Live-streaming has currently levelled up in my opinion. Gone are the days of dudes hanging out in their living rooms with subpar cameras and sound equipment…now it has become a really good experience from the comfort of my sofa.
Case in point, I checked out the Matt Mays livestreams this past weekend which was put on by Sonic Records/Concerts. For $20 I get a password which gets me access to a webpage to watch the livestream. This livestream can be delivered in 1080p and I encountered only one minor hiccup in the feed near the end of the second night. Actually, now that I think of it, I was watching on both my iPad and iPhone and the iPhone feed kept freezing for some reason. Strange?
You might think it’s odd that I am watching on two devices. Well, how about three? I had one iPad hooked up to the TV via an HDMI adapter. Then I had another iPad recording the concert. Then I had my iphone recording the concert as a backup if the iPad didn’t work.
Both days had the iPad emerge as the victor over the iPhone in terms of recording. It never dropped it’s connection. Strange isn’t it?
Anyhow, back to the livestream. Great quality, great soundboard feed…live-streaming has become a really great experience for me considering I have no other alternatives at the moment. The only issue I’m starting to have with livestreams is that there are starting to be too many of them! I missed a Trews concert going on at the exact same time and this upcoming weekend we have a double header of Pearl Jam and Big Wreck. So many choices! But that’s not a bad thing is it?
Two thumbs up for the livestream future. I believe this will become a new alternate source of revenue for bands if the amount of people paying to watch offsets the costs of running the livestream. I can only imagine a film crew is not cheap.
A note about the Matt Mays concerts at the Shore Club
I tuned in to both nights of Matt Mays because a) I want to support the band b) I didn’t have anything else going on and c) It’s Matt Mays. Always a good time, he will deliver.
But here’s the thing…the set list was pretty much the same except for one song. This makes sense considering they got the band back together during a pandemic and were only playing four gigs at the Shore Club.
Now, as a guy who spent money on watching the concerts, I was a little disappointed that the set list didn’t vary.
But I can’t really fault a band on this…a lot of bands play the same set list night after night. Look at U2! It’s the exact same show for 200 dates in a year.
Watching the same set list over two nights did give me a unique perspective into what I have theorized as the “ebb and flow of a touring band”.
The ebb and flow of a touring band
I theorize that most bands go through a cycle (maybe this even occurs in any live entertainment industry like theatre?).
The first show(s)
The jitters are there, they’ve been practising for awhile now and it’s showtime! Issues do arise (hopefully minor!) like hitting a chord at the wrong time or forgetting the odd lyric but for the most part, it goes ok.
The next show(s)
This is when the band gets their groove on. They are familiar with the material and all is good. They are as we call it, a well-oiled machine. This can either translate to a second show or if you look at a year long tour, the first third of the tour.
The grind
When you’re passed the first third of the tour, that’s when things get a little relaxed. Maybe the band has grown tired of playing the same songs every night…it’s the same routine and they are getting tired of it. Mistakes creep in, they laugh it off but it seems just a little bit more sloppy. I feel this is what I witnessed when I saw the Matt Mays livestream of August 28th. It was a great show but I felt sometimes they were going through some motions.
The final night
Considering I saw Matt Mays play both the 28th and the 29th, I would say that the band was a different beast on the final night. They were tighter, everything was coming together and they had a force to them. I think the final night can go both ways though…in the theatre world it’s quite common that the last night of a show is when things get looser…the actors have fun with the show and pull pranks and maybe have a few more drinks than usual. In the music world, I can only assume that it can go either way…you’re either on fire knowing that this is the last hurrah of the tour and so you give it your all, or it’s the most loosey goosey concert there ever was. I’ve seen both over time and they are equally great to watch.
Even though I was watching the same songs as the night before, I was paying a lot more attention to the show on the final night because of the energy being put out on the stage.
In conclusion, I was not overly disappointed with paying another $20 to see the same songs being played because a) I probably would have been paying $50 to see just one night in real life b) the show was the better of the two so I’m glad I didn’t miss it.