When discussing music, especially with musicians or musos, you often hear the above comment recited as though being a bit shit live is the ultimate musical condemnation. I myself have versed this criticism of supposed lack of talent on a number of occasions, although I must admit, it is often a cheap trick when I can’t be bothered to become involved in a more complex, informed criticism. Don’t get me wrong, being properly shit live is a right pain for the green giving audience; certainly everyone’s got the right to feel pissed off when you’ve coughed up for something special that turns out to be inferior, badly put together, broken or pissed. Additionally, the live performance can be a good marker of the actual musical ability of performers, and gives us struggling musicians something to unitedly bitch over. The Klaxons are a good example of this. When they popped up a couple of years ago, they (rather foolishly) expressed in the music press that they got together 6 months ago essentially because they felt like it, and that daddy very nicely bought them some lovely fender guitars in which to do it with. Regardless of the merit of their recorded work, it was quite satisfying to watch them completely cock up their live performances, and that they really needed to go home and practise that fret/key work just a little bit more.
Much of the slating of miscellaneous live performances is not however necessarily related to genuine shitness, musician inability or annoyance at being ripped off. From my perspective, many a “bad performance” is essentially based on a temporal lack of chemistry, either of the band or in the perceptions of the critic. There are worse things. Personally, I feel that a lack lustre album is a far greater crime than a disappointing live performance. My reasons for this are numerous. Firstly, if you want to ruminate over the monetary cost of a lost gig, the price of a CD (esp. an import or new release) is often similar to the live gig ticket price. Of course this excludes transport cost, and additionally if you will insist on paying an extortionate amount to see some pop fiasco at Wembley or the O2, well you have only yourselves to blame. But for a typical low key affair your looking at £10 - £15 quid, not that much more of an investment than a £10 CD. Secondly, you will typically intend to listen to an album perhaps hundreds of times in its various extrapolated forms over the years. Here, a far more extended, long term relationship is developed with the music, as opposed to the one-night-stand that gigs almost always are, and good albums therefore become worth their weight in gold.
Indeed, a lack lustre album is especially disappointing when your first encounter with some new talent is through an outstanding live performance. Failure to capture the magic of a group’s live work is more of a disappointment, especially when you have made a commitment to the actual purchase of a CD off the back of their live performance. The group Operator Please are good example of this. A couple of years ago, they did a fantastic live performance on Jools Holland, where true electricity and energy was evident even through the TV set. The studio album on the other hand simply failed to fully capture the young group’s veritable passion, and in fact I was so disappointed with the CD, I didn’t touch it for about 6 months. Once I had forgotten the details of the performance on Jools, I reacquainted myself with the CD, which is certainly a good album with good content. On a personal level therefore, as much of my exposure to new music occurs via the live medium (either at a gig or on the telly), if a group is smashing live but crap (or even ok) in the studio, one can be lead into disappointing, even questionable purchases that continue to clutter up my bedroom. Not cool.
