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Hi all,
Last night the level of musicianship and interplay at this show was incredible, the song selections were great – love Preacher in the Ring parts 1 & 2 together, thank you! Town hall is a really nice venue – good size, good acoustics. Loved the show, hope someone has a set list.
Here’s what I can’t figure out: during the music the crowd was basically silent and seated. There was no lack of whooping requests and banter between songs, but while the Noisemakers were busting out their trademark stank it was a house of quietly bobbing heads. Granted, house security kept pushing the handful of dancers away to a small area in the side aisle, but where’s the juice, folks?
I recently heard Christian McBride talking at a show recorded a few years ago, asking why Jazz audiences have gotten “so polite”. I go to jazz clubs in NYC and get what he’s saying. There’s got to be a line between respecting the musicians and the audience who are there to hear the sounds and giving some energy back to the band.
Is it a NY thing? Was it just this crowd? Are Manhattan crowds too cool to whoop it up? I only get to Bruce’s NY area shows…my memories (aud recordings) from the last 8-9 years sound livelier than last night. Let me know, people, and thanks!
*This just in: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=528474&viewcomm=432923#comm432923
I was at the show last night too. Bruce and the band surely were giving their all. Musically, it was a terrific night.
However, I made the same observation as you. It was a “polite” audience. I was one of the few really bouncing in my seat. I noticed some dancing going on along the far wall behind my line of sight, but I also noticed that it didn’t last. Surprising, since someone in the hall called out indicating that people wanted to dance and Bruce acknowledged that folks could dance over in the side aisles. I don’t know if it dwindled or if security shut it down.
Perhaps the fact that the venue was so small was at play. I did a little moving around to get a couple of different photo angles, but I was concerned that moving much would disturb others so I tried to get myself parked.
It certainly was a receptive, enthusiastic and appreciative audience…but as far as dancing goes, pretty restrained.
The thing I noticed last night was how seemingly indifferent the audience was to what Bruce and the Noisemakers were creating onstage. People were wandering in and out of the auditorium all the time. I would have to say that Peekskill in August was much more engaging just because the audience was so much more into it. Go figure.
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sunflowerkat119 wrote:I was one of the few really bouncing in my seat. .It was pretty funny for me, I was next to this great couple that had flown in the same day from Manchester (UK), this was their first Bruce show and they were jazzed about seeing the band. She was just dumbfounded…after WWL she yelled out in a thick northern accent, “Are you all brain dead? That was AMAZING!” She just couldn’t figure the crowd out.
I guess sometimes you dance, sometime you trance…
Sound problems at Town Hall
My guess is that at least part of the reason the crowd seemed less into it was because they couldn’t really hear it. I’ve seen dozens of shows in theatres that size over the years–including several of Bruce’s shows with this band–and this was by FAR the worst I’ve ever heard a room like this sound. I hate to say it, but it was almost get-your-money-back bad.
I was sitting in the first 15 rows of the orchestra, and you could barely hear Bruce’s voice or the upper register of the piano when the whole band was playing. JT’s Hammond keyboard was nearly inaudible; Sonny’s drums seemed inadequately baffled (does he always play with his hi-hat side completely open? the hat and snare were crazy loud as a result); and Bobby Reed might as well not have been onstage for how impossible it was to hear him do anything but solo on sax. My friend (another musician) went up to try the balcony, which he said was no better. It even seemed like the band was having trouble hearing on stage–there looked to be a much greater-than-usual number of adjustment requests from the band members to the monitor mixer throughout the show.
So some of the lack of electricity among the crowd may well have been how lousy and boomy the room sounded. Weird and disappointing.
On the plus side, the Wood Brothers (http://www.thewoodbrothers.com), who opened, were a phenomenal surprise and sounded great. I highly recommend seeing them live, but if you can’t, their record “Ways Not to Lose” seems to capture their rootsy two-man Southern folk-blues revival sound perfectly.
“Here’s what I can’t figure out: during the music the crowd was basically silent and seated. There was no lack of whooping requests and banter between songs”
God I hope that isn’t how the crowd will be at the two shows Im going to.
I hope the people that are sitting behind can deal with me and my friends rocking out as I don’t do sit down shows when its with the Noisemakers…sorry. I can understand a solo show but not when he’s with the band.
You want to see a live show from your seats go sit up in the nosebleeds. Both my seats are front row and eighth row and I will refuse to sit, plus I am driving more than 3 hours to each show.I heard Bruce plenty of times on recordings rip on the crowd for just sitting on their asses.
I have mostly seen Bruce and the Noisemakers at general admission shows so I never had to deal with sitters at those shows.
The two shows I am attending are reserved seat shows so hopefully the crowd isn’t going to be lame and sit there and force me to either sit down or get yelled at through out the show by the sitters behind me who cant see.
Please don’t sit at shows with the band, its disrespectful to them. Show some gratitude and dance. They feed of that energy and play harder, with a lame crowd they may become as bored as you look.Please dance!
si_twining wrote:What were their names?Sorry, Si. Didn’t catch their names. But you can catch up with them at tomorrow’s show at Giant’s Stadium. Apparently some *other* Bruce is playing there
Re: Sound problems at Town Hall
jedodes wrote:My guess is that at least part of the reason the crowd seemed less into it was because they couldn’t really hear it. I’ve seen dozens of shows in theatres that size over the years–including several of Bruce’s shows with this band–and this was by FAR the worst I’ve ever heard a room like this sound. I hate to say it, but it was almost get-your-money-back bad.I was a little further back and the sound was no worse than other Noisemakers shows I’ve attended, but I recognize some of the symptoms you described. The balcony recording on eTree (link above) actually sounds better than it did at my seats. Go figure.
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