people. Randy Johnson the pitcher was one of best customers, he bought about $200 worth of heavy metal import CD's every month. When the Seattle Mariners made the playoffs in '97 he gave me tickets to one of the games in Baltimore.
About 1996 I talked to a guy from New Jersey named Jimmy DiLella, a keyboard player. He was in the Pete Way band Waysted in the mid 80's. played with Britny Fox, helped form Tyketto and in '93 the heavy metal German girl Doro, former singer of Warlock, wanted to make it in America. Her label hooked her up with Jack Ponti, a producer in New Jersey. Because Ponti knew DiLella he got him in her band.
Dilella was telling me he wrote about half the songs on Doro new album at the time, but she asked he would put the songwriting credit in her name. In exchange, when they toured she would pay him $2,000 a week instead of the usual $800. He took the deal and saved $35,000 from that last tour.
He also told me the Bon Jovi keyboard player David Bryan had a coke habit at the time and Jon doesn't like drugs in his band. He said, Bonjovi gave him 6 months to clean up his act or Jimmy would be the new keyboard player. Bryan cleaned up his act.
He said for many years, about 15 he played keyboards for Iron Maiden, he was back stage out of sight. They didn't want fans to know they had keyboards in the band.
I don't know what Jimmy DiLella is up to now, this was many years ago, and maybe not even true, people will tell you a lot of stories. Here's Doro live from '93.
Some of you guys have great stories. I'm really jealous. I mean, I knew a few of the members of Slipknot but there's not really a story to tell because some of them...weren't very nice. [Reply]
