I's the b'y...
Aug. 22nd, 2002 01:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravencallscrowswho smuggles the camera into the concert. Pictures to follow probably tomorrow or Friday, depending on how damn lazy i am. Anyway, the GBS show rocked. I'm glad we went. Met up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
heddo98 before the show and all four of us (damashita, alexander and i) hung out during the show.
I'll spare you all the technical review. If you want it,damashita did a pretty comprehensive review of the show, including the sound problems here. Suffice it to say that as someone who has run sound in the past, i wasn't impressed, but attribute most of the problems to the engineer doing the mixing through the mains being in the overhang under the balcony, which probably resulted in extremely different acoustic conditions than were experienced by those of us in the open were getting through the mains- he was pretty consistent in overblowing the low end and midranges. Mixing into the monitors seemed to be the much more competently handled job- none of the bands seemed to have anything past minor adjustments, and the senior engineer usually ends up doing that mix anyway.
On to the bands. Although i've seen Seven Nations in the past, it's been five years or so. Apparently their new album is the big departure from what had been their sound in the past. As it was, they did a single song i recognized- Scream, which is a pretty cool song from their Rain and Thunder release- but the rest of their set sounded as if they were too damn busy trying to be Blues Traveler with Great Highland Bagpipes in place of lead guitar. They sound out of their niche trying to play this style, and i thought their set sucked all in all. Kirk's vocals were pretty incomprehensible, and they just seemed to be trying too damn hard to be mainstream. Sorry, but if that's what i want to hear, i'll listen to John Hopper or Dave Matthews, even Billy Bragg. The highlight of Seven Nations was the really cool synth-pop/industrial music that was played before they came out. Pretty bad when you go to hear a Celtic rock band, and the highlight of their set is neither representative of the band or the genre. The lead-in music still rocked though, although would have been a better fit as a prelude for VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berzerk, or Front Line Assembly.
Young Dubliners i hadn't heard before, and was pretty pleasantly surprised. Closest points of comparison i can find immediately are The Pogues or Flogging Molly, just a bit less punk. Fairly fun, high energy, interacted well with the crowd. Sound guy managed to butcher the high end on the fiddle player during their set, so parts of the entire spectrum were fouled up- it might have been better if they had been a bit punkier, because punk lends itself so much more readily to sloppy sound. Not sure i'd run out and buy their album, but i'd at least consider it.
Great Big Sea were, as they have been every time i've seen them, loads of fun. They're the highest energy performers i've seen- there's almost always someone bouncing around on stage. Alexander seemed to have a blast- he's as much a GBS fan as his parents, and knows all of their songs except for the latest CD, which he hasn't quite learned yet. Anyway, since we were in the front row, he spent a fair bit of the show sitting on the stage singing or watching spellbound (or being held, doing the same things). We were right in front of Darrell Power, the bass player, and within 12 feet or so of Alan Doyle, the primary vocalist, both of whom were at points visibly amused at the little boy sitting and singing along with everything. Well, one of his favourite songs is The Old Black Rum (which is really disturbing to hear in a little kid's tenor). After the song, Darrell came over, shook his hand and gave him the playlist. Alexander's a reader. Suddenly he not only had cool music to listen to and watch, he had something to read as well. Made his day, even if he seemed to think it was just a loan, since after the show he seemed to be looking for someone to give the list back to.
Hung out for a bit afterwards and talked with some of the other Street Team members who worked on promoting the show with fliers/posters etc. (i still have some), got it signed by Alan, and were getting ready to leave when Darrell came out to the bus, and we went back and let alexander get it signed by him and talked for a bit. Wonderful gestures from some folk who seem genuinely to care about their music and their fans.
Enough for tonight. Sleep summons me.
heddo98 before the show and all four of us (damashita, alexander and i) hung out during the show.I'll spare you all the technical review. If you want it,
damashita did a pretty comprehensive review of the show, including the sound problems here. Suffice it to say that as someone who has run sound in the past, i wasn't impressed, but attribute most of the problems to the engineer doing the mixing through the mains being in the overhang under the balcony, which probably resulted in extremely different acoustic conditions than were experienced by those of us in the open were getting through the mains- he was pretty consistent in overblowing the low end and midranges. Mixing into the monitors seemed to be the much more competently handled job- none of the bands seemed to have anything past minor adjustments, and the senior engineer usually ends up doing that mix anyway.On to the bands. Although i've seen Seven Nations in the past, it's been five years or so. Apparently their new album is the big departure from what had been their sound in the past. As it was, they did a single song i recognized- Scream, which is a pretty cool song from their Rain and Thunder release- but the rest of their set sounded as if they were too damn busy trying to be Blues Traveler with Great Highland Bagpipes in place of lead guitar. They sound out of their niche trying to play this style, and i thought their set sucked all in all. Kirk's vocals were pretty incomprehensible, and they just seemed to be trying too damn hard to be mainstream. Sorry, but if that's what i want to hear, i'll listen to John Hopper or Dave Matthews, even Billy Bragg. The highlight of Seven Nations was the really cool synth-pop/industrial music that was played before they came out. Pretty bad when you go to hear a Celtic rock band, and the highlight of their set is neither representative of the band or the genre. The lead-in music still rocked though, although would have been a better fit as a prelude for VNV Nation, Apoptygma Berzerk, or Front Line Assembly.
Young Dubliners i hadn't heard before, and was pretty pleasantly surprised. Closest points of comparison i can find immediately are The Pogues or Flogging Molly, just a bit less punk. Fairly fun, high energy, interacted well with the crowd. Sound guy managed to butcher the high end on the fiddle player during their set, so parts of the entire spectrum were fouled up- it might have been better if they had been a bit punkier, because punk lends itself so much more readily to sloppy sound. Not sure i'd run out and buy their album, but i'd at least consider it.
Great Big Sea were, as they have been every time i've seen them, loads of fun. They're the highest energy performers i've seen- there's almost always someone bouncing around on stage. Alexander seemed to have a blast- he's as much a GBS fan as his parents, and knows all of their songs except for the latest CD, which he hasn't quite learned yet. Anyway, since we were in the front row, he spent a fair bit of the show sitting on the stage singing or watching spellbound (or being held, doing the same things). We were right in front of Darrell Power, the bass player, and within 12 feet or so of Alan Doyle, the primary vocalist, both of whom were at points visibly amused at the little boy sitting and singing along with everything. Well, one of his favourite songs is The Old Black Rum (which is really disturbing to hear in a little kid's tenor). After the song, Darrell came over, shook his hand and gave him the playlist. Alexander's a reader. Suddenly he not only had cool music to listen to and watch, he had something to read as well. Made his day, even if he seemed to think it was just a loan, since after the show he seemed to be looking for someone to give the list back to.
Hung out for a bit afterwards and talked with some of the other Street Team members who worked on promoting the show with fliers/posters etc. (i still have some), got it signed by Alan, and were getting ready to leave when Darrell came out to the bus, and we went back and let alexander get it signed by him and talked for a bit. Wonderful gestures from some folk who seem genuinely to care about their music and their fans.
Enough for tonight. Sleep summons me.
