jedodes

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.