Live From Blogger

I missed the boat somewhere. On a lot of things, actually, so what I'm about to say should be filed under "G" for, "Get, Things I Do Not." I'm not completely sure whether I am alone on the shore waving away as the boat sails serenely into the distance with everyone else, or whether the boat is mostly empty and crewed by zombie pirates, and I'm just not looking around to see the many people standing ashore with me, all of whom look glad not to be going to sea at all. Now that was a Hell of a metaphor. But the fact remains that I'm missing boat after boat.

The boat I'd particularly like to talk about this evening (as opposed to the boat crewed by lovers of Grease, for instance, or crewed by Red Hot Chili Peppers fans) is the boat of live music. By this I mean rock concerts, mostly. Why rock concerts, mostly? Because I can see going to classical music concerts (much better live), or music of various other stripes (often better live), but I've never been to much of a rock concert.

Okay, so I've been to a few, but not with names that would be recognized. The massive arena as venue for concert is lost on me. For one thing, rock musicians are usually not on their A game at all times due to various substances coursing through their bloodstreams, and even when a rock musician brings his A game, chances are good it's not that A, if you catch my drift. Modern music relies heavily on post-production to sound good. I am not criticizing it, but I do believe this to be true.

So there are musicians I'll go to see live (not unless the price is right, of course, and many musicians I would pay to see are not available for purchase). I can see that, even if I'm personally not excited by the prospect of seeing twenty bands from the Eighties in an arena that seats 100,000, there probably are people who are excited. This mostly has to do with the fact that I can't really stand the Eighties, so the live-ness and arena-ness of the occasion have little to do with it.

But what I really don't get is recordings of live music. Unless they are masterfully done (and there are a few recordings which fall into this category) or you really like the band (and as I said, many musicians I would see live aren't available in that form anymore) they sound like crap. In fact, even if you do like the band, usually I'd prefer listening to the studio version of a song over a poorly-recorded bootleg version. Perhaps this is just me.

The preponderance of live albums can't just be aimed at collectors, can it? I own a few things which include live music (recorded at a concert, that is), and I can't say as they offer a great deal of draw for me. If a song is unavailable except as a bootleg, then you have to make do, but I would always prefer a studio version if one became available.

I can keep beating the horse, but the long and the short of it is that I missed the boat on live music. There are exceptions, but for the lion's share, they're on the boat and I'm sitting on the shore. And in this case, I'm not completely certain that's not a good thing. The zombie pirates can keep the various exciting bootleg versions recorded on wax cylinders. I prefer production.