It’s the Mom here, guest blogging whilst Ian and his ladies take a journey down memory lane in England. And I’d like to follow up on one aspect of Sean’s nifty rant of yesterday.
Not the fascination with vapid celebrities, or even the mediocrity of much of our culture, though those are worthy discussions. My rant concerns the phenomenon of live performance, and why it will, or should, never go away.
A few days ago I took a drive around the Sundance “loop” in Utah. The road winds from Provo to American Fork, a fairly slow, 2-lane route that hugs one mountain as it frames the changing view of peaks and valleys, glaciers and waterfalls, one breathtaking Kodak moment after another. Except that Kodak can never duplicate the actual experience. It’s a “ya hadda be there” thing. The photos may be great, but it’s an inadequate representation of the real thing.
So it is with live performance—theater, dance, music, whatever. When you hear music live, see theater live, walk in front of the actual painting, there is a physical response that doesn’t happen when it is experienced in its packaged, processed form. I once wrote that compared to a live concert, listening to recorded music is like making love in a wet suit. Or eating chocolate mousse over the telephone.
Live music just sounds, feels different. My whole body reacts with the kind of connection that I can’t get with the earbuds or a great set of speakers. It’s the same with theater. Breathing the same air as the actors, singers, or dancers, and hearing the speeches, the tunes, the taps of feet and rustles of costumes gives me something I can’t duplicate in reproduction mode, no matter how technically perfect. And the best reproduction in the world can’t compare with actually standing in front of that huge Pollock spatter painting upstairs at the Met.
Now, I adore film, and I relish all sorts of entertaining and artistic electronica. I make part of my living creating and manipulating sound in the recording studio. That’s another whole subject. The thing is, if you always get your art and entertainment canned, you forget how it tastes when it’s fresh.
Yesterday, Sean urged everyone to go see some live theater. I second that and urge you to add music, art, and, yes, even live basketball to your calendar. And not just to support artists, not just to keep the theater companies and music groups alive. Not as a public service. Do it for yourself.
Whoa. It's like you were borned stoned.
I totally agree, "Mom." My husband insists he doesn't enjoy live performances more than listening to recordings at home. I've given up trying to change him, and simply go with friends to concerts and plays and musicals now. I always leave feeling more alive, more connected to -- what? that "something" people share when they experience art as it's being made.
One thing I feel I must mention is the difficulty posed for many people of the high prices charged for live performances today. There are, of course, the exceptions of off-off-off-off-off-Broadway new plays, community theater (variable!), college theater and music events, free gallery nights, etc. But on the whole, tickets to professionally produced plays, concerts, operas, are pretty breathtaking for those of us working in the nonprofit sector and raising families. OTOH, I don't want to undervalue the work of the creators and performers. I try to put aside enough for a few big-deal events per year.
Hey, Linda. Love from Brooklyn.
This is in response to Sean's thoughtful, yet a tad tubby, rant from yesterday. It's from the website of my hero and fourth favorite (soon to be fifth) Queens resident, Marc Maron:
“Popcorn is a good analogy for show business. Every time you make popcorn, there are always those fluffy, white, happy popped pieces that are fun to eat and look at and everybody likes them. But there are also always those burnt, hard kernels at the bottom that don’t pop. You know why they don’t pop?
They don’t pop because they have integrity."
I would be honestly suprised and very disappointed if, and the end of the day, "[t]he people [you] work with, our artistic world will always remain outside the realm of success."
You're selling your friends, and yourself, way short.
Lurve,
Neo Cigar Chomper
(OK, Marc Maron was driven from Queens by stupid radio execs a year ago, but I had to work in a shout-out to Esteban and the Gideons somehow.)
I absolutely love and prefer the live performances to anything on TV or film. It is just not the same...no other way to explain it. One of my husband's and I favorite things to attend is operas. When we lived near DC we would go to the Kennedy Center occasionally (and yes it was a splurge for us then) and see lots of operas. One of our favorites was seeing Denyce Graves perform as Carmen. Now there is no comparison to hearing her live vs. on TV...there just isn't. Now we go to a nearby city here in TN to their opera house which is very, very good. Part of the experience there is the theater they perform in is from the 1930's and all original. It is stunning with all the heavy velvet curtains, ornate architecture, huge chandeliers, etc...totally adds to the whole experience. Whether it is local theater or in another city....doesn't matter as long as we have tickets!
My Dad always said on vacation that he didn't like taking photos because he felt sometimes it made him miss out on the experience. We always tried to take pictures in our head. I think what he says is true. Sometimes you are so busy looking through the camera lens, you might miss seeing a deer running in the distance or something of that nature. You get so caught up in getting the perfect picture, you may not enjoy the beauty of the moment.
Great words from Mom as usual. You can see from yesterday's comments, I agree with you wholeheartedly on live performances.
emma, i'm so with you and your dad on the snapshots. i am a passionate amateur photographer, but i am always shooting a detail on some rusty fence or something that will convey more of the FEELING of the place than the snapshot you can buy on a postcard. my family never got it. but who has the patience for snapshots anyhow. when i do take a few, i notice myself filling in the smells and sounds and what's out of frame as i share, so what's the point?
and it's a great analogy for everything else in life. there's nothing compare to being present.
that said, i try to just view live vs canned as two different experiences. not one as a replacement for the other....i'd rather take canned music over new music. but this is great food for thought, mom, thanks!
The key difference for me between live and canned (I like that, Mom) experiences, particularly involving music, is the reliability. I have seen some amazing shows that were practically life-changing: Ministry at Lollapalooza, accidental front-row seats to Lyle Lovett, a bar band in college that left my ears ringing for the next two days. But I've also been to some shows that had me growling at the audience--smoking, talking, taking cell phone calls--or even a performer whose heart wasn't in it. You always know what to expect when you're listening to music on your iPod. Also, as Anne pointed out, the movie or the album is a lot cheaper. I really hate spending money on an expensive ticket and being disappointed. However, to take the glass-half-full perspective, it's always worth the gamble because even the negative experience is that much more vivid--I came away with a powerful memory of the Ben Folds/Rufus Wainwright/Ben Lee show in Prospect Park, where I couldn't see anything because everybody was standing, and I couldn't hear much because everybody was singing along, and I couldn't breathe because everyone was smoking. (It was also the first time I was older than most of the other concertgoers, and that'll leave a mark on you.)
god, i hope live performances don't go away too!
my husband plays live deep house music, playing live and transitioning from song to song like a dj. in fact the club dj's mix in and out of his set when he starts and finishes. he always says that one of the hardest things has been coming up with one single live set from one single person (himself), which is able to compete in terms of the sound quality and complexity and everything else - right after a dj has just played an entire set of really well produced and mastered records from different producers all over the world.
i think basically, people's ears get tuned differently or expectations are set differently or when you only listen to one format. probably true even for people who only listen to live music and feel like they are getting too much of a wall-of-sound from modern production, but mostly i think of it going the other way where people listening to the recorded format get turned off by live music.
and also, i think it's kind of sad how many established performers insist on playing live music which is arranged EXACTLY like the recording and people expect it to sound EXACTLY the same as the cd. and i think it's because a lot of fans have just locked into the recorded format so strongly that they have lost the appreciation for live musicianship and improvisation which they might have to trade off with sound quality.
i mean, i LOVE studio production and i think that is an art in and of itself when it is done well and with passion and creativity - but it is just definitely completely different than live. but i honestly don't know how listeners are going to be able to continue to appreciate the sound quality of live musicianship after listening to so much heavily produced recorded music.
My friends wonder why I call you all of the time
What can I say
I don't feel the need to give such secrets away
You think maybe I need help, no, I know that I'm right
I'm just better off not listening to friends' advice[moderated for content - sysadmin]
GOD, it's like one of those ridiculous tiny toy dogs that comes out all yipping and prancing around like a fool then runs away as soon as you take a step toward it.
ANYWAY back on le MOM's actual subject...
i know tons of creative people who are into some hybrid of live-plus-electronic music.
i think there are definitely ways to get innovative with digital gear while maintaining band-style execution - which to me this is one of the coolest ways to help bridge the gap because you get the sound quality people are familiar with from recordings, but you also get the extemporaneous vibe that people dig who are into live music.
xuxE, that's about the best description ever of the pestilence: yap, yap, yap, flee. Well, one upside is that we'll soon get to read some cool lyrics in place of the posting.
By the way, thanks and kudos to the Williams family for serving as Ian's proxies.
xuxE, what band is your husband in? It looks like you're on the west coast, but I know of only one deep house band -- Tortured Soul. I opened for them in Iowa City and they jammed along with my last record, which was "Acid Trax" by Phuture, which was kinda freaky...
@kent - yep, i've seen tortured soul, they're cool! nice classic to end your set with too :). they are actually playing here on friday, but i may go see dresden dolls instead, i'm kind of on the fence...
the band he plays with is called playground: www.playgroundmuzik.com but nowadays they usually play improvised breaks and conscious hip-hop as well as deep house.
if you want the strictly deep house set, that is only when he plays solo www.myspace.com/jaswho. bradelectro www.bradelectro.com is also deep house live, but with a more todd edwards uk garagey feel. you would probably also like deep house souldiers... www.myspace.com/deephousesouldiers and possibly hesohi which is deep soulful tech house www.myspace.com/hesohi