LOUSY SOUND AT LIVE CONCERTS


I went to a concert at Bank America Pavillion in Boston last night. I saw Tedeschi and Trucks, and The Black Crows. A terrific concert; The Tedeschi and Trucks Band was especially terrific.

Unfortunately, these bands sound better in my living room than at this beautiful, outdoor venue.

Many venues have extremely poor acoustics and/or poor sound systems. The music is often terribly distorted, details and nuances of the instrumentals and voices are lost. The sound presents as a congealed distorted mess. The art of these incredibly talented musicians cannot be fully appreciated without clear sound. Listening to music in these crappy venues is like looking at masterpiece paintings in dimly lit museums with dirty glasses. The colors, details and brush strokes are indistinct. The artistic genius cannot be fully appreciated. The Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA., Fenway Park and The Boston Garden are just as bad as The Bank Of America Pavillion, if not worse.

I am frustrated with these venues that cannot provide great sound to accompany the great music. What is the sense of attending live concerts if the sound quality sucks. Does anyone else share my frustration?
matjet

Showing 7 responses by tostadosunidos

A lot of sound men blew out their ears years ago.
That, and they first work on getting the drums as loud as possible and then do the same with the bass. There's no room left to stack the mid-to-high-range instruments at the top, resulting in a distorted, cacophonous mess.
Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead have long (since early 70's) been the exception regarding quality of live sound. Those two bands set the standard for what is possible in a large venue.
But, as you said, you were in the sweet spot--what about the other thousands who were not?
At one outdoors concert (Los Lobos in Austin, TX) some years back my wife and I got up to leave because the sound was so bad (and we love that band). When we had made it 2/3 of the way back we noticed that the sound had improved considerably from how it had been near the front. We sat down and finished the show. I'd never had that experience.
Opening acts usually don't sound as good as the headliner. I've long assumed that they basically are not allowed to have stellar sound so as not to compete with the main attraction.
Lenny, you may know that sound inside Bass used to suck horribly but they closed the place down and re-did it. The sound is much improved. Many thanks to whoever is responsible for this!