Quote:
Originally Posted by jmn3
I was way too young to understand any of this at the time, but clearly something happened during the 80's because a lot of bands made this pivot at the time. I'm a pretty big Stones fan and the concert approach from 1981/82 as compared to their 1989-90 tours are indescribably different. They added a mini-band behind them and approached their catalog with the intent to mimic as best as possible, the sound of the album recording. Stones fans lament the change to the "Vegas-era" of the Stones in 1989 as compared to their live approach from 1969-82.
My take has been that the bands were older, the audience was older, there were less drugs and the ticket prices were much much higher. Middle-aged (and now senior citizen) baby boomers had, and were willing to shell out, larger dollars to see their heroes and relive a piece of their youth for one night...but were going to be a lot more critical of bands playing loose with the live performances. I don't know if I'm right at all, but just a theory I have had on it.
Personally, as someone who was born two months after those last Tusk shows at the Hollywood Bowl, it's a hell of a lot more interesting today listening to bootlegs off of the Tusk Tour with their varied approaches and outputs vs. any bootleg off of the Say You Will or On With the Show Tours with their standardized, sanitized, and consistent performances. Of course, the band isn't really going to a give a crap about me listening on YouTube vs. the paying audience getting their one night at the local hockey rink with their favorite band sounding "just like they did 40 years ago!"
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I love everything you wrote. Fleetwood Mac changed dramatically after Lindsey left in 1987. Stevie took over the band and had a good chunk of her solo touring band onstage with FM. This is when everything began to sound just like the records. Oh how I miss the live sound created by just 4 people(Mick, John, Lindsey & Christine) and of course SN's vocals. But just FOUR people created an incredible live sound that made those shows from the White Album to Tusk so memorable for me. A lot of you guys became fans after the release of The Dance. For me at that time (1997) there was nothing in their live performance that could duplicate the magic of the 1970's except Silver Springs. That SS was filled with raw emotion.