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What
You Should Know About Live Records
A
few months ago the editor of another music website
commissioned me to write a piece on Live Albums. He gave
me a list of 10 rock albums amongst which were popular
rock releases by Kiss, Thin Lizzy, and Judas Priest.
I was supposed to pick one I had in my collection and
analyze it in depth. Halfway through the list I
came to the realization that I, in fact, did not own any
of them. Actually, after briefly perusing through
my record collection I realized that indeed I owned zero
live albums. There are many reasons for this. The
main one being that they are a farce. Live albums are
not real. Or at least most of them are not. They do not
truly recreate the live experience, that’s for sure, and
in some instances they don't even represent the exact
performance. In rare instances, when they do
recreate the live experience, they blow at all sonic
levels. Case in point, I was just listening to that
Gomez live album
(Out West) recorded at San Francisco's Fillmore
auditorium but the sound was so lame I felt the urge to
write this piece. Here are a few reasons why live
albums suck:
 People buy live albums because they want to know what it
was like to be there. Perhaps they missed the last
time Aerosmith hit town and they want to hear what it
was like to hear five sober and wrinkled sixty year
somethings playing songs about dreaming on. Or
maybe they weren't alive and living in England when The
Who recorded Live at Leeds. Truth of the matter
is the grand majority of live albums do not accurately
represent what a live show truly is, therefore someone
does not get any closer to the experience just by
listening to them. When someone attends a concert, the
music is only part of the show. Visuals, bloated alcohol
prices, bullies, annoying drunks, fights, stinky sluts,
sweat and the overall interaction -wanted and unwanted-
with the public and the artists obviously enhance the
experience. With live albums you get none of the above.
Some people want to re-live the memory. We all know someone
who saw (or someone who knows someone who saw) The
Beatles back when they first invaded the US or who got
to see Sepultura back on their first American tour on
support of Beneath the Remains. By buying a live
recording of such or such tour one can drift back to a
happy time and positions himself/herself as taking an
active role in a moment of history. It kind of brings
to mind that saying; ‘any old time was a better time’,
and that’s lame.
Studio recordings are usually mistake-free, but live shows
are inherently inundated with fuck-ups.
Bands make mistakes left and right (in the case of Kiss is more
like left and right and up and down) and in most
instances this makes for a spontaneous and real
experience. With the excuse of wanting to give fans
their money’s worth most - not all - bands head back to
the studio and fix all these ‘minor glitches’ making the
live album only half live. Or perhaps mostly dead.
If you have a gimmick (like Kiss) and your music sucks (like
Kiss), then chances are you are going to the see them
live as much for the music as for the pyrotechnics, the
million dollar show, or the hidden hope of seeing Ace Freehley
spontaneously combusting into a puff of smoke. So
what’s the point of a Kiss live album besides
milking the public like they are cows? Plus, haven’t you
heard “I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night” enough? The song
reeks.
Despite advancements in technology, records still do
not replicate the live sound. Regardless of the efforts
placed on keeping shit ‘raw’, not even turning the
fucker up to 11 will replicate the vibrancy of a real
live show. In other words, live albums are as much fun
as a fucking Pink Floyd light show.
Live records are usually just one more way to squeeze money
out of you. In an effort to re-package the same stuff
over and over (Best of’s, Greatest Hits and Anniversary re-issues are three others)
record labels found in live releases the perfect excuse
to milk you just a little harder.
There is only one instance in which live records are
acceptable merchandise; bands like The Grateful Dead and
The Dave Matthews Band did/do their best to consistently
offer up a different and spontaneous show on a night by
night basis. This approach to touring keeps their
shows fresh for both musicians and fans alike. And this
is especially the case with bands like the Dead where a
bunch of brain deads followed them around for weeks,
purchasing anything the band was willing to sell. Also,
bands like these make tons of cash by issuing these
so-called bootlegs and selling them to suckers. Either
way is a loss. And if you actually dig either one of
those bands then you deserve the punishment and to go
broke anyway.
And
last but not least…
You
weren't there so face reality and suck it in. A live
record is not going to make a difference.
I got back to my editor a couple of days later. I
informed him that I did not own any of the albums in
his list and proposed instead the idea of writing a
piece on why live albums blow a hairy one. He said it
was an interesting idea and to keep it in the back of my
mind, that we'd get back to it a little later. It's
been about a year and a half since then and I am still
waiting… |
