Monday, July 21, 2008
Cream An Open Letter to Mark Knopfler
Posted by Steve Haruch on Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 9:34 AM
Mark, I've been a wildly enthusiastic fan for over a quarter century. Your work is surpassingly intelligent and artistic, and it includes some of the greatest guitar solos in rock history. After viewing your concert at Ryman last Tuesday, I remain completely puzzled. Did you not realize that the sound levels were inhumanly high, virtually deafening? Now, I can make allowances for large venues (and I have, as I had my eardrums literally blasted during two of your appearances in Vancouver) But this was Ryman! A medium sized venue with great acoustics!! Why would an artist who creates emotion through the power of his beautifully crystalline, intricate playing and wonderfully melodic chording choose to distort the sound and place his entire audience on the verge of auditory pain? What a wasted opportunity! What I heard was horribly distorted, except for a few moments of acoustic bliss near the end. I came to hear Mark Knopfler, and instead I heard a massively distorted facsimile. Sure, I suffered through it. Seeing you live was great. And, you were in top form. Please consider your fans, and DROP THE VOLUME! We want to hear YOU! Jim Steiger Brentwood, TNOkay now, hold the Brentwood jokes for a minute. To Mr. Steiger I would say, first, that the performer doesn't necessarily know how loud it is in the house, so this open letter might be misdirected. Granted, that performer may choose a stage volume that is so loud it forces the sound person to mix everything up to match, resulting in a very loud show. But then, that leads me to my second point, which is: Rock music tends to be on the loud side, and that's how I like it. But, to qualify that statement, (and this is kind of obvious) it's true that The Ryman is good for quieter shows, and not so great for louder shows—the room magnifies certain frequencies that can really enhance an acoustic or relatively quiet performance, but that don't need to be magnified when people are playing through powerful amplifiers. As someone named Jack once said, "Rock shows at The Ryman sound shitty and boomy as hell." Or something like that. To Mr. Steiger's point, Cake's John Mcrea has said, at various times and in various ways, that some music just isn't supposed to be loud, and most music would probably sound better at lower volumes: "For me it’s a practical thing: Can the human ear access this information? Beyond a certain point you're just getting a lot of noise and rumble. To me I'd think you'd want people to have get the information transmitted." (Cake play their shows at a volume most Iron Maiden fans would consider a whisper.)
Comments (26)
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Having been at this show, I'd say this is a totally incorrect summary. It may have come from where Jim Steigler was sitting at the Ryman, but from the balcony everything was nicely-leveled, and surely not "shitty and boomy."
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Just saw on CNN that loud music makes people buy more drinks (on average, one more per night).
maybe people are just having to listen to really BAD loud music. you ever been to Don Pablo's?
What is the loudest show you've ever been to?
My vote goes to the Foo Fighters at 328 back in about 1995. The Weezer at 328 were pretty deafening, too.
I saw Motorhead play in a football stadium once. Lemmy started the show by saying, "We're Motorhead and we're gonna kick your fucking ass." I was at midfield (the stage was in the end zone) and it was so loud I could barely stand it.
The loudest band I ever saw was My Bloody Valentine. It was fucking PAINFUL. Dinosaur Jr. followed them and they were great of course but by then it didn't matter-- my ears were toast for the night. Ouch.
Kevin Shields guitar was even louder than AC/DC's cannons.
I was at that Foo Fighters show. I don't remember it being that loud.
I had to walk out of a Flaming Lips show at The Joint in Las Vegas because it was so loud. I was still (barely) in my 20s, and it made me feel very, very old. I also remember playing a show with The Gaza Strippers at Lucy's, and I had to listen to them from the sidewalk because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hear for our set if I stayed inside.
The Darkness was increadibly loud at Municipal a few years back. Maybe because it was mostly empty, but what a great show for the 15 people who were there!!
Gang of Four, Providence R.I., 1982 (OK, showing my age.) Dave Allen, the bassist, was already going deaf and had on those full-cover airport-grade headphones to protect his ears. Fuck was it loud...
i swear to god. nobody can do it louder than the BASS COPS. at least when it comes to the "brown frequency". 2 years ago they played the end and paid Brad 50 bucks to test the limits of the subs. as a result all 4 of us seriously got a rumble in the gulliver and raced one another to the shitter. nothing louder or deeper to ever come through nashville.
Mission of Burma "Breakfast With Burma" Reunion show at the Paradise in Boston '02. BAAAAAAADDDDDASSSSSSSSSSSS....
Ok, before the "You kids get out of my yard" flaming starts, I'll own up that I'm old.
That said: The loudest show I've ever heard to this day was David Bowie and the Municipal in the mid 70's. You could walk out through the lobby on to the sidewalk in front and it still was deafening.
Great show otherwise.
Keith Richards and the X-pensive Winos at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium was the loudest.
X at the Exit/In on the "More Fun in the New World" tour, 1983. So deafening that John Doe and Exene couldn't even hear the words of hatred they were exchanging between songs.
Runner-up: Ice T and Body Count at 328. And I have friends who staggered out of a Nitro show (remember them?) at Sal's Rock Block and went around for days responding to every question with a quizzical "Whaa?"
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