We left Tripod on Saturday night feeling empty. TV on the Radio, one of the quirkiest, most interesting, most genre-mashing bands around, have recently released an album, Dear Science, of sublime quality. But whatever went wrong, it just didn't work live. The horns, bells and other subtleties which make their tracks so special were either inaudible or absent, and the layers of each track were indistinguishable. The most enjoyable parts of the gig were the moments I spent filling in the gaps and humming along in my head. Leadman Tunde Adepimbe's voice didn't travel well at all, which is an indictment of him as a performer, but in his defence even when he talked between songs we could hardly hear, suggesting some of the blame lies with Tripod here too. An unfortunate night, which started with huge expectations. Would love to hear if anyone else has experienced this kind of thing in Tripod lately. It seemed a little odd as they really put emphasis on the sound system when it first opened. A video of TVotR from Later.. with Jools Holland would suggest a lot of the blame lies with the band unfortunately...
Monday, November 17, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Heh, it is never a good sign when people feel forced to start breaking out the Jools Holland comps!
ReplyDeleteAye, I hear you with this review. Yet, when I woke up the next morning, I had five or six very positive memories of the show. So something went well despite the sound quality issues.
Ordinarily, I do not think that there is too much wrong with the sound there. I can think of a few rhythm section-heavy gigs there that were brilliant. Mostly, though, I have seen more folksy-based artists at Tripod, so the mix is less of an issue, so long as they remember to turn the jet-engine-like air conditionning off.
Yeah I was surprised at Tripod, I've not been to too many gigs there, I remember the sound being amazing for Feist over a year ago, and any techno gigs that are held there are usually tip-top. Did you check out the chat on Jim Carroll's blog?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord/2008/11/17/monday-morning-randomness-for-the-gaiety-of-the-nation/
Seems as if there is a massively divided opinion of how it went.
But I have to agree it wasn't all bad, I mean the three tracks of the encore were a lot better. But still a big let down considering how good they are. And people saying Wolf Like Me was "epic" etc is just silly, I could hear it no better than any of the other tracks.
Hmm, strange, Tripod has never failed to impress me. Was at Herbie Hancock last week and the sound couldn't have been better. Absolutely crystal clear. Maybe TVotR have to take a long hard look in the mirror...
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed very strange. I can only assume that the engineer may have to take some blame. It's not unusual that different parts of a room can have a very distinct experience at the same gig. Sound works in strange ways... bouncing, reflecting, absorption are tricky to control.
ReplyDeleteTripod has a first class system by all accounts with the Funktion One brand recognised as being a leader in the field. I don't think it's prudent to compare a techno/dj set with a live show as the source material is mastered etc and should not cause a problem even on a very inferior set-up. Feist's material is less complex and layered, so should be easier to mix and, therefore, sound better live. I may be wrong here but Funktion One systems tend to be industry standard for clubs so they may be better suited/tuned to handling low-end sound to the detriment of the rest of the mix. I have not experienced such though, so as I said that could be presumptuous and incorrect.
It probably comes down to the fact that TVOTR have a difficult sound to engineer live. Some reports suggest they had a nightmare gig with it being the first date on their tour and things like effect pedals not behaving as supposed to.
I have a romantic notion that the M_nus crew performed so well the night before that the system was just fatigued. The reports I've read from Friday paint a very rosy picture of a rocking Tripod and made me wish I was back in Ireland, for a brief moment. Some of the Hawtin-haters even admitted to enjoying themselves. At least some things have changed for the better.
Ed, delighted to hear good reports from Hawtin, although I am of course not surprised. Cizzo and Comer had a good time by all accounts!! Pissed off I missed it too, but I guess you can't do it all, all the time!
ReplyDelete