Don't you just hate it when I use this limited amount of space to wax philosophical instead of writing about something cool like gear or new tech? I can hear the groans already. "Oh crap, here he goes again. Can he please just get to the f'ing point? Forget it, maybe I'll just turn to the FOH Interview or the Road Tests."
Sorry, but this is what happens when I actually have a little time to think. A bunch of stuff has gone down in the past couple of months that may seem unrelated, but–at least in my twisted mind–adds up to an important point. Item #1–A good friend of mine who does some writing for FOH told me about a gig he did with an act aimed at the preteen set. It was, as you might expect, a track act. We all get to do these, and everyone I have ever done came with a manager or someone who cued the tracks, telling me when to start and stop the prerecorded backing tracks. But on this gig, our intrepid FOH writer reports that he was handed a CD and, when he asked who would be giving cues, was told to just hit "play" and let it go. He did, and it went off flawlessly. The talent had the act so down that even the timing of stage patter was consistent so they could say their little bit and start the next tune.
Item #2–Another friend, touring with a major pop act, told me that he was playing every night, but had no idea if the audience ever heard him because "there were eight DA- 88s in the rack." That would be eight Tascam eight-track digital recorders for a potential total of 64 playback tracks. Another big pop singer's tour relied so much on backing tracks that, while the band was "playing" every night, they had to rehearse for two full days to get one song down when a TV talk show refused to let them use their prerecorded tracks as "doubling" (wink, wink). At least, that is what I hear on the lowdown. In these days of nondisclosure agreements on most tours, no one will actually go on record about this stuff.
Item #3–I saw an alleged live performance of another preteen act on TV. Three girls, two with guitars that they appeared to be able to play, and a third with a mic. But the guitars were not plugged into anything, and the girls playing them were singing big backup harmonies, but there were no mics onstage except the handheld being used by the lead singer. And the crowd of kiddies cheered and no one seemed to notice anything amiss in this "live" performance.
Item #4–Yet another friend called after seeing the Stones to report that Mick Jagger must have "gone down to the crossroads" because it was the only explanation for a man of his age having that kind of energy and charisma. He raved about how Ron Wood and Keith Richards were so tuned in to each other that they finished one another's musical sentences.
Item #5–Took my daughter to see one of those Big Screen Concert shows at a movie theatre that featured film of a Bruce Springsteen show from 1975. (Just to brag about my kid's taste for a second: At 15, she was the youngest person in attendance by a good 20 years.) Watching this show with minimal lighting and primitive sound (the monitors appeared to be a couple of Bose cabs leaned back against a box or crate) and being blown away by the power and presence and sheer talent of this band made me really think about items 1 through 3 above.
You know, we are service providers. We don't control who gets onstage or what they do while they are there. But the accelerating move toward packaged, prerecorded acts aimed at kids does not bode well for the future of live event audio. If these kids are raised to think that Ashlee Simpson or anyone else dancing around and pretending to sing and/or play is a live performance, why are they going to bother going out to a show? We need to educate the next generation on what real music is really all about. FOH publisher Terry Lowe has often called concerts the modern equivalent of the ancient tribal gathering, and I think he is right. But if there is nothing really live about a live show, then why not just stay home and watch it on that 60-inch plasma display in pristine 7.1 surround sound?
What can we do about it? Probably not a lot, but keep it in mind, and the next time you get a chance to provide sound for a "real" band–real people playing real music–take it and cherish it as the gift it is. And I am not naive enough–as sucky as it is to be part of The Big Lie–to suggest that any of us turn down work, but if the time comes when you really have to make a choice between that real talent and a canned act that pays better, and there is no way to pull off doing both gigs, well, let's just say that I trust that you will do the right thing.
