Unique performance
Live music, when done right, is life itself. Messy, with warts. You try to get it right, but no one’s life is perfection. You battle the mistakes.
There’s no ideal beauty. Even though actresses all plump their lips in pursuit of an elusive ideal. Hell, remake yourself until you lose your identity, like Jennifer Grey or Leeza Gibbons. What turns us on are your imperfections!
But I didn’t hear one imperfection tonight.
…
I saw better playing in Nashville in a bar than you see at most major shows. I felt it. Music isn’t dead, but the business is trying to kill it. You might think Ashlee Simpson doing a hoedown when the tape breaks on SNL is long in the past, but that mainstream game is not completely dead, unlike Ms. Simpson’s career.
(via Lefsetz Letter – Mika At The Palladium)
Lefsetz strikes again!
A live show is a unique thing. The music industry would die without them. It’s why a lot of die-hard fans collect bootlegs of shows. (I’ve got handfuls of bootlegs from bands I love; every one is amazing and unique and re-listenable.) If you turn the music into a repeat of yesterday’s show, the business of your band is going to be limited and, unless you’re spending a LOT of time in the studio making new stuff, it’s going to wither out and die. Maybe not now, but it’ll happen. It’s like living on a diet of corn syrup and MSG; it’ll kill you eventually.
I’d rather see a band screwing up, engaging with their audience and fighting with their own humanity in order to bring you the best show they can. It shows a dedication and love for the fans, the music and the passion that pushing a button on a computer will never be able to mimick.
Lefsetz’s argument is all very well and good except that he is fighting a straw man. Mika does not lip synch and I’ve got the bootlegs to prove it. In fact his latest album The Boy Who Knew Too Much is available in deluxe version worldwide (outside of the US) with a live acoustic concert from June 2009 at Sadler’s Wells in London.
In the case of the Palladium concert Mika used tracks of his backing vocals and some other instruments such as horns and violins because the size of these North American gigs and the nature of the show dictates it. During acoustic shows in Europe, for instance, this isn’t necessary as the arrangements are remarkably different from the original recordings and it isn’t so impractical to use a live orchestra.
If Lefsetz can’t hear any imperfections it’s because he’s not paying attention and his knowledge of Mika’s music is limited, which he clearly demonstrated by walking out on the gig and accusing an operatically trained singer of faking it.
Mika sang all of the lead vocals live during the show and, regardless of any backing tracks to supplement instruments that are not available, all the musicians that are on this tour were also performing live. I heard them during rehearsals myself, including Mika practicing a capella, changing it up with each run-through.
I have never witnessed anyone with more dedication and love for his fans than Mika and it’s the reason I’ve seen him perform live enough times to detect every mistake and variation from show to show and know with 100% certainty that Lefsetz has no idea what he’s talking about.
Comment by Christine — October 30, 2009 @ 6:08 am