Thoughts on seeing Sparks Live

 

Some thoughts and reflections on Spark’s gig at the Sydney Opera House on 31/10/2023 and their career in general.

https://www.setlist.fm/.../concert-hall-sydney-opera...

- While The Beatles and Paul McCartney may have been my pick of the greatest band and songwriter of all time. Sparks and Ron Mael is my pick for my favourite band and songwriter of all time and the band I am most fanatical about. I am one of many Beatles fans out there however Sparks seems like an exclusive cult that very few people know about. Sparks have 26 albums and I like at least 24 of them and that new releases I will be excited to hear.

- Sparks is one of the groups that I always wanted to see live but was somewhat pessimistic about whether I would ever get the opportunity to see them live and that the only possibility to achieve this wish is to travel overseas to watch them perform live. They may exist as a cult band in the UK due to a few hits from Kimono My House and No. 1 In Heaven. They have some cult presence in the United States due to their appearance on Saturday Night Live and their duet with Jane Wiedlin. However, most of their albums and singles don’t even chart here in Australia. Their biggest hit “This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" was a number 2 hit single in the UK but only charted 69 here and would be an obscure song here. Essentially Sparks presence in Australia is essentially “When I’m With You” which surprisingly charted 17 and noted Russell Mael's reference during the gig that this was a hit here and the rest of the career is obscurity. Sparks is a band that the only people who know they exist are on the internet. There is one person I met in real life who recognised them, but this was a British migrant who heard their songs when growing up in England. I don’t think anyone growing up in Australia would have heard of them and I can’t imagine there is a much business case for them to tour Australia until very recently. I suspect the Spark’s Brother documentary and Annette may have changed things allowing them to tour here. So, watching Sparks live is probably the most exciting I have ever been anticipating a concert even more than Paul McCartney.

- I speculate that the venue at Sydney Opera House is one of the main reasons why Sparks even toured Australia. Russell Mael came here as a tourist and marvelled at the venue. Mentioned that Mael’s brother then dreamt about playing at the venue. It was repeated throughout the concert the sense of awe and disbelief of playing inside such a famed venue and couldn’t resist an opportunity to come here. This brought me back to “How Do I Get to Carnegie Hall?” despite all the time they “practice, man, practice” success eluded them as represented by "All of this I did for you, Still, there is no sign of you". The protagonist of that song (and Sparks ) was unsuccessful in playing at Carnegie Hall, Sparks was unsuccessful in reaching fame and stardom however their “practice, man, practice” got them to reach the Sydney Opera House and I sense that this was very much meaningful achievement and vindication of them persisting in their music career despite their struggles. They were just as (or even more) excited to perform there as I was in watching them. I guess as a local Australian, I never thought of the Sydney Opera House as anything special and took it for granted.

- Setlist is quite surprising in what they didn’t play. Live favourites that were present in numerous bootlegs and official releases were not performed on this tour. There was no “Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth”, “Amateur Hour, “Suburban Homeboy”, “The Rhythm Thief”, “Dick Around, “At Home, At Work, At Play”. There was nothing from “Indiscreet” and surprisingly less emphasis on their 70’s period. They play a maximum of 1 song per album outside their new album in which they are touring “This Girl Is Crying In Her Latte” with 6 songs and surprisingly “Music That You Can Dance To” with two songs. I think they took the opportunity this tour to play songs that they hadn’t played much from earlier tours. “The Toughest Girl In Town” from Interior Design is a pretty deep cut for them to revive.

- Perhaps it was bad timing the moment that Sparks toured Australia. It was touring one of the 2 albums in their career that I don’t quite get yet. What I like about 00’s era Sparks is that there is superficial repetition that gives the song a hypnotic feel but combined with large-scale variations in arrangement and dynamics that give the song a dramatic arc with an introduction, climax and resolution. In the more recent Sparks album, I do feel there was repetition but although there can be subtle arrangement variation, not to the same degree as the 00’s albums which makes the song somewhat monotonous in feel and there isn’t the same degree of melodicism of the 70’s work to compensate. However, I significantly enjoyed the performances in the live setting compared to the studio release. They pick the better songs in the album to perform live and one of the benefits of hearing any modern album from any band live is that you can hear the song perform without modern mastering practices of loudness wars and removing dynamic range from music (noted judging from the dynamic range database their latest album had the least dynamic range of their career). Hearing it live without the compression mastering, these ‘subtle arrangement” change throughout the songs sounds a hell of a lot more dramatic in the live context compared to the studio version. It was significantly more interesting to listen to and I surprisingly enjoyed the performances of songs from the album that I didn’t care much for before the concert.

- This is probably one of the best concerts I have attended in terms of performance quality (up there with Radiohead and Crowded House). Paul McCartney’s concert evoked a feeling of “Wow, isn’t it great that this 81-year-old legend is still performing live”. Yeah, Paul McCartney's voice sounds aged but it’s cruel to judge him from that. Sparks evoked feelings of “wow, these men in the 70’s are performing with the same level as their 20 yo self”. The Mael brothers look 20 years younger than their actual age. Russell Mael (age 75) is singing somewhat complex vocal melodies line with a heavy falsetto and hitting every note with pitch-perfect accuracy while being energetic on stage and jumping around. Russell Mael can still hit the “I Ain’t going to leave” outro of “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us”. I think if you listen to a bootleg recording from 2023 and compare it to the 1970s bootleg, there isn’t particularly any significant deterioration in vocal performance.

- Reading the biography of Sparks it seems like the Mael brothers were people who liked both rock music and electronic/dance music but were detached observers of the culture of what the music represents (which is part of the reason why I like them so much as it is similar to my outlook). This often is credited as an attitude that allowed them to make satirical music about both rock and dance music. However, what’s often overlooked is that this also allowed them to avoid the pitfalls of the decadence of what each genre represents and perhaps explain their career longevity. From what I gather, in the 70’s the rest of the band goes out and parties and gets drunk after a gig while the Mael Brothers go home and rest. Both the Mael brothers have reputations as health and gym freaks who treat their bodies like the temple. Most rock and rollers peaked in their 20’s but then when you watch them perform in their later years you will see their vocals affected by aging and likely the effects of substance misuse. Even the milder rock and roll star like Paul McCartney likely had his voice aged by chronic cannabis use.

- One of the highlights was the performance of the title track “Music That You Can Dance To” which I was excited to hear encapsulate this copying the form but maintaining the outside observer perspective described earlier. It can be enjoyed as a straight-ahead dance song and I note that this was the moment in the gig that caused the entire audience to stand up from previously sitting down on the seat and they remained standing and dancing for the rest of the concert (including myself). However, I have always interpreted that song as an annoying person aggressively trying to aggravate someone who is not interested in dancing and prefers to listen to symphony or jazz to get up and dance causing them to scream out in agony (as per the female backing vocalist)

- Some nit-pick. I’m not entirely impressed with them playing Shopping Mall Of Love. I get that it has a functional role in this concert that this is one of the few songs where Ron Mael is the “lead vocalist” and hence gives him a moment to shine and for the crowd to cheer for him but it is one of the weakest songs of their career. It would have been ok if they reworked the song as I think there is potential in the chorus to be a sort of “The Calm Before The Opera” style arrangement, however, spoken words over a minimal arrangement that doesn’t change throughout the song are lazy and there wasn’t any effort to fix the song. If you want Ron Mael a moment to shine just get him to do his famous dance more often or do the “Ron Speaks” version of Suburban Homeboy. I do also wish they performed the “heavenly” part 1 of The Number One Song In Heaven rather than skipping straight to part 2. That song is part of Spark’s detached observer of dance music and its culture but instead of satirical mocking, it states that genre like dance music/disco was capable of expressing transcendence and being a conduit of divine inspiration as any other “more serious” genres of music and Part 1 is a crucial part of that. It’s the contrast between the two parts that make the song great and Part 1 shouldn’t be reduced to a 30-second intro.

- The best song of the night is Beaver O’Lindy. The Mael/Mankey brothers era of the group remains my favourite era of their illustrious career. In that era they were at their peaks as a melodist and I think they were at Lennon/McCartney, the arrangement was interesting with this song as a multipart song with three different contrasting sections with different dynamics and it didn’t always rely on Ron Mael’s keyboard doubling the vocals which became typical of his career (noting that the bass is the most prominent instrument of the song)

Thoughts on seeing Paul McCartney Live

 Saw Paul McCartney probably the greatest songwriter of the rock era. It’s one of the bucket lists of artists I wanted to see in my lifetime and with the artist at his age, you’ll never know if there will be another opportunity to see him play live.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/paul-mccartney/2023/allianz-stadium-sydney-australia-63a01a5b.html
Various thoughts of the gig
- Setlist is a fair mixture of The Beatles's career and his solo career (around 50:50) and gives a good cross-section of his career including his underrated 2000/2010 era.
- There was an extremely deep cut Beatles-related song that was played throughout the tour “In Spite of All the Danger” which was The Quarrymen demo only found in The Beatles Anthology Volume 1. It was quite ballsy of him taking the backing vocals and setting up a singalong moment with the audience (ala Hey Jude) considering most people in the audience wouldn’t have recognised the song.
- It was fun hearing him perform songs where the other Beatles take the lead vocals in the studio version. I knew that Paul McCartney liked to sing George Harrison’s Something Live due to its presence in his earlier live albums (It was present in both Back In The US and Good Evening New York City). It was a huge surprise hearing him sing “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!” which was a track where Lennon took lead vocals in the studio album. 
- Looking at setlist.fm, he pretty much played the same setlist for the entirety of the Australian tour but surprisingly there was some change in the setlist likely due to him doing two concerts in Sydney to create some variation for people who attended both concerts. The presence of Queenie Eye, Coming Up and A Hard Day’s Night was a welcome surprise.
- “Here Today” was probably the best performance by Paul McCartney that night as there is added value of it being performed live at this age compared to just listening to a studio performance. This is because, for the majority of the gig, it was elderly men playing young people’s music. However, this tribute to John Lennon’s death is far more touching coming from an 82 yo man with an aged voice. It created an atmosphere of a person towards the end of his life reflecting on people who have passed away. His introductory speech talking about the male stoic culture that prevented him from ever expressing his true feelings when John was alive and he was able to express the emotions that come from the wisdom of age.
- My favourite moment is “Dance Tonight” from Memory Almost Full (Probably my favourite solo album) I suspect I was the most excited person in the stadium regarding him playing it
It- Great to see Lennon/McCartney duet with Lennon on the big screen during “I Got A Feeling”. It is noted that Peter Jackson who directed the Get Back documentary was present in the audience and was credited with this idea.
- There was a recognition from McCartney that the audience was predominantly there for The Beatles material. He stated that when The Beatle's songs were being played he saw phone lights and people recording and when his late career solo songs there was darkness producing a laugh from the audience. He then stated that he would still play his more recent song regardless leading to the performance of “Queenie Eye”
- The loud pyrotechnics in “Live And Let Die” with loud explosion/bang was well done and McCartney produced a feign heart attack
- I’m reminded of Lennon’s lyrics of “I seen religion from Jesus to Paul” during the performance of Hey Jude where it’s essentially become Paul McCartney’s hymn. Having the entire crowd singing the “na na na” section became almost a spiritual experience being there in person that can’t be reflected in any bootleg or live recordings.

Bob Dylan Concert Review - Adelaide Entertainment Centre 19/04/11

Setlist

1.  Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking

2.  Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)

3.  I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

4.  Beyond Here Lies Nothin'

5.  Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum

6.  Simple Twist Of Fate

7.  The Levee's Gonna Break

8.  A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

9.  High Water (For Charley Patton)

10.  Tryin' To Get To Heaven

11.  Jolene

12.  Tangled Up In Blue

13.  Highway 61 Revisited

14.  Ballad Of A Thin Man

15.  Encore: Like A Rolling Stone

16.  All Along The Watchtower

17.  Forever Young

Bob Dylan is one of the legends of rock music. He along with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones defined 60's music and he is a cultural icon. He released great albums throughout his career and I was excited to see him here in to Adelaide and see the legend himself perform live.

However, the concert I saw was just downright bizarre.

I have to clarify my thoughts on Bob Dylan as a singer first before I go further with that statement.

In my opinion, Bob Dylan is not just a great songwriter but a great singer. I believe that one of things he showed the world is that you can be a great singer and emotionally move people even with an unconventional voice that sounds nothing like Elvis Presley. I believe it was Bob Dylan's influence that paved away for other singers with unconventional voices to be accepted to be great singers such as the likes of Ian Curtis, Thom Yorke, Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, Billy Corgan etc.

So I reject all notions that Bob Dylan can't sing and I don't understand how people can listen to songs like The Times They Are a-Changin' and Blowin’ In The Wind and It's All Over Now, Baby Blue etc and don't recognise how good of a singer he is. However at this stage of his life and at his age, it's upsets me to say that Bob Dylan really can't sing.

It seems to me that time has paid a toll over Dylan's voice and it's now become shot and at this concert it became evident how much Dylan has lost his vocal power.

The fact of the matter is, he didn't sing this concert. He just spoke through the song. Every time the melody of the song changes dramatically or the melody goes high; Bob Dylan just speaks through it. During the anthemic "How Does It Feel" that should have initiated a crowd sing along (listen to the live cover by The Rolling Stones of this song. That initiated a bigger crowd singalong then when Bob Dylan actually performed it himself), Bob Dylan just spoke through it. This half-speaking voice went on for the entire concert. This is a big shame because Dylan also writes great melodies and we didn't get to hear them properly this concert.

His half speaking voice helps him project the gruff bluesman sound. Sort of imagine Tom Waits singing who is probably the gruffest bluesman and the most cigarette affected vocalist I have ever heard on CD and times that dodgy voice by hundred to get what his vocals was like in this concert

At times his dodgy voice was a positive as it gave the fast paced blues rock a mean edged to the songs. In fact, when he played Gonna Changed My Way Of Thinking from the born again Christian era of his career, it was a vast improvement over the original song. This was partly due to the quality of the backing band who gave the song an extra punch by stripping the way the 80's production that marred most records during that era but also due to Dylan voice whose gruffness really add to the song.

However, when he sang songs that actually are reliant on melody and actually requires some decent singing. The songs just fall apart. Listening to Dylan just speaking away to Tangled Up In Blues which is supposed to be a beautiful ballad was just embarrassing to listen to. The lowest point of the concert was when he sang A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall where this beautiful acoustic song was given a country music full band makeover and Dylan just spoke through the entire song and during the chorus didn't bother to sing the chorus which was supposed to be the focal point of the song. The performance pretty much relied on the audience to imagine the record in their head of a younger Dylan singing over it but even then that was difficult because the current Dylan wasn't singing/speaking in sync to what the song usually sound like. 

I came to the concert wishing that Dylan plays his classic songs such as Like A Rolling Stones, The Times They Are a-Changin', Blowin’ In The Wind, All Along The Watchtower, Mr. Tambourine Man etc. However halfway in the concert, I just wished he didn't touch his old stuff and just sing songs from his later albums as he was murdering the classic. It was the first time in a concert where I wish the artist didn't play their classic popular songs.

Of course it is to be expected that singers lose some of their vocal power with age and I wasn't expecting Dylan to sing like it was 1960. I listen to current day live performance of other 60's artist such as Paul McCartney and The Who and their vocals are far inferior to what they were during their peak as expected. However, they still sing and hit their notes even if they don't sound as good. However with Dylan, he didn't even bother singing it all. It was basically a spoken word concert with little sprinkles of singing in between the speaking

When listening to Dylan record from the 90's to the 00's, you can tell that Dylan lost some of his beauty in the voice and therefore he changed the style of music to suit his vocal. So he rebranded himself as a dark bluesman and sometimes a crooner and wrote songs accordingly which suit his aging voice to a tee. That's why his performance of songs from his last three album were fairly decent such as Jolene, High Water etc and it would have been a better thing if he stuck exclusive with those type of song. Of course they weren't as good as the records because in the records he was actually singing and not speaking but at least it was tolerable to listen to.

The most puzzling thing was that it was only two years ago with the Together Through Life album where Dylan was singing quite competently (he also sang fairly well in his Christmas album as well). It was the gruff bluesman feeling but he was still singing his melodies instead of just speaking through them like he is going through the motions. So either Dylan spent the last two years chronically smoking cigarettes until he wrecked his voice or Dylan can't sing in a live setting as he gets fatigue as the set goes or he actually deliberately "sang" like that during the concert for vocal effect without caring what the fans think about it (he is notorious for that). It would be fascinating to see what the next Dylan album will sound like and whether his voice still has it.

However if his voice is shot and irreparably gone then I feel that Bob Dylan should really retire. If he can't sing properly in a gig due to fatigue but can still pull a good performance in studio then he should stop his never-ending tour or at the very least charged less than $95 for the cheapest ticket to see him play live as I felt a bit short change from the performance. It was really uncomfortable to listen to and it was akin to watching a bad singer on Australian idol embarrassing them without realising it. I almost felt sorry for Dylan seeing him perform as a shadow of a singer than he used to be.

If Dylan is not retiring and he is choosing to continue to sing in that style, than I have a few songs to recommend him to perform that may suit his half-singing voice.

1. Subterranean Homesick Blues from Bringing It All Back Home

There are only two melodic notes in the entire song and they are all in a comfortable register for Bob to "sing". The fact that this song is considered a precursor to rap music, it would suit his semi singing vocal style to just have him going through all those lyrics quickly. I actually believe that this style of singing would actually improve the song and add a bit of punch and menace to the song. It's amazing that Bob no longer plays this song considering how much it suits his current vocal style now.

2. Tombstone Blues from Highway 61 Revisited
I recommended this song for the same reason as Subterranean Homesick Blues as it is a fast pace energetic blues song with minor melodic variation in a comfortable vocal range. Also this song is fairly monotone in its melody and therefore Dylan doesn't have to strain himself to reach these notes. If he decides to semi-speak it then it would still work due to the fast pace nature of the song.

3. Love Sick from Time Out Of Mind

 Although this is more of a blues ballad and have a greater emphasis on singing, Bob Dylan could have took the crooner approach (similar to Tom Waits in songs like Tom Traubert Blues) to this song. I'm surprised that Bob Dylan never took that approach in the entire concert as I felt that would have suited his crooked voice especially when he did a decent job of the crooner voice in his recent studio albums. Also the music in this song is just beautiful and the quality of the song is very much due to the atmosphere (especially the organ section) of the musicians. His backing band seems pretty competent and I believed that they could have pulled off this song quite well even with a barely functional lead singer.

4. Forgetful Heart from Together Through Life

Just for the same reason as Love Sick. This song is also reliant on atmosphere created by the musician (great guitar work) and this song would have also worked if Bob took the crooner angle in his singing. This is also a fairly simple song melodically and considering that this song was only two years old, you think that his voice hasn't deteriorated that much in that short span that he couldn't sing this song properly.

5. Things Have Changed from Wonderboy Soundtrack

Just to hear him barely singing this song, so when he sings/speaks "Things Have Changed" we really know that it has for Bob's voice.

I admit that I didn't do my research before hand and listen to any bootlegs of Dylan concerts in recent years and I'm quite sure some hardcore Dylan fans out there would tell me "what do you expect' or "Dylan being singing like this for many years, why didn't you know?” etc. I admit I'm not a hardcore Dylan fan to do stuff like that but I don't think it should be expected of me to do that and I don't think I was the only one who came in and was shocked by his singing.

In any case, I wouldn't go see Dylan play live ever again if he continues to sing like that (next time he tours Australia, I'll make sure I listen to some bootlegs of that tour beforehand) and I was overall disappointed with this gig.

Highlight of the Gig: Best Perform song was High Water (For Charley Patton). Other highlights was Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking and Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)

Lowlight of the gig: Worst perform song was A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall. Other shockers were Simple Twist Of Fate, Tangled Up In Blues, Ballad Of The Thin Man, Like A Rolling Stone and All Along The Watchtower.

That's right all the classic popular songs he performed were awful.

  __________

I just want to say for those people who read my previous article where I claimed that Bob Dylan was overrated and that he was merely a good artist rather than a great artist

I just like to partly retract that statement. After I finally got into Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited and Time Out Of Mind I have to accept that he is a great and brilliant artist (I have listen to these albums many times before without enjoying it but after a few repeated listen, the songs just suddenly clicked). Nevertheless I stand by comments that his music is repetitive and this does detract from the quality of the songs and that makes him slightly overrated. Sometimes the melodies and atmosphere of the song overcomes the song repetitiveness (it's just now with repeated listening where I start to recognise the atmosphere that I didn't hear before) but sometimes it doesn't and I still believe that is the key weakness of Bob Dylan as a songwriter.