My wife bought us as an anniversary gift tickets to the Sept. 30, David Byrne / St. Vincent concert at The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD.
The Strathmore is a really fine concert hall, alternate home to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. And parking, access to the hall, food and drink amenities, etc. are all very accommodating in comparison to many venues. Having "hung up my hat" regarding large stadium and arena shows in general, the idea of seeing "the thinking man's rocker" with fellow avant-garde musician St. Vincent on a Sunday evening had a lot of appeal to me.
I am told that it is becoming more common at concerts these days for artists to allow - and even encourage - recording and picture taking. Still, this was my first experience of that. So I certainly found it refreshing when Byrne, before the show started, came over the PA and gave that message. I liked how he added, "But I encourage you to not get too caught up with you devices, and enjoy the live show." It made for a nice relaxed yet enthusiastic readiness for the start of the set.
However, to our dismay, the sound during the first half of the show was "boomy," at least back in our section (these concert halls are supposedly perfected to make every seat an acoustic pleasure, hmmm). The bad sound was made all the worse with the unusual band combination of a large (to my mind, too large) brass section. And furthermore, St. Vincent's cool fuzzy guitar riffs were inaudible. I couldn't help but keep thinking back to stories (perhaps apocryphal?) over the years of how Bruce Springsteen always checks out the sound from all sections of a venue during the sound check. That would seem de rigeur to me and obviously didn't occur before this performance.
And while I appreciate -- and was looking forward to -- experimentation (e.g. one of my favorite albums of all time is David Byrne's collaboration with Brian Eno on "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts"), all the songs in this concert came off sounding the same. By the time intermission arrived, I thought, "No wonder he doesn't mind songs being recorded and posted to YouTube -- who would want to?" Sorry, David.
But then after the intermission, things changed. It appeared that someone had addressed the sound issue, and the songs, at least to my mind, started having their own individuality.
Still, I am not sure the collaboration of Byrne with St. Vincent is remarkable, since for me the highlights of the show were songs from their individual pasts.
I particularly liked St. Vincent's "Cheerleader" from her Strange Mercy album,
and I have since bought the song on iTunes. It's become one of my favorites.
And sure enough, there was the Talking Heads anthem, "Burning Down the House." I agree with the Post reviewer of the concert who said that the crowd was chomping at the bit to get up dance. Yep, out came my camera during that classic Talking Heads song:
The triple encores were also very cool, so yeah, in the end, the concert finished as a net positive for me.
Of course, even had it not, just the evening out with my wife would have made it all worthwhile. ;-)
BTW, I am the Marketing Director at Chesapeake Systems in Baltimore these days, and I am having a blast. I post on the company website some of my articles from my monthly "Sales and Marketing Minute" column for the TIVA media organization, (Television, Internet and Video Association). Here's a link to one titled, "Is everyone on your team thinking like a salesperson?"
The Strathmore is a really fine concert hall, alternate home to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. And parking, access to the hall, food and drink amenities, etc. are all very accommodating in comparison to many venues. Having "hung up my hat" regarding large stadium and arena shows in general, the idea of seeing "the thinking man's rocker" with fellow avant-garde musician St. Vincent on a Sunday evening had a lot of appeal to me.
I am told that it is becoming more common at concerts these days for artists to allow - and even encourage - recording and picture taking. Still, this was my first experience of that. So I certainly found it refreshing when Byrne, before the show started, came over the PA and gave that message. I liked how he added, "But I encourage you to not get too caught up with you devices, and enjoy the live show." It made for a nice relaxed yet enthusiastic readiness for the start of the set.
However, to our dismay, the sound during the first half of the show was "boomy," at least back in our section (these concert halls are supposedly perfected to make every seat an acoustic pleasure, hmmm). The bad sound was made all the worse with the unusual band combination of a large (to my mind, too large) brass section. And furthermore, St. Vincent's cool fuzzy guitar riffs were inaudible. I couldn't help but keep thinking back to stories (perhaps apocryphal?) over the years of how Bruce Springsteen always checks out the sound from all sections of a venue during the sound check. That would seem de rigeur to me and obviously didn't occur before this performance.
And while I appreciate -- and was looking forward to -- experimentation (e.g. one of my favorite albums of all time is David Byrne's collaboration with Brian Eno on "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts"), all the songs in this concert came off sounding the same. By the time intermission arrived, I thought, "No wonder he doesn't mind songs being recorded and posted to YouTube -- who would want to?" Sorry, David.
But then after the intermission, things changed. It appeared that someone had addressed the sound issue, and the songs, at least to my mind, started having their own individuality.
Still, I am not sure the collaboration of Byrne with St. Vincent is remarkable, since for me the highlights of the show were songs from their individual pasts.
I particularly liked St. Vincent's "Cheerleader" from her Strange Mercy album,
and I have since bought the song on iTunes. It's become one of my favorites.
And sure enough, there was the Talking Heads anthem, "Burning Down the House." I agree with the Post reviewer of the concert who said that the crowd was chomping at the bit to get up dance. Yep, out came my camera during that classic Talking Heads song:
The triple encores were also very cool, so yeah, in the end, the concert finished as a net positive for me.
Of course, even had it not, just the evening out with my wife would have made it all worthwhile. ;-)
BTW, I am the Marketing Director at Chesapeake Systems in Baltimore these days, and I am having a blast. I post on the company website some of my articles from my monthly "Sales and Marketing Minute" column for the TIVA media organization, (Television, Internet and Video Association). Here's a link to one titled, "Is everyone on your team thinking like a salesperson?"
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