Probably because it doesn't always suck. I've been to hundreds of rock concerts and some have had absolutely pristine sound, like hearing it on a great hi-fi system. And sure, plenty sound horrible, too. Venue, sound crew, lots of reasons...
Why does rock concert sound suck?
I have been to two rock concert in the past year : Brit Floyd in Bridgeport CT and Eric Clapton at Madison Square Garden, NYC (last Monday)
For Brit Floyd I was about 40 feet form the stage and treble end was an ear-splitting distorted sound - the soprano solo on Dark Side of the Moon sounded like a chain saw running at 5x speed.
For Eric Clapton I was sitting at floor level about 20 rows behind the mixing desk - i.e., the opposite end from the stage. In this case the high top end was not so distorted, but the voices were still very harsh - seemingly a massive response peak at ~1500hz. Imagine AM radio with the treble turned up 20db.
I knew a lot of the words form the songs ahead of time of course, and just about recognized them, but otherwise the lyrics were unintelligible. The only exceptions were when he sang a quieter song - e.g., “Tears in Heaven” . Clapton moved back from the mic rather than place his mouth right next to it. Then the sound was quite listenable .
Of course managing the acoustics in such a big venue is no doubt a challenge — but does it have to be this bad?
Showing 5 responses by larsman
I was once at a concert by the Cars, on the Panorama tour, and of all bands, this was one of the loudest I'd ever heard - the PA was blowing the hair on my head and punching me in the gut and blasting my ears!! Yes, Grand Funk did that once to me in the early 70's, but this was the CARS! But I think a lot is down to the sound crew - there are some venues I've been at a great many times, and most bands sound excellent, but a few bands sound as atrocious as can be in the same venue. But then there are bands like the Grateful Dead who always put big, big emphasis on sound, back to the days when Owsley Stanley was their extremely innovative sound man. I've heard the Dead sound superb in all kinds of venues, inside and outdoors. |
@barts + 1 - Yeah, I saw/heard that 'Wall of Sound' a couple of times, and Owsley was doing their sound from before that, almost as far back as their beginning. He was brilliant, and the Grateful Dead live sound quality continued on well past Owsley until the end. They always had serious sound systems and sound crews. |
@jji666 - I got to see U2 play two shows in one night in a club in San Francisco in 1979! They were indeed a cool indie band back then, though 'indie' wasn't used then. Where was that Killing Joke gig? Most shows I've been at over the decades have had to be over by 11pm. But I know places like NYC tend to run a lot later.... |
@booman - Porcupine Tree was just here in San Francisco on Wednesday night; a bunch of my friends went but I didn't, as I'm still not going to concerts this year for health reasons. I've seen P.T. and S.W. every other time they've come to town, though and yes, superb sound!! |