Alan D
Group: Members
Posts: 3670
Joined: Aug. 2004 |
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Posted: April 23 2005, 12:39 |
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Well I don't think anyone out there is burning to know about the Manchester Alanis Morissette concert, but it raises a number of issues that are of more general interest and I'll post a couple of threads about them later.
It was great to see her at all. Her songs have touched me personally more deeply than those of any other singing artist (more even than Bob Dylan, though he is of course a far greater artist). But two things about the show disturbed me.
First, I couldn't bear the volume level. From start to finish there was just a deafening roar of sound which smashed that wonderful voice into a chaos of distortion. Bitterly disappointing, in fact, and completely self-defeating. My own ears are partly to blame - physiologically they're too old now for this sort of thing. But my companions had better ears, and they all thought the same. I'd like to hear the views of some of you folk about concert volume levels and will start a thread about it shortly.
The second issue is ... she's made no artistic progression as a performer. She's still pouring her heart and soul into each performance and there are some wonderful songs now that weren't there then but... well, it could almost be 1995 again - the same tricks with the long hair (regrown thanks to the magic of hair extensions); same act, basically. How utterly unlike Dylan (who never stopped growing as a performing artist). It seemed a bit sad - to see her 'stuck' like this. And there's another more general discussion worthy of a new thread - just what is an artist supposed to do when the inspiration to move onward just stops happening?
So there it is. I treasure her albums and her music. But I don't want to see her perform live again.
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