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Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Live Music and the Modern Woman

Growing up, I was against music that did not sound exactly as its most familiar (to me) recording. I was disappointed in live musicals that didn't sound the way they did on the Original Cast Recording cassettes I listened to ad nauseum. I also didn't really like concerts because, hey, "THAT'S NOT HOW THAT SONG ENDS!" This went on unabated for many years and, truthfully, there is still some aspect of that lingering in my little adverse-to-change mind. I didn't like seeing The Lion King on Broadway--despite the small fortune my Ma shelled out for tickets--because I knew the story and the songs and this was different. And don't even get me started about album recordings of live shows. Just KILL me, why don't you?

Past a certain age I moved on from my dislike of concerts. I think the trick was to think of the concerts as separate and different from recorded works. Like, "this isn't like Better Than Ezra's Deluxe album, it's Better Than Ezra live." More recently I have come to love some live albums, but I think it depends on the quality of the performance/performers, the quality of the recording, and whether you can accept that the music doesn't sound the way it's "supposed to." Yeah, it's a blend of the inter- and the intra-.

Here are my humble submissions for the live album Walk of Fame:

  • The Smoking Popes, At Metro
  • The Kinks, The Kinks Kronikles
  • Cowboy Mouth, All You Need Is Live