Warren wrote
X-rated Bob wrote
It CAN be about just listening to the music, appreciating the extra spark that comes from a live performance, appreciating the skills on display, absorbing the emotion of the performance etc. I might even argue that it SHOULD be about those things, but I'd be getting all utopian.
So explain the extra spark then? Not all stage personalities involve jumping around. Maybe there's something powerful about a dude sitting in one place singing quietly about how his life is going to hell, or whatever.
Well I can't. Not completely. THis is the fun about music - there are things that are intangible but still real.
Sir Stirling Moss once explained the difference between required skill and challenge. He said that if you stretch a tight rope across the Niagra falls and across your back garden, 6 inches above the ground, the skill required to walk the two ropes is the same but the challenge is very different. There is a spark to live music. Partly, as you say, the thrill of seeing an artist that you want to see because they mean something to you, have a repuation etc etc. But I think there's more to it than that. Those guys up on stage have no safety net. If they make a foul up in the recording studio then they can stop, do it again or fly in a correction, but live.... well the skill is the same but the odds are quite different and I think that's why there is an extra spark to live music. That's the theory behind live albums. That's why there are records that are dull despite high technical ability being on show - everything is rehearsed and recorded to lifeless perfection.
There's an interesting side-effect of all this for me. There is music that I will enjoy live and yet might not care to listen to on CD at home or in my car. That spark makes the difference, and it can, for me, make an act that I don't find that interesting on record to be interesting in real life if I catch them in action.
Even the "non stage personalities" with the chinos and the rolled up sleeves is part of the deal.
Well... yes ? Chinos and rolled up sleeves are not going to endear you to a bunch of metal heads. Makeup and glitter might not get you too far at the cambridge folk festival. I'd argue that it shouldn't matter, but as I said I'd be utopian.
But, as an audience member, you still get off on the "presence" of the performer, even if you feel you mostly perceive it through the music itself. That IS the show, and while it may emphasise the music a lot more than, say, a Lady Gaga concert (where there may be no actual music played), it's still a show. It's still a live performance in front of a live audience.
As for the "SHOULD" part, I disagree there too. I don't see why I shouldn't enjoy a Kiss show less than a piece of music by John Martyn, or Bob Dylan. I don't like prescriptive ideas about music that is "more or less" valid than other music. At times I like serious, unadorned stuff where the message is in what the artist is saying, and sometimes I like something a lot fluffier because it gets me through a crap part of the day, or whatever.
Well yes. I'm being my most anal, purist self here. And, of course, we all respond to different things, have different tastes, different expectations and so on! And I must stress
different, not better, not worse, just different.
This is Bruce Molksy. I saw him in Yorkshire last year (I didn't know much about him and thus didn't have any specific expectations)
What you see in that photo is pretty much what you get (other than the actual music). No dressing up, no accompanying musicians, he just stands there and plays and sings. One of the best live performances I ever saw, and I can't understand how anybody alive couldn't have been thrilled by it. But then the Kiss fans probably can't understand why I don't enjoy the fire breathing and the fake gore and the makeup and the costumes and every thing else. The world's big enough for all of us ?
But yes... I'm a witness. Somebody (or some persons) can get up on stage, just them and their instrument, and just play and sing and it can be magical. Even if you don't know much about them and thus have little in the way of expectations (which may be an advantageous position to be in).
