What Makes a Great Live Show?

Bands now make a lot of their income through live performances, with ticket sales paying better than album sales. Seeing a band live is an entirely different experience to listening to a studio recording, or even listening to a live album. A myriad of different factors affect the feeling that you walk away with from a gig. But what exactly makes a great live show? In this entry I'll try and answer that question, using examples from past gigs I've attended.

Great Music

This seems obvious, and it is, but that doesn't make it any less important. Good studio releases are crucial to enjoying a band live. After all, if you don't like their music, you're not going to enjoy watching the band live. For me, and many others, really knowing the bands music well, being able to sing along to all the classics, makes the experience even more intense.

A Talented Frontman/Frontwoman

In bands that aren't instrumental, the person who sings the main part, or the frontman, is a focal point for the crowd. It's not that the other members of the band aren't noticed or appreciated, but it's the job of the vocalist to get the crowd going and to make sure that the metaphorical gap between the band and the audience is bridged by the strength of their stage presence. An example of a frontman who has no shortage of this stage power is Iron Maiden's singer, Bruce Dickinson. I saw Iron Maiden at Sonisphere 2010 (see my articles on Sonisphere 2010 for more information), they headlined the Sunday night and brought the festival to a close. Iron Maiden were fantastic, and this is in no small part due to Dickinson's immense stage presence. He's very energetic, never in one place for very long, enjoying leaping about the stage scenery. Furthermore he'll get the crowd going. A notable instance of this was when Iron Maiden played Sanctuary on their Live After Death live album. Part way through the song they paused save for the basic riff of the song; Bruce then went on to split the audience in two and pit them against each other in a contest to see who was the loudest. While this isn't a technique unique to Iron Maiden, it does take a certain calibre to pull off. So it's an example of the need for a skilled frontman to make the crowd scream.

By Scott Penner [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31648498@N00/4770564075


Energy

Having energy in studio work and having energy on stage aren't necessarily the same thing. If a band has really great music, as described above, it really helps their live performance. However even if their music is fantastic the live show can suffer because they lack the stage presence necessary to deliver a great performance. A band that has such sheer power and presence the audience is blown away with gale force winds is Gallows. Having currently released two studio records, Gallows are one of the best live acts in the UK. They're that good. The raw tenacity of the vocals and riffs tears the ears of the listeners... in a good way. I saw them back in 2009 and I still consider it to be one of the best gigs I've ever been to. They're playing Sonisphere 2011 (blog posts to come) and I won't be missing them for anything. This year they're playing on the second stage which isn't their usual environment, they're used to playing in small indoor venues and tents, so it should be interesting to see how they fair on a large stage. I have no doubt whatsoever that they won't do anything but rule the stage.

An Amazing Show

Many bands try to put on a show for the crowd. This is often done with a simple light show that's in time with the music. However some bands go further. For instance Alice Cooper often has a whole horror performance with his songs integrates within it, making his live shows more like a musical. He calls it his "Theatre of Death". He played Sonisphere UK 2010 and it worked very well. Another band who specialise in putting on a show while they play are German Industrial metallers Rammstein. For their show at Sonisphere UK last year they brought in 200 tonnes of pyrotechnics. The heat from the stage was intense and could be felt metres away.

By =Gustavo Rivas Valderrama from temuco, chile (Rammstein - feuer) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24890185@N05/2503149979

A Good Crowd

If the band are rubbish you less likely to enjoy the gig, that much is obvious. But what about the crowd? Imagine if you've been waiting for ages to see your favourite band and when that day finally arrives the crowd around you won't stop booing for no reason, are constantly heckling the performers, and fights are always breaking out. This will ruin the atmosphere and affect the extent to which you can appreciate the live performance. If the crowd are the opposite, if they enjoy the music, don't heckle very much, and are generally very friendly, the atmosphere can be great. One of the lovely aspects of going to see live music is the people you meet. Before you meet them you know that you'll have a shared interest, the music you're going to see, and you can have some great conversations and make new friends. Festivals are even better at this element as you spend several days surrounded by people who like similar music to you. So the crowd can play a large role in determining how much you enjoy the whole experience.

Weather

I thought I'd give the elements an honourable mention. Now this may not be a problem for those of you who life in places where the weather is consistently warm and dry and the sky sparkles in the sun and everyone's smiling all the time. Well that's not always the case here. In the UK outside events always run the risk of being rained on. While it's still possible to enjoy gigs in the rain, it's a fact that they're easier to enjoy if it's at least dry. At the moment I'm currently hoping that the beginning of July will be warm and dry for Sonisphere Knebworth. It was hot pretty much right the way through last year, and was dry apart from one shower on the Sunday that only lasted three or so minutes. To summarise, gigs benefit from good weather as you'd expect.

So I think that its a combination of all these things that makes a great live show. That's all for now. Thanks,

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Please note that the inclusion of images in this entry does not mean that the authors are affiliated with, or endorse, me or my work. Effort has been made to attribute the images included to their original author, please see the caption next to each image for this.

Sonisphere: After

Well I'm back, I'm barely awake, but I'm here to give my thoughts on Sonisphere UK 2010. I arrived on the Thursday, as I had chosen early entry as opposed to arriving on the friday, which turned out to be a good thing as the campsite was much quieter and it mean that those of us in our group could get a good spot to pitch our tents. As there were no bands on the Thursday and none on the Friday until 5pm, we sat in our tent circle and spent a little while exploring the festival grounds. Ok, but what about music? Well here's my report:

Friday:

The first band I saw on the Friday was Delain, in fact this was the first act of the festival. The genre of this band was had a sort of symphonic rock/metal feel to it, similar to H.I.M., I thought they were ok, a couple of their songs were quite good. The next band I saw was Turisas, they are classified as battle metal, and perform dressed as war painted warriors. I really enjoyed their set, they got the crowd moving and their music was great, I loved the presence of an accordian in their band, I think I have a soft spot for rock and metal bands that have accordians, I'm not sure why. After Turisas was Europe. I was somewhat surprised by their set, as I didn't know their music very well. I quite enjoyed it, but the last track was the best, as it was the track I, and doubtlessly a lot of the crowd had been waiting for: The Final Countdown was awesome, it had the audience leaping into the air and was a great end to their set. The next act was Gary Numan. His set was just awesome, again I didn't know his music but I enjoyed it all the same. The final act I saw on the Friday was Alice Cooper, Friday's headline act. He put on a great show, he performed his Theatre of Death performance where he dies several times whilst delivering all the hits of his career. He started and finished with School's Out, it really was a great gig.

Saturday:

I saw many acts on the Saturday, so I shall only describe a few in detail. I thought Anthrax were brilliant, they were really tight musically and seemed on even better form than at the Big Four Show at a European Sonisphere that was broadcast in cinemas. Joey Belladonna showed his skill as a frontman once again. One of my favourite acts of the day was Skunk Anansie. This band were the first metal band I ever listened to and I never expected that I would see them live until they reformed last year. At Sonisphere they played for about 45 minutes, with Skin the lead singer performing with such skill and energy. It was a truly awesome performance. The headline act of the Saturday was Rammstein. Their stageing consisted of 200 tonnes of stuff that had to be hauled in several lorries. They put on a show of staggering pyrotechnics that you could feel on your face even far from the front row. The frontman of Rammstein- Till Lindemann, captivated the audience and his talent was obvious. The music was faultless and the show was entertaining to say the least.

Sunday:

Sunday began with me catching the last half of Karnivool's set. I hadn't heard them before, but I had heard many good things about their music, it turns out that the rumours were correct, they were pretty good. I also saw The Fab Beatles, a Beatles tribute as you might expect, they were pretty good, I quite liked it when they played I'm Fine and then changed into Run to the Hills half way through. Another band I saw on Sunday was Skindred, and they were utterly brilliant. Their frontman Benjy has such a stage presence and they are fantastic. I predict that they will make it big as a live act in the future. Later on it was time for the thrash gods Slayer, and they did not dissapoint, their set, while short, was brilliant. With Tom Araya delivering great vocals and Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, and Dave Lombardo playing to an excellent standard the gig was great. Later on that day I got to see Alice in Chains, one of my favourite bands, and they did not dissapoint. This was a band that I had been hoping would be announced for Sonisphere this year as they played last year when I wasn't there, so I was very pleased when they were announced. They played a fair bit from their latest album with songs like Check My Brain and Your Decision, all in all a really good performance. I saw many other bands that day that are worth a mention: Iggy and the Stooges, Pendulum and Converge as well as others. But now the matter of Sunday's headline act must be addressed. Yes, Iron Maiden played brought Sonisphere UK 2010 to a close. Their stageing was a futuristic space set with a starry background. They played a lot of tracks from their last few albums, so while a few of the classics were missed, for example Can I Play With Madness, The Trooper, Aces High, 2 Minutes to Midnight and Run to the Hills, they did play a lot of awesome tracks that they wouldn't normally play, for instance: These Colours Don't Run, The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg, Dance of Death, Ghost of The Navigator, Brave New World and many others. It was a fantastic gig, with all members playing to the best of their ability (including Eddie the eight foot tall mascot at one point), I throughly enjoyed it, but then they are my favourite band, so I'm a little biased.

So there you have it, my review of Sonisphere UK 2010. I have tried to mention most of the bands I saw, but I have only scratched the surface of what went on, I haven't mentioned any of the banter we had in our tent circle at all. But I leave you with a quote from Bruce Dickinson, which I think sums up the whole experience:

"SCREAM FOR ME KNEBWORTH!"

Cheers,

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