My good friend Beth and I went to a couple of concerts last year—a group with her husband and my son Aaron to Extreme w/s/g Living Colour at Mars Music Hall in the spring, and then just the two of us to P!nk in Birmingham right before Thanksgiving.
So on the way down we started talking about what we like about live music. She straight-up said she just wanted to hear it played and sung as closely to the recorded studio material as possible.
Now the ear wants what it wants, but I just can’t relate to that at all. I mean, why go? I do consider that this sentiment might enable a lot of what we’re seeing right now with older acts, though. Little River Band has no original members, but whoever it is up there nails the signature harmonies. Foreigner plays the hell out of all of those hits, and ex-Hurricane Kelly Hansen sounds great singing, but that’s a tribute band too.
In most cases—for most artists, for most genres—I want to hear essentially what I heard on the record but a little rawer. (If we’re talking about hard rock or heavy metal, call it a little nastier.) I assume the artist put the bones of the song down the way they wanted it. And, now we’re in the same room. Kick my ass with it! A little faster? Crunchier? A place to show off chops and/or pipes that wasn’t apparent in the studio? Bring it!
A reworked song can be good, but that’s case by case for me. Def Leppard beginning “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak” acoustic and ending it electric is awesome. My tolerance for slop is fairly high, though I’m not sure Guns ‘n’ Roses had even rehearsed the first time Charles and I saw them in 1987, a few months before they really hit. A nostalgia act touring on a new album can be tricky. Night Ranger opened with a new song when we saw them, and it had a fun sing-along chorus. That was a good approach.
What do you want to hear at a concert?