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Last Night I Heard a Band...


bitflipper

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...that was so good they made me question why I even bother trying.

But it's too late for me to take up a different avocation, so this morning I'm trying to come to grips with my own inadequacies, to remind myself it's important to do what you love - even if you suck at it.

The band enjoys an effect that I call the "Carpenters Effect",  a smooth vocal blend that can usually only be achieved between close relatives. Think Lennon Sisters or the Bee Gees, and of course the Carpenter siblings. They are five brothers and cousins with broad vocal ranges and impressively good pitch. Good enough to emulate double-tracked studio vocals. When all five sang harmony it was transcendent.

This is the band. And yes, they pulled this off live last night. And it wasn't even their best tune. That would have been The Beatles' Don't Bring Me Down in 5-part harmony.

 

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Right here in Seattle, at the Snoqualmie Casino. It's their first North American tour and this was their next-to-last stop. 

I will definitely look them up next time I'm in the islands. I'm guessing the price of admission will be considerably lower over there. Well, if you don't count airfare.

They've been invited to play the Cavern Club next year. They're best known for their Beatles covers.

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On 5/21/2023 at 1:17 PM, bitflipper said:

...that was so good they made me question why I even bother trying.

But it's too late for me to take up a different avocation, so this morning I'm trying to come to grips with my own inadequacies, to remind myself it's important to do what you love - even if you suck at it.

 

+1

 

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I went to my neice's wedding this weekend in upstate NY. They had a 7 piece band at the reception that was out of NYC. My brother was a drummer playing live for over 30 years and I played geetar live for over 16. We weren't used to being on that side of the mic and we were sitting there critiquing them the whole time. They were so tight there is no way they were truly live. They had to be playing to some kind of backing tracks and never varied their songs with an extra lead or repeated verse when the dance floor was packed to keep them up there dancing. Don't get me wrong, they were excellent, but there is no way they were fully live.

During one of the breaks I saw the lead singer sitting out in a seperate room by one of the bars by herself. She didn't associated with the other members. It was just the two of us and the bartender. After I did the 'Lenny and Squiggy palm bite' I mustered up the courage to go sit down and talk to her. We were trading band stories and said she'd been singing in bands professionally for 15 years. I swear she didn't look a day over 20 but man could she sing. She was off a couple times so I know at least the singing was live.

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Sheesh, I feel so cheated when I hear a band that plays with backing tracks.

OK, I can make an exception for solo acts because they're not trying to fool anybody. I can also make an exception for a band like Nightwish because it's unrealistic to expect them to show up with a full orchestra and choir. But a 5,6 or 7-piece wedding/bar band? They have everything they need to play it for real. 

A local casino used to regularly host a band that would take on the personas of different bands on different nights. To my amazement, the audience didn't question where the brass section was that everyone could clearly hear. I spent the whole time trying to figure out which parts were live and which were recorded. Needless to say, they didn't take requests or otherwise switch up their set list.

Personally, I just wouldn't / couldn't do it. I make so little money playing in a band that it has to be fun or why bother.

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2 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Sheesh, I feel so cheated when I hear a band that plays with backing tracks.

OK, I can make an exception for solo acts because they're not trying to fool anybody. I can also make an exception for a band like Nightwish because it's unrealistic to expect them to show up with a full orchestra and choir. But a 5,6 or 7-piece wedding/bar band? They have everything they need to play it for real. 

A local casino used to regularly host a band that would take on the personas of different bands on different nights. To my amazement, the audience didn't question where the brass section was that everyone could clearly hear. I spent the whole time trying to figure out which parts were live and which were recorded. Needless to say, they didn't take requests or otherwise switch up their set list.

Personally, I just wouldn't / couldn't do it. I make so little money playing in a band that it has to be fun or why bother.

Yeah!  You might as well just play the song and put a few good-looking people out in front pretending!

Or...  When it's the other way around and the "band" accidentally plays the wrong singer track on live TV...

BadAshlee.jpg

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Well, yeh, there was that particularly embarrassing episode. She wanted to be a pop star and instead became a meme.

But it's television producers that forced acts to lip-sync, going back to the 60's. It was all for control, to assure consistent and predictable audio for broadcast. Here's a great band pretending to perform for TV. Note the wireless guitars, the phantom acoustic guitar, the incredible pickup patterns of the Beyer mics. You know it wasn't the band's decision to fake it - they were a great live band.

 

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10 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Sheesh, I feel so cheated when I hear a band that plays with backing tracks.

It's possible they weren't, but I have never heard a band so tight before. Maybe being from the big apple the bar is a lot higher and there's a better talent pool to form a group from? IDK. They even had a full sized sound shield in front of the drummer.

I noticed when they started, the low mids were brutal. A guy came out from the back of the stage area. He had an iPad and was walking around the room making adjustments to their sound system with it and got it cleared up before the first song ended. That was the only time I saw him. The singers had iPads on their mic stands too.

There were two small column like monitors that they were all mixed through. There was a drummer, bass, sax, lead guitar player, lead singer/acoustic player, keyboard, and a second lead singer. It was all controlled via an iPad wirelessly. 

I've been thinking about playing live again but after seeing that kind of competition I think I'll just slink back in to my hole and find another hobby.

I'd be a hypocrite if I cried foul though. Toward the end of my band days we prerecorded tracks and played along. At least we did it old school. It was me playing all the backing tracks on an 8 track I then transferred to DAT and we didn't hide it. And we did do about half of the night 100% live.

But it's accepted now and the norm I guess.

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