Review - The O2 Dome
When I changed this blog the other week, it was my intention to use it to mutter mindlessly about various musical or performing arts activities that touch my life.
This update focuses on my recent trip to a Scissor Sisters gig at the O2 (former Millennium) Dome in Greenwich, London. It was fun but it also taught me a few things and reminded me of a few others.
Either the O2 Dome is a really shite place to diffuse music, they had a really shite set-up or the sound engineers had no ears. It really was shocking. OK it's a huge space with fair expanses of flat shiny concrete but anyone with any knowledge of the physics of sound could ahve predicted what challenges it would impose (I'm not a professional sound engineer but my basic prediction of the potential problems was pretty accurate) and how to get around them.
Unfortunately, it appears that either the guys looking after the sound either didn't have this basic knowledge, didn't have the necessary skills to use this knowledge or didn't have the resources to use the knowledge and skills to full effect. Whatever the reasons, I would have been pretty pissed off if I was Producing or Managing a group of performers whose output was projected so badly and I'd be asking some pretty uncompromising questions after the gig.
I don't expect studio quality sound or the same detail in the mix when I'm at a live performance, but I do expect to be able to hear when a trumpet, trombone and sax are playing, rather than have to rely on my eyes to tell me that they are! I expect a basic overall balance where you can hear some of the detail and you can distinguish between different timbres in the mix.
What the gig reminded me, though, was that people listen with their eyes. Just about everyone around me, and certainly all the Scissor Sisters die hards thought it was a great gig. The staging, choreography and lighting were fantastic and this played a huge part in bringing people through the gig.
What it taught me was that of you have a good visual show and the audience know the music you're performing, their brains will fill in the gaps and filter out the weaker elements of the show. You have enough of a mix between familiar and new spectacle to draw them into a trance state where their imagination thinks they have experienced something better than the reality presented to them. I was not very familiar with their material so I was not drawn into this trance.
So basically, you can sound shit in a venue that looks good, and provided you look good and your audience knows their stuff, they'll think you're marvelous.
Will I go to the O2 Dome again? Yeah, probably in a couple of years when it's quirks are better known, to see if someone's found a clue and/or the resources to make it sound decent.
This update focuses on my recent trip to a Scissor Sisters gig at the O2 (former Millennium) Dome in Greenwich, London. It was fun but it also taught me a few things and reminded me of a few others.
Either the O2 Dome is a really shite place to diffuse music, they had a really shite set-up or the sound engineers had no ears. It really was shocking. OK it's a huge space with fair expanses of flat shiny concrete but anyone with any knowledge of the physics of sound could ahve predicted what challenges it would impose (I'm not a professional sound engineer but my basic prediction of the potential problems was pretty accurate) and how to get around them.
Unfortunately, it appears that either the guys looking after the sound either didn't have this basic knowledge, didn't have the necessary skills to use this knowledge or didn't have the resources to use the knowledge and skills to full effect. Whatever the reasons, I would have been pretty pissed off if I was Producing or Managing a group of performers whose output was projected so badly and I'd be asking some pretty uncompromising questions after the gig.
I don't expect studio quality sound or the same detail in the mix when I'm at a live performance, but I do expect to be able to hear when a trumpet, trombone and sax are playing, rather than have to rely on my eyes to tell me that they are! I expect a basic overall balance where you can hear some of the detail and you can distinguish between different timbres in the mix.
What the gig reminded me, though, was that people listen with their eyes. Just about everyone around me, and certainly all the Scissor Sisters die hards thought it was a great gig. The staging, choreography and lighting were fantastic and this played a huge part in bringing people through the gig.
What it taught me was that of you have a good visual show and the audience know the music you're performing, their brains will fill in the gaps and filter out the weaker elements of the show. You have enough of a mix between familiar and new spectacle to draw them into a trance state where their imagination thinks they have experienced something better than the reality presented to them. I was not very familiar with their material so I was not drawn into this trance.
So basically, you can sound shit in a venue that looks good, and provided you look good and your audience knows their stuff, they'll think you're marvelous.
Will I go to the O2 Dome again? Yeah, probably in a couple of years when it's quirks are better known, to see if someone's found a clue and/or the resources to make it sound decent.