I have been to three live concerts in total, the first was Imagine Dragons so obviously that one was massive in a basketball stadium, the next was Wardruna so slightly less massive in a concert hall and the last was Moon Walker in a pretty small venue. So standing through a whole concert kind of sucks and the most recent one didn't even have an option for sitting. And the one that I actually could sit at had the most uncomfortable sets I have ever been in. And despite having silicon ear plugs at the last two, I could understand most of the words being sung with the drums drowning out everything at the Wardruna concert. This was once I might have thought that venue had poor sound balancing but twice in a row? The nice thing about the most recent concert is that the openers offered to chat with fan at their merch tables but since they were in the same room at the on going concert so it never really felt quite enough to talk to anyone. I don't know it feels like everyone else there got way more out of it than me that is a sucky feeling.

Edit: I'm going to bed so won't reply for a while but you answers have been reassuring and helpful.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago

Well, it's unfortunately true that a lot of music venues weren't designed for music first. They were usually designed to hold a given number of people, and make money.

So the acoustics of a lot of places suck. A big, concrete walled joint with no wall treatment in place? It's fucking miserable sound wise, and that's what plenty of places are.

Converted theatres aren't as bad as the usual spaces that get used for music despite out not being their original purpose, but they still aren't music first, so sound can be spotty depending on where you are in the audience. They do better with acoustic music or with minimal amplification (and without drums lol).

It's one of the worst things about trying to enjoy live music tbh. It's why outdoor music venues tend to be the best option for a music fan. They're usually designed with amplified music in mind. Even auditoriums and concert halls that are great with most music can fail hard with really loud stuff, and not all sound guys are equally skilled at whatever it is that lets them tweak things per venue.

There's a place in a nearby city that started as a place for plays. But they now do quite brisk business as a music venue. Bands come through at least weekly all year long. But it's a crap shoot how good the sound will be. Smaller bands? They rarely have the real, high skilled sound engineers. But even bigger bands don't necessarily have the best ones. So you can go to shows there regularly, even seeing the same band, and have totally different experiences.

It's been ages since I talked to anyone that did that kind of work professionally, but the pros complain about exactly what you're talking about when they go to events as fans. They just know what got screwed up lol.

Hell, you can even hear engineers bitch about it when someone that's normally a studio engineer tries to run the board at a concert. And vice versa as far as that goes.

I'll not go into detail because it would pin location too well, but the biggest city near me has maybe three places that a big band, like Metallica level of popularity, can put on a show. Each of them is totally different experience sound wise. I've seen Metallica at each of them (part of why they were my example), and that's a band that does hire the best engineers. The one outdoor sports arena, the sound was utter shit. The other two, one is an outdoor venue built for music, and the experience was the exact opposite, you could totally hear vocals no matter how intense the rest was, and it was all clear. The indoor sports arena was in between. And, other performances at those same places followed that trend.

I wouldn't waste my money on a show at that outdoor sports arena, no matter who it was. Every show I did go to there was waste of money, even Metallica.

Anyway, wall of text reached I think. Point is that you'd be surprised how bad most places are for music.