JoCo Live/With Band

edited November 2014 in Everything Else
You know, the whole "with a band" project kind of took me by surprise. The intricacy of the lyrics in Jonathan's songwriting
and the quality of his voice just seemed to demand the more gentle and subtle quality that a solo/acoustic performance
can offer. But, still I thought hey, why not? Art is creative. It's good for artists to try creative stuff. Why not try it? It might
be fun and different to hear some songs presented in that format. I'm sorry to say that I never made it to any of the band
shows, but I finally got to check out the live/band thing today and I have to say, it just didn't set well with me. Jonathan's
voice felt forced...he couldn't sing but kind of had to yell out to be heard over the band. And, while the musical component
was more energetic and lively, I found the subtlety of the lyrics to kind of be drowned out over the sound. This is not to say
that Jonathan shouldn't play with a band....maybe a band comprised of different sorts of instruments or a different kind of
format. Overall, I just could not handle the results of the whole project. It was just too loud, too much. If JoCo tries future
creative projects involving other musicians, I really hope they are of some sort of folk/acoustic rather than rock variety.
Of course, the solo/acoustic stuff seems a natural fit, is what we are accustomed to and for me works well, too.
Anyway, just throwing it out there as food for discussion.

Comments

  • edited November 2014
    I must admit that I agree with you to a point @AmandaDandy.    I am often of the opinion that live shows with drums/bass tend to over produce the sound of percussion and bass to the point where it's pretty much all you'll hear.   You can lose out on lyrics and melody pretty easily.  My ears are not made for the general bass and drum thumping and I will sometimes wear special ear plugs to dampen the sound/protect my ears.    I haven't listened to the new Live album so I don't have a reference point other than being AT live shows, but with Jonathan's song repertoire, I think that not all of them lend themselves to the "band" format.   I also find that I generally (not always for sure) prefer studio recordings to live ones.   I've held off purchasing the album mainly because I already own perfectly lovely tracks of the songs that I listen to fairly regularly.

    I find that I've enjoyed Jonathan's live shows with band and haven't really found the need to "earplug up" as it were.  I don't know if it's due to the excellence of Christian and Adam, the diligence of the venue's sound engineer, the venue's acoustics, or some combination of the three.   I do love it even more when Jonathan chooses to play unplugged as folk/acoustic is where my music heart mostly dwells.



    As always with music, your mileage WILL vary....  :)
  • The first time I saw him with band he was opening for They Might Be Giants and the drums really overpowered the mix. The second time was at the show where much of the album was recorded I remember thinking the drums had been pulled back a little but they were still very forward. The mix is much better on the album though so that's cool. 
    Overall I think the band mix works good for most songs. Still not of fan of Je Sui Rick Springfield tho.

  • Speaking of They Might Be Giants, I felt similarly when they went to having a full band instead of the synth.  I've never quite gotten into them as much, post-band.  But I just listened to the Live album and I don't have the same concerns with JoCo.  I'm still able to hear the harmonies and overall found it to be very enjoyable.

    Though I have to complain about the Zombie-ist tone Jonathan takes frequently.  Zombies can sing too!
  • Yeah, 'JoCo Live' is such a zombieist title. I mean, why couldn't he just call it 'JoCo'? Why'd he have to make a point of saying he's still alive? And don't get me started on that Portal song.

    I enjoy his acoustic shows with Paul and Storm, and was glad to still be able to see acoustic shows over here when people in the US only got band shows, but I enjoy the band shows as well and am glad I've had the opportunity to see them on the cruise. It was pretty crazy for me the first time, seeing so many new people making new noises and voices that weren't JoCo's or Paul and Storm's. Band shows are not so easy to film though, and a lot of the early videos of the band had maxed out sound which made them pretty difficult to listen to, so I'm glad there's now a clean, professionally edited recording of the live band show.

    Incidentally, my CD arrived yesterday.
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