Sports difficulty ranking: WFNY Staff Chat
June 24, 2020Talking Take-out: WFNY Staff Chat
June 29, 2020mgbode – For today’s roundtable, we enter the absolute wheelhouse of @andrew and @wfnycraig. Seems the Kurt Cobain guitar used in the legendary MTV Unplugged session was sold at auction for $6 million. So, today’s chat will be around live music; acoustic or otherwise. Which bands sound better live than in their recordings? Or different? What are the best albums of all-time recorded live?
Peter Freedman, Founder of RØDE Microphones, won at auction today for $6,000,010 the Martin D-18E guitar used by Kurt Cobain in Nirvana's legendary MTV Unplugged performance! #RODE #JuliensAuctions #KurtCobain #Nirvana #Guitar #Auction #MTV #WorldRecord pic.twitter.com/kBCpXwbpdc
— Juliens Auctions (@JuliensAuctions) June 20, 2020
davesterling – One of my favorite albums of all time is Carrie and Lowell by Sufjan Stevens, and after seeing Sufjan live at the Masonic Auditorium in Cleveland on that tour, I was very excited when Carrie and Lowell Live came out. I would not say that it is BETTER than the album version, but it is a wonderful reproduction with some embellishments and enhancements. It is a wonderful listen. https://open.spotify.com/album/4QYo7aIi85tEuEOe0Y2ew0?si=ZEV6P84ETH-v8WILMThXRQ
andrew – It’s hard for me to name bands I think are better live because if I like a band live, I probably also like their studio albums. So “better” is a tricky word for me. But I would hands down say Silversun Pickups is a band I do enjoy seeing live much more than I enjoy listening to their albums. While I’m not the world’s biggest SSPU fan, I do frequently cite them as one of the best live bands arounds.
davesterling – Andrew, I saw Silversun Pickups at Lakewood Civic Auditorium, and I agree, they were GREAT live.
andrew – As for best live albums, obviously the aforementioned Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York album is incredible. A very underrated live album, in my opinion, is Van Halen’s “Live: Right Here, Right Now” album. I enjoy that one quite a bit. But for the most part, I would say I definitely tend to listen to studio albums much more than I do live albums.
davesterling – As an electronic music fan, there are two types of electronic acts. One is like a DJ where they play their songs, sort of as is, but mixed together. The other are acts where an electronic musician gets musicians together to recreate their albums, and these are some of my favorite live albums. This by Hidden Orchestra is one of my favorite examples. https://open.spotify.com/album/326QDSVqRCbV6uSK0AAL1i?si=TCXZlyrRQ1GmHGdgizz_1Q
andrew – Oh, and Counting Crows’ “Across The Wire” is an awesome live album as well.
mgbode – There are a few artists I would prefer to listen to their live work. Does Peter Frampton even have a studio album or have all those been scrubbed from existence to ensure only Frampton Comes Alive is listened to? Jimi Hendrix playing the Monterey Pop Festival is the stuff that made me love his sound. Ben Harper just riffing when you see him play live is when he is at his best. To go with another in the MTV Unplugged set, Clapton’s might have topped Nirvana’s as the best of that bunch.
wfnycraig – I’m a huge fan of live music. I love to see what bands do live because I want to see how much they’re fabricating themselves in the studio. In my musical worldview, it’s ok to have harmonies that don’t come across live. I don’t like when artists “take notes off.” If you hit that high note on the record and you can’t consistently do it live, then I’m going to be disappointed. If you play your songs live in a lower key all the time, I’ll probably also be disappointed.
It’s a weird example, because I’m not exactly the hugest Goo Goo Dolls fan, but I think some of their songs have been great over the years. Iris is played out, but it’s a really good song. However, when they play their most famous hit live, Johnny Reznik doesn’t hit the soaring notes in the chorus. Nowadays, he points the mic at the audience and skips it completely. Even before he started doing that, he found some lower notes to sing. For me, that’s a really sad thing.
One of he best is Coheed and Cambria. The band is true to the album. The vocals are raw and different than the record, but he never takes notes off.
Another great example of a singer putting in work live is Andy Hull from Manchester Orchestra. When they released their album A Black Mile to the Surface, I heard their song The Grocery, and I was sure that Andy Hull wouldn’t be able to sign the high note on a nightly basis. I’ve seen them perform that material at least two times now in person, and a couple more on YouTube, and he hits that high note every time. That’s the way it’s done and it makes them one of my absolute favorite live bands in the world.