If you just watched the clip on a phone or computer, you will not get the immersive sense of being there that a high end home theatre provides. I will leave it at that.
Just on the op first post. I can’t agree. I’d rather listen to any original performer at home, than any tribute act live.
On the general point I’ve been to some fantastic live performances, warts and all, but then I’ve been to a couple where the act just wasn’t in touch with each other, let alone the audience. 
Listening to this now: Tchaikovsky -Symphony No.6
and going to this tomorrow: NSOI: Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’
National Symphony Orchestra Ireland
Ryan McAdams, conductor
Martin Johnson, cello
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Watched it on a tablet and I would entirely agree but my point was about the fact that you just can’t get anything immersive or with a sense of being there when the thing itself is all close up head and shoulder shots. Nothing could shout louder to me “I am a film. You are not there. You are watching a film.” No system can fix that.
If you want atmosphere, have a listen to this live album in a pub called the deer head inn…
Jarrett, Motian, Peacock.
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Listened to Don Giovanni at Vienna Opera recently. Very expensive seats. Not impressed at all with the sound. The experience was very nice of course. Live is more about atmosphere and connecting with the artists and their performance and giving them credit rather than sound for me.
It depends what you are after. In terms of atmosphere and event, then sure, nothing beats a live performance. I attend several each year.
But for sound quality? I find live all live performances fairly lacking.
- Anything amped is always too loud and very painful.
- Anything un amped like in a close quarters jazz venue tends to always sound like one drummer and their backup band - percussion being so much lounder than anything else. They can play softer but then it sounds like they are asleep.
- Anything that requires a large venue for thousands of people generally gets beyond too loud and into “I have no idea what the lyrics are or even what language it might be” territory. It starts to become a smear of sound.
- Classical concerts where I’m a bit farther back, require me to squint and try very hard to “see” which member of the orchestra is performing a solo section because real life music is more diffuse in terms of sound stage - which is generally an artificially created aspect of recording and production. Far left or far right of the orchestra, they sound more or less just vaguely in front of me.
I tend to manage my expectations accordingly. The sound pressure induced pain is now so unbearable I don’t attend concerts or Jazz clubs at all anymore. I do attend classical concerts with the family a few times a year though classical is really not my cup of tea. The only real exception is outdoor un amped performances. They tend to be clear, well balanced, and comfortable.
With the sole exception of outdoor un amped performances, I find the sound quality through my hifi superior in every way. Good post production and the right volume level count for a lot.
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In your opinion, I happen to like the close ups.
I don’t “dislike” them. Given my sight loss they can be helpful. What they’re not is “immersive” and I sure as heck don’t see how they’d give anyone a sense of “being there” unless being there meant you were on the stage with a camera.
It doesn’t have to be bad. We went to see Claire Martin - one of Britain’s top jazz singers - with the bass and trombone player Laurence Cottle last night, at our local arts centre, The Spring in Havant. It seats about 140 and we were in the front row. They were both amplified, with two simple stacks with subs at the bottom and the main speakers on poles higher up. The volume was perfect and the sound quality stunning. The venue has a really good sound system and an excellent sound man called Dan. Being at the front we could see and hear every detail. It was just brilliant. We paid £25 each and I bought a couple of pints of beer, which I could take into the auditorium. For jazz you need beer. You’ll never in a million years get this experience at home. It’s just about choosing your venue.
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I generally find live performances of ‘rock’ bands fairly underwhelming from a sq point of view particularly in large venues. What can be great though is a gig in a small intimate venue as long as the PA is set up and managed properly. The one that always impresses me is a live orchestra where the depth and dynamics are rarely replicated in a recording to the same extent
I hate stadium/ arena gigs as you end up looking at the screens because the artists are just specs in the distance. The sound is usually naff especially arenas as they tend to echo .
Give me a smaller city hall,theatre type venue every time
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I agree but equally the “sound quality” isn’t why I go to gigs. I go to see an artist hopefully at the peak of their powers and either doing great versions of great songs or reinventing them in ways which make you wish they’d recorded it that way. If the sound quality is also great then that’s a bonus but if we want live music then to a large degree it’s not just about the quality of those working a sound desk, It’s about accepting imperfect venues. Some examples:
Bridgewater Hall in Manchester - large soulless venue with poor sound quality in about 70% of the venue. Hit the 30% and you might be fine but unless you’re obsessed with classical music they’ve found few go there more than once unless it’s for a performer you might not see elsewhere. I saw Nina Simone there and it was awful. I saw Rickie Lee Jones and it was near perfect bar a weird set list.
MEN/AO Arena in Manchester - 17,500 people, Never had a stalls seat. Saw Springsteen there. It was perfunctory. Saw R.E.M. there and they were superb. Saw Nick Cave there and I’ve seen few better gigs anywhere.
Deaf Institute in Manchester - small venue. Absolutely the wrong shape for music. Sound generally never better than average. Have had my highest percentage of magical nights there more than anywhere.
The best gig I ever saw - Blondie at Deeside Leisure Centre - has gone down in history as a night when the sound went so horrifically wrong they added a date at the end of the tour to say sorry. In reality their performance that night, allied to a febrile atmosphere, was quite extraordinary. The return was dull.
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When I was at Bangor University, there were three of us big Blondie fans. We only got two tickets for the Deeside show and picked the tickets literally out of a hat. I didn’t go. But did see Madness there and they were just brilliant.
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I was at the Madness gig. Happy times. Indeed most of them as my Dad played squash with the Leisure Centre manager so we had two free tickets per gig.
Two support acts too - Clive Langer & the Boxes and then - I think - the Go Gos. Memory may be telling fibs of course.
I do remember having a spare ticket. One of us couldn’t go and it was really hard to sell it even though the gig was sold out. I only wanted face value, so my mate didn’t lose out. People looked at me like some gangland criminal. You don’t get that much fun sitting at home.
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Nope, that’s spot on. Also makes sense given who Suggs married a year later. I think it was Clive who introduced them.
That’s my view too. The sheer power of the conclusion of Mahler’s Resurrection symphony or the opening of Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony with a large orchestra and chorus in Mancheater’s Bridgewater Hall can be quite overwhelming in a way that no hifi and recording, however good, can convey. And both performances have been recorded. Similarly, Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols performed in the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge has an atmosphere that simply has to be experienced live.
But if I want to hear right into a piece, how little orchestral details fit together, for example, or I’m trying to appreciate the contributions of individual members of a choir, I find a recording much better suited. And if I want to really learn a piece by hearing it repeatedly, it has to be a recording, of course.
So I don’t find live “better” than a recording, or vice versa. They’re different experiences, both have value and I’m very thankful that I’m in a position to be able to enjoy both.
Roger
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The concert hall was way better than at home. Maybe it is just that an orchestra is better live?
We once went to see Don McLean in a venue with about 1000: seats. What a terrible concert he just sat and sang in middle of a large stage on his own.
It would have been much better in a small venue
It was soulless but good for catching up,with your sleep.
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