New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

When this experience happens with one of my favorite albums or artists, it's highly disappointing. While it rarely puts me off listening to the artist, an uninteresting and uninspired concert performance can definitely diminish my love for them.

While it's been a great year for music and concerts, 2010 did include one of the more disappointing concert experiences I have had – one that is perfectly representative of what can go wrong in concert. Midlake was responsible for one of my favorite albums of the last few years -- 2006's The Trials of Van Occupanther - a beautiful, pastoral folk-rock album that I love to listen to on headphones while I daydream about living in the middle of the woods, growing a giant beard, and building something impressive with my hands. So I was tremendously excited for their February 2010 follow-up release - The Comfort of Strangers. While The Comfort of Strangers is no Van Occupanther, it is a decent follow-up and finds the band exploring new ways to grow and evolve their sound.

When I was able to get tickets to see Midlake in a small venue, I was very excited. Would we all move to the woods and grow beards and build things with our hands? Would we all sway in place, hypnotized by the beautiful melodies and flowing wall of sound? As it turns out, we could have done the latter. But not in the way I'd hoped. We could have easily enjoyed a similar presentation at home by listening to the album.

So what went wrong for Midlake? Most damaging, they played the songs essentially identically to the version on the album. Compounding that error is that they took their earnest, contemplative music and translated that over to their performance – if any of the members of Midlake have a sense of humor, the ability to understand irony, or the slightest spark of unpretentious personality, it was nowhere to be seen in their performances.

Now one of those two choices is survivable and would not ruin a concert. But together they kill what otherwise could have been an enjoyable concert. Generally, I’m able to find something good in every concert, but only a few really enliven the source material, and only a few really degrade the source material.

Aside from Midlake, the only other concert that has managed to make me feel less interested in an artist I’d previously like was seeing former Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt frontman Jay Farrar live. Never has a more dour person performed a more lifeless show that appeared to result from someone pointing a gun to their head and commanding him to perform.

On the other hand, I can think of many great concert experiences that have taken an album I already liked or loved and made it soar in a way that I would never have known without the concert experience. In 2010 alone, I can think of at least six concerts I attended that gave me greater appreciation for an album:

Wolf Parade – who took one of my favorite albums of 2010 and made it my favorite album of 2010.

Ra Ra Riot – who surprised me by being able to pull off their sound in concert and expand on it.

Jonsi – who provided the most intensely soaring concert of the year.

Arcade Fire – who brought passion and intensity to even their most delicate works.

The National – who took what could otherwise be sleepy, sedate live songs and added a confident ferocity

The New Pornographers – who effortlessly bounced from hook to hook and melody to melody with wit and charm

What are some of your best and worst album to concert experiences?

--Noah

For the original version of this post, including music and video, click here.

Continued:       1       2