Have Live Albums Declined In Quality?

[Roth-Handle Studios]

With the Necromonkey live bootleg we wanted it to have a bootleg quality to it. Its raw and honest and contains unreleased tracks, improvs and rearranged versions of the tracks. The idea was to show the band in movement, not the endstation. we will never sound like that again but we have a blurry snapshot on cd. I think a lot of bands get the full multichannel from the liveshow and then start tweaking, quantizing and tune it in the studio. Compressing and retuning instruments so every note is heard and equally in tune? To me that kind of kills the whole idea of a livealbum...

[Drake]

Too many overdubbs in general these days.

A modern classic would be Bowie's Live at The Beeb from 2001 (or the year before?). Not that's a live album. Hallo Spaceboy live is something else than the studio version ...

[Jay.Dee]

I suppose some might find that UZ, Magma, Present and other surviving RIO bands have made excellent live albums, but are they mythical??

Not that I've bought many modern prog live albums over the last three decades, but from the ones I tried (Anglagard, Sinkadus, Paatos or Anekdoten), only one is a minor classic (the latter's Live in Japan)

Not sure what qualifies for "mythical" but Univers Zero's recent Live album recorded in 2005 is thoroughly excellent.

[Jay.Dee]

Too many overdubs in general these days.

As far as live recordings go the overdubs were much more frequent in those days (when the giants walked the earth).

[Trane]

Not sure what qualifies for "mythical" but Univers Zero's recent Live album recorded in 2005 is thoroughly excellent.

Love it, of course, but does it have the aura that Made In Japan, or Leeds have in their respective discopgraphies

[Jay.Dee]

Love it, of course, but does it have the aura that Made In Japan, or Leeds have in their respective discographies

Maybe because UZ has not been a mainstream band which was constrained in studio by the show biz rules and had to take it to the stage to play their hearts out.

Anyway, there is no point in comparing hard rocking outfits to hard progging ones. If you look for modern Fillmores, Leeds or Osaka, check Gary Clark Jr "Live", the Brew "Live in Europe", Ben Folds Five "Live", Jimmy Bowskill "Live", Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood "Live", Electric Masada "At the Mountains of Madness", Wilco "Kicking Television", Gomez "Out West", Cato Salsa Experience "Sounds Like a Sandwich" or Derek Trucks "Live at Georgia Theatre", just to name a few picks from this century recorded by contemporary ensembles.

[Trane]

Maybe because UZ has not been a mainstream band which was constrained in studio by the show biz rules and had to take it to the stage to play their hearts out.

Anyway, there is no point in comparing hard rocking outfits to hard progging ones. If you look for modern Fillmores, Leeds or Osakas, check Gary Clark Jr "Live", the Brew "Live in Europe", Ben Folds Five "Live", Jimmy Bowskill "Live", Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood "Live", Electric Masada "At the Mountains of Madness", Wilco "Kicking Television", Gomez "Out West", Cato Salsa Experience "Sounds Like a Sandwich" or Derek Trucks "Live at Georgia Theatre", just to name a few picks from this century recorded by contemporary ensembles.

I get your drift just fine, but....


But to be able to judge how good a live album those are, I'd have to know of the artistes you mention and heard a few studio albums of theirs... and (maybe sadly) it isn't really the case with your list, if you'll except Zorn's Masada (ggod album indeed) ... and Scofield's name (but not that particular project)... and Truck's as well

[Jay.Dee]

But to be able to judge how good a live album those are, I'd have to know of the artistes you mention and heard a few studio albums of theirs...

I usually do it the other way round with new/unknown rock acts: I go to concerts unprepared and/or fetch live recordings first and based on that I evaluate if I want to dig deeper. However, in many cases of interest live recordings blow away the contrived overproduced studio output. Gary Clark Jr's studio albums are a pale shade of his live incarnation, the Brew or Gomez are just undistinguished trad/indie rock bands in studio, Scofield&Medeski studio collaborations bore me to death, Ben Folds outside the stage is just another indie singer-songwriter (albeit with good songs), etc

Hence my physical collection is divided into a huge selection of live stuff and select few studio masterpieces. If a performer do/did not convincingly cut it live on stage and have no genuine studio gems in their discography (unsurpassed in a live setting), you won't find them on my shelves.

[Trane]

Scofield&Medeski studio collaborations bore me to death,

Totally agree that in post-70's jazz, it's better to see it live than having those slick over-produced soporific studio jazz albums

But in that case, as you say, better see them livethan listening to a live album.

[Jay.Dee]

But in that case, as you say, better see them live than listening to a live album.

I actually saw Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood in action here in Barcelona. Not their best night IMO, the live album is much better.

However the audience went agog and for Scofield it must have been a rare occasion to feel like Hendrix or Clapton at the peak of counterculture era, facing an ecstatic crowd of dancing and hollering fans. He looked quite mesmerised ripping one impassioned (albeit atypically erratic) solo after another over the raging Medeski's Hammond.