When you latch on to a favorite band, you tend to go down the rabbit hole of their library, and sometimes you find some great songs that you instantly know by heart. If you go to concerts on a regular basis, chance are your favorite band is going to play a few songs that you know, and they sometimes don’t sound quite the same as the recording you’ve memorized. So what version do you prefer?
Stephen Schleicher
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
6 Comments
Im too old and lazy to go live shows anymore. They were great when I was in my 20’s, with friends, drinking too much and stuff, but lets be honest: Live, they dont always play your favorite song, singer is sometimes too drunk, audio quality not the greatest etc. Live is a good fun, but listening record is better musical experience.
I really went back and forth on this. My vote ended up being recordings.
For certain bands, the experience and ambiance of a live performance almost eclipses the music itself.
Two particular experiences like this were one of my favourite Ska bands (The Planet Smashers) and the Beach Boys reunion tour.
For a lot of the other music, I prefer to listen in private on my home stereo system.
There’s a few live versions that I prefer over the recording, but in general terms I stick to the original version.
The nice thing about concerts for me is the visual aspect and the interaction between performer and audience, so if those are bad, it doesn’t matter how good or bad the performances are.
Although I don’t get to concerts very often, I’ve always enjoyed them over recordings. It isn’t just the music itself, it is the entire experience. It is similar to being at a sporting event compared to watching it on TV. It might be the same event either way, but being there is a completely different experience being there than watching it on TV.
And there is the chance you’ll experience something unique at a live concert. Weird Al threw in a few variations or additions to a few songs when I’ve seen him that were different than what we get on the albums (such as the chant added to “Yoda”), and several bands I’ve seen have either played a song with altered lyrics or with a different style (like playing a usually fast and heavy song like a slow ballad) than what I’ve heard many times on the albums.
While I love listening to music in general, there’s nothing quite like listening to my my wife sing. I could sit and listen to her for hours, and when our friend joins in, that’s it, I’m done. I could sit and listen to those two sing forever, and it doesn’t matter what kind of music they’re singing either. They both like some stuff that I normally don’t enjoy, but when they just decide to burst into song when we’re all hanging out, I forget that I’m not a fan of Sia and just listen to them belt Chandelier.
I don’t handle crowds very well – I’d prefer to listen to a recording while off in my own little world.