On the surface, live and studio recordings seem pretty much the same: silver discs in jewel boxes, with the band on the front, track listings on the back, and everyone microscopically thanking friends and deities on the jacket.
That doesn't change the fact that they're radically dissimilar animals. One is tame and trim; the other is ornery and wild. One purrs, albeit loudly at times; the other snarls, even at the quietest volume.
Woe to the band that gets them mixed up. You may have the hottest act in town, capable of driving audiences insane and blowing the windows out of the toughest clubs. And you might be able to capture that energy on disc. But before you do, there are reasons why it may make more sense to cut your next project in the studio.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
So says Dave Alvin, whose wisdom in this area stems from lots of time and miles clocked in this business, going back 20-plus years to the Blasters, who essentially invented Americana rock, detouring to a spell with the L.A. punk pioneers X, and cruising now as a new-millennial incarnation of Woody Guthrie, complete with social conscience and dust-roughened voice. He's a respected producer, as well, specializing in roots artists such as the Derailers, Sonny Burgess, and Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys.
Last May Alvin released Out in California, recorded live at three venues with his band, the Guilty Men. These are rugged performances, all spit and spirit, with rough edges that make it easier to grab on to what the band is doing. Even so, Alvin advises new bands that want to introduce themselves with a live CD to hold off … at least for now.
“If I were producing a young band's demo, I wouldn't do it in a club,” he says. “First of all, a live recording implies an intimacy with the artist that's already been established through studio recordings. Most bands don't call their first album The Bob Johnson Blues Band — Live at Bob's Club.
“Also, remember that most people's ears are trained to a certain sonic quality. Every day you hear music, whether you want to or not. You walk from your door to your job, you're going to pick up two or three songs from a guy who drives by in a car or the Muzak in the elevator. Your ears get attuned to a certain sonic quality. As far as demos go, you want people to listen; you want to suck them in. But when people hear a live recording, they are not going to be as sucked in as they would be if they were hearing a studio recording.”
THE WONDERS OF AUDIENCE NOISE
So let's assume that your studio-cut demo has established your band. You follow with a debut disc that's polished enough to make people want to hear it more than once. At this point, a live CD will expand on that and build on the anticipation you've stimulated for your next release.
Suddenly, there are many new issues to consider — for example, where? You might feel at home in one particular club, but think it through before you load in your recording gear. As Alvin puts it, “The place should be comfortable enough for you to be able to say, ‘Hey, we're making a live CD, and we blew that last take, so we're going to do the same song again. Please sound like you're interested.’ And, of course, it should sound good in terms of acoustics.
“But it's just as important to have control of the event,” he adds. “Is it a pickup bar, or is it a music club? If I want to do a quiet song after a loud one, will the audience get quiet, too, or are they going to talk through it? If you go to a club that does only acoustic shows, it's structured to keep people quiet so that they can hear the music. But if you go to a loud rock 'n' roll club, there might be TVs in the corner, playing sports at the same time you're playing your set. Everyone's attention might be distracted by other things — pool tables, pinball machines.”
Yet audience noise is a crucial element on any live CD. You don't necessarily want people to listen in stunned and silent awe — and that's the impression you'll create unless you bring the crowd into the mix. “A lot of times, you'll hear a live recording where the audience isn't miked,” Alvin says, “so as the song ends, where there should be a thunderous ovation, all you hear is ‘Eh?’ So put mics in the audience and make room for their tracks in the mix. That'll give you the ability to trim them down, too, in case you're in a quiet part of the song and suddenly you hear some guy trying to pick up on a girl out there.”
LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION
But beyond just the audience noise, it's the audience's energy and its impact on a band that is the biggest plus of a live recording. For many groups, that live energy is much greater than what can be summoned in the more antiseptic environs of the studio.
“I think something happens mentally when you're playing live,” Alvin says. “I've talked to some other musicians who feel the same way. It's sort of like marathon running, where after so many miles of running, you get a runner's high. I get off into a trance when I'm playing live, if it's a good show.”
But it's possible to give in to the excess that can follow inspiration. “You can be at a gospel performance,” says Alvin, “and the singer will do a song that's 15 minutes long, and 14 minutes of it is the shouting and the testifying. If you're at that performance, you're caught up in the hypnotic element of the time and the place. It's hard to capture that on disc.”
ETHICS AND EDITING
Which leads to an ethical question concerning live recording. Is it okay to edit out parts of a song? Alvin has no problem with the concept. “To me, it's about working with symbols — and I don't mean drum cymbals,” he explains. “Sometimes on a very minimalist, ambient studio CD, you'll hear how a producer will drop in a sound here and there; that sound works as a symbol, in the same way a single image can work in a painting. When you're creating a pop record, there are symbols all over the place. The hook is a symbol: ‘Here's our hook. What do we do to drive it home?’
“Let's say I've done a 20-minute version of ‘Whipping Post.’ For me, it's okay to cut it down to ten, because that turns it into a symbol of how we sound live. In fact, on the new live album, I did long guitar solos on certain songs, but I left holes in each solo because I was thinking as a producer as well as an artist. I wanted to get certain licks in, so I'd play them and then I'd wait four beats or whatever and start going off in a different direction. Even as I was playing, I was thinking, ‘Okay, that worked. Now I'm going to try this. Maybe it'll work, too; if not, I'll edit it later.’ There's nothing dishonest about that.”
TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT
Alvin also recommends that bands recording live not count on getting everything from one performance. “If you have the means,” he says, “record everything. On this most recent live record, we did two electric shows and one acoustic. With the two electric shows, the first night was problematic because everybody was thinking about being recorded, including me. We got a couple of things out of there, but most of the stuff came from the following night because we weren't thinking anymore.”
Finally, Alvin stresses that your material needs to be well rehearsed before you consider recording it live. “You want to know your material in and out,” he advises. “You want to go past the point of being tired of a song to where you can break through to where the song is brand-new again.”
