“THERE IS NO POINT PUSSYFOOTING around, this was not a good show. This was in many ways a terrible show. The worst I’ve seen in 42 years and 40+ gigs watching Elvis Costello in various incarnations.”
These days, it is not often that elder statesmen musicians get a kicking by elder music industry journos. Admittedly some of it is about the sound but all the same.
And while I’m here, for all its iconic status, I reckon I have encountered more shit sound at the Sydney Opera House, as a proportion of events attended, than any other venue.
I think shit sound at a venue like that is unforgivable. If you’re not getting an experienced professional sound crew then you should get a refund. An Italian mate that I used to go to gigs with would berate people at the mixing desk if the sound was bad. He was absolutely right to. They didn’t appreciate it though.
Totally agree. Saw Snarky Puppy recently at a favoured venue. Biggish band in number,, not huge economically but superb sound , not overly loud, clear, good separation.
What are the other fuckers doing ?
Probably 20 years ago now I saw an article in Q where an industry engineer said the technology was now such that you should expect a refund if you had bad sound at a live gig.
(Friends tested this a few years back with Springsteen. No refund but tickets to another show in another city as recompense.)
I’ve always found the sound Ok at the Opera House; it’s the atmosphere that’s the issue. Many bands (and their audiences) seem to feel dwarfed by the venue’s status so it all feels a bit stilted. Angel Olsen looked visibly uncomfortable recently with how the applause seemed to get sucked up – very little by way of the general buzzy ambience of the crowd. And the audience *was* onside. Elbow made it work – felt like you were in their front room and their bonhomie won the day. Damon Albarn came out scissor kicking and really pushed through and got a win there. The Cure doing Disintegration in full (possibly my favourite gig of all time) really used the venue well; it just added to the cavernous majesty of the sound.
Bands always seemed chuffed to be playing a venue of that status, but I’d imagine you’d have to work hard.
Costello has specialised in muddy sound for years. I gave up on him after dodgy shows in venues as varied as Warwick Arts Centre and Blenheim Palace.
Probably the biggest Costello fan on here now that Dog Faced Boy has left the room. I saw him in Reykjavik last April and he was excellent. Also seeing him later this year in Wolverhampton.
As @retropath2 says above he does have a history of poor sound usually in the first couple of numbers and then it gets ironed out. I don’t excuse him that as the cost of the tickets would warrant a top sound crew. However a lot of the criticism I have seen is that his setlists are too eclectic and not enough of the hits are played. As a deep fan of his work I would turn that on it’s head and say don’t play the ‘hits’, play the deep tracks. I have seen him around 25-30 times and for example have never seen him play After the fall which is one of my favourite songs. Nor have I seen him play Psycho which is one his covers I really love.
You can’t please all of the audience all of the time. As for his voice, in Reykjavik it was great and he sung unamplified a couple of times – not many have the ability to do that and keep an audience in the palm of their hand.
I would say he is perhaps touring too much now which is not doing his voice any favours.
Some die hard mates are soon to see him in Melb. I shall report back.
Didn’t even know they played rock gigs at that venue. Good to read that Wilco were naturally superb there given the apparent challenges.
As for Elvis, haven’t seen him live in about 20 years. Saw some amazing shows in the 80s with The Attractions. Last time wasn’t so great, but most performers have off nights.
Hasn’t somebody previously mentioned that EC doesn’t do sound checks and prefers the sound men to play with the sound in the first 2 or so numbers. Outrageous IF true.
China Crisis said that they do that – but with just the first number.
I’ve seen EC live 20 odd times in loads of permutations, the last time was at the Palladium 6 or 7 years ago. It was horrible, smug and self centred, time wasted reading aloud from his autobiography and far too much time on his new identity as a music hall singer. We left before the encore, we joined a steady stream of people leaving early, I decided I didn’t need to see him live again.
@ Harry Tufnell you mean EC beat Joe Jackson to the music hall singer idea first. Joe will be miffed.
Ouch. I wonder if he cares about reviews like that; I hope he does, but if he’s relaxed about letting the sound crew earn their fee during the first few songs, I doubt it.
I saw him play a few times, all excellent gigs in my mind, but all well back in the day (just before and after Armed Forces time!) and always at relatively shit venues for acoustics when I likely had lower expectations than nowadays, but paid a lot less to attend.
Having said all that, and having heard other ageing rockers with diminished vocal power (hello, Jethro Tull) a year or so back, the final few paragraph’s hints at his lessened singing abilities give me ample pause to ever consider paying to see him play again. Which alone should be reason for Costello to care about reviews like that.
On a tangent, it’s often written that Fairport Convention was the first rock act to perform at Sydney Opera House (in 1974, partly featured on the ‘Live Convention’ LP) – but clearly it was Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs, the previous year. Releasing a double live album themselves from the event is hardly hiding in obscurity.
I have seen Costello 20+ times, and some gigs have been better than others. The second-to-last time I saw him was in 2018 in Dublin’s BGET, terrible sound and his voice was awful and out of tune. Two weeks later the rest of the tour was cancelled because of his cancer diagnosis, so I felt sorry for him trying to perform in that state. The last time I saw him was last September in Dublin’s National Concert Hall, and I thought it was sensational, so good – it was just him and Steve, and we were in the front row. I too have heard the “he doesn’t do soundchecks” thing, maybe I started it! I did notice last September that there were a few things being ironed out in the first 3-4 songs. I do know that Tom Petty used to forego soundchecks towards the end, assuming the crack Heartbreakers crew would get their act together in the first few songs.
EC and Steve are coming back to Dublin at the end of September for four gigs, and the promise of no repeats across the four nights. Yes, I’m going to all four shows. Like @SteveT above I don’t want the hits, I never need to hear him do that neverending solo murky guitar version of Watching The Detectives again. It’s his Dazed & Confused! Head for the bathroom!
IIRC, Tom Petty and the HBs stopped doing soundchecks because arguments would start up – this may have been during the ‘dark’ times from the late nineties until their reformation. To avoid this, the sound crew developed a way of recording feeds from each instrument during performances and playing them back at a ‘bandless’ soundcheck, tuning them to the room. Then they’d be fine tuned, as you mention, in the first couple of songs. I only saw them twice, first in the RAH which is a tricky place for bands and which took a bit of adjustment to the cavernous sound of the hall. The second was at Hyde Park in Tom’s last English show and had the best sound I’ve ever heard outdoors.
RAH now has a lot of d&b line array speakers strategically placed around the auditorium now so coverage is a lot better. At the same time, they installed permanent cabling for broadcast. I haven’t been as a punter since the refit but it should be much better.
There’s a great account in The Big Wheel of Elvis and Steve playing Shot With His Own Gun while Bruce and Pete have a crafty snifter backstage. There are so many dramatic pauses in the song that they keep almost coming back on and having to stop and creep back off, like a couple of Hanna Barbera characters. I can’t listen to that song without thinking of this scenario.
Isn’t it the case that the first couple of songs at every gig see quite a bit of “sorting out” given the acoustics of the room will have changed significantly post soundcheck due to the audience now being in place?
There is that. But how much tweaking do you need to do and how long should it take.
I have been to a few Dylan gigs where the sound has been awful but over the last few years it has been superb. I expect it is him telling the sound guys he wants it to sound as good as [ insert artist name ] and I want them , all over the room, to hear every word.
Bad sound starts at the top.
…sometimes he just wants it fookin loud
The Sydney Opera House has had, in the last few years, a major overhaul to improve the acoustics. Anecdotal evidence, and my own ears, can attest that the sound for orchestral concerts is fabulous and a vast improvement. I haven’t seen any bands there since the refurb but I saw The Necks at a smaller venue in the building, The Playhouse, a few weeks ago and the sound was excellent.
Remarkable really, that with all of that incredible design, acoustics took a backseat for so many years.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/02/better-than-we-dared-imagine-sydney-opera-house-unveils-its-miracle-new-concert-hall
EC has form. I saw him at Hammersmith about 20 years ago to use up a pal’s spare ticket. The sound was so bad that I left after about 30 mins, and took the early train home.
I seen him a few times but no more for me as the last time a few years ago at the New Theatre Oxford the sound was truly awful. Loads of people were shouting out sort your sound out but alas he just carried on. Still one of my favourite artists but I’ll spend my money elsewhere.
I’ve seen him a geeky number of times and the bad sound is usually when he and the band go hammer and tongs on some oldies in the ‘everything louder than everything else’ credo so beloved of, er, Lemmy. EC’s voice is not what is was (it peaked in his forties quite wonderfully when the Attractions reformed I reckon) but he can still be an entrancing performer and his last few LPs have more riches in them than anyone has a right to expect. Thankfully no chance of muddy sound when he comes round with Steve in the Autumn.
On Painted From Memory , his 1998 collaboration with Burt Bacharach, squarely in Declan’s mid-40s, his voice is truly magnificent, so yeah!
Just been watching a clip on YouTube. Some bloke in the audience admittedly, but the sound is terrible. But far more bizarre than any of this is the fact that EC is wearing a kilt and a bunnet. Why?
From the Scotsman.