DLR content... Sad

it’s coming for us all.
At least he’s was up there once. Sort of wish he’d stop though.
thanks
pauly

A friend from high school sent me this.

Told me he been could only make it to 1:00... I made it to 1:45.

So sad or embarrassing depending on your view point.

I loved his singing on the original VH stuff and the DLR Band stuff through A Little Ain't Enough.

 
Time is hard on musicians, drummers and vocalists mostly. Us string jockeys can get away with a little less jumping around on stage, as long as those strings get caressed the right way. And it doesn't take much physical exertion to do that. Just keeping in practice. Drumming is physical exertion and it you'll often see that in those classic rock bands that drummers are among the first ones to drop out and get replaced. And singing is physically hard on vocalists too. Even with the right techniques, proper care and lifestyle our voices change over time. With luck our voices change to something that sounds a little more gruff but richer, kinda reliced vintage vibe. Where the rest of the band has to downtune so you can still sing a decent performance. But then again most rock singers don't use proper techniques, as they don't take lessons, don't take proper care of their voice and dive straight into the party lifestyle in their heyday. Your younger self always ends up screwing over your older self, and you're always end up picking up the pieces of your bad decisions.

I've known since my high school band days that the portable audio/video recorder somewhere in the audience is the single most brutal witness to a live performance ever. If you can come across well on one of those, you are pretty much shit-hot.

It really kills me these days to see so many people at live performances holding up their cell phones to record video. They're paying too much attention to the device, missing out on what's happening in the moment, and ensuring that the video and audio they do capture has passed through the Maximum Suck Filter.

So sad.

Oh, and I still love DLR-era Van Halen, so choosing not to watch this one.

Yeah, that portable recorder may be the most brutal witness, but a brutal witness is still better then no witness at all. So many great performances of the greatest musicians that ever lived are lost to us because they had f*** all in the 50's to 70's to record their performances. Remember the excitement when some 20+ minutes of Van Halen live footage from the 70's showed up? Whereas nowadays almost entire tours show up on youtube and torrent sites. I'm sure some more rare footage of these classic bands might exist in the collections of seclusive collectors, being kept off the market, traded only for equally rare footage. But not much I reckon. Imagine a full video of a Pink Floyd concert in their prime on the DSOTM tour? I'll take that brutal witness any day over no witness at all. And while it is annoying to see people hold out their cell phones to record snippets of a show, it's great when somebody films a complete show and shares it with the world. Because living in the moment of a live show is awesome, memories fade pretty fast afterwards. Live bootlegs on the other hand allow you to re-experience that moment forever.
 
As an old guy who made his living mostly off vocal gifts and prowess, I can attest that the instrument is a delicate thing indeed, and age will absolutely force most vocalists to modify their style, technique and often the key of tunes, or in my case, retire. I am amazed by the few elder statespeople of singing who have managed to retain power and tonality into their eighth decades, and I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but few things are more painful to my ears than a voice gone bad..
 
His abilities have diminished, but on the other hand, he's kinda always been that way. There is a good reason why VH never released a live album during his era. There are bootleg recordings from those days, but they are painful to listen to.
Beat me to it. DLR was always style over substance, but what a style it was! Still wish the '98 DLR Band album with John5 had gone big.
 
Regarding DLR..... IMO, you can hear a lot of nuggets of goodness that, if he focused on, would make his vocal performance enjoyable and even do honor to his legacy. He tries to hit too many notes out of his range and then he even tries to make melodic runs within that over the top range. It just sounds out of control and bad.

However, when he stays within his range, his voice sounds good and he's able to leverage that great relaxed DLR speaking voice tone. He can't sing like he hears it in his head (like Sammy Hagar can) so he should just leave it alone and leverage his strengths.

I would even say he should have focused on this during the majority of his live career.

That being said, I give him mad props for having the balls to go out and do his 'thang' with the confidence of a Titan.
 
On the dot.. me too. Couldn’t make the minute. Loved the early stuff. So glad I play guitar and can still do that part of the band thing if the voice goes MIA.

He‘s been going downhill for a while. I see now that he’s reached the valley, and started mining. You just have to know when it’s over.

Added note (after Toopy’s like, so he only liked to the word ”over” :)): I had a chance to read the whole thread, and I just have to love you guys who managed a positive post. When you can look at that turd of a performance, see a piece of corn in it and say “well, that part there is nutritious”, it proves you have a true empathy I can’t muster. My hat is off to you!
 
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it's hard to be a vocalist and get older. i'm sure he knows how he sounds. but he's still out there doing it. props man. i watched the whole thing (skipped the talking part). i enjoyed what he could provide.

i just saw Earth Wind and Fire at NAMM perform on the Yamaha Stage. Verdine was playing bass, and Philip Bailey and Ralph Johnson were singing. now they didn't sound like DLR in that video, but clearly as they've aged, it's doesn't sound like it did when they were 20. but it was great for what they could provide. Kenny Loggins performed too and he didn't sound like he used to either. but i got to see Kenny Loggins perform. i never thought i'd ever see him.

i mean what do you do if you're a singer with a legendary history? just stop? because someone on the internet will say bad things about you?

i actually hate video recordings of concerts on youtube because all people do is judge that they don't sound like the recording. unless the band has prepped for a video/audio recording for release, a live performance is for the people in the room at that moment. there's an energy and experience you can't get from the horrible cell phone video on youtube. people don't sound 100% every performance.

but it's about that moment, connecting with the crowd, performing with what you have that day. THAT is what i enjoy about going to see a concert. i don't care if they don't sound perfect. it's the performance i get to see, and honestly any band that is clearly having a tough time usually mentions if anything is wrong, or sometimes give some sort of extra vibe, dance, or songs to compensate for it. (well some bands...)

if you go to see DLR, you get what you get. and you get to see him in person. if you want the old sound, see a tribute band or listen to an old recording. i just really loathe people judging singers for how they're old and don't sound good. see you in 50 years and i'll listen to you. you better be good and sound perfect.

oh and this isn't a dig to anyone in this thread specifically. people will say what they want to say and that's cool. just in general, i hate negativity toward people's performances. constructive criticism is different, and stating fact is different. i just personally don't like it all.

Well said.
 
I've known since my high school band days that the portable audio/video recorder somewhere in the audience is the single most brutal witness to a live performance ever. If you can come across well on one of those, you are pretty much shit-hot.

It really kills me these days to see so many people at live performances holding up their cell phones to record video. They're paying too much attention to the device, missing out on what's happening in the moment, and ensuring that the video and audio they do capture has passed through the Maximum Suck Filter.

So sad.

Oh, and I still love DLR-era Van Halen, so choosing not to watch this one.

I agree with this.

Seems like a lot of bands these days would do well to record every show with their own sound mix, then provide a download link and unique code for people that only lasts for a day or two so they could tell people “don’t worry, this is recorded and you can download it after the show, which means you don’t have to make a crappy recording of it by holding your damn phone in the air the whole time while not actually watching the show.” It would probably be good for audience participation too.

I mean it’s annoying that it might come to that... but in today’s world, your stuff is going to get recorded, period, so you can either be in control of how those recordings sound or not.
 
They're paying too much attention to the device, missing out on what's happening in the moment...

Not just at concerts. That goes for every moment of the day. At the college where I teach, all you see is students walking around like zombies, with their faces in their phones, in the halls, parking lots...I can't tell you how many students have walked into me or walked into my car in the parking lot, as I'm driving in. They sit outside their classroom, waiting to go into class, staring at their phones instead of interacting with their classmates and building human-to-human friendships...it's sad!
 
He sounded great back in the day.

In the stadium near the back, but there was so much crowd noise it was hard to hear anything. Plus I spent most of the night going WOOOOOOOOOOO just like everyone else. What a party. I probably only paid attention to the guitar bits.

Yeah, so actually, I guess had no idea how Dave sounded. :p Van Halen was a blast!
 
If you didn't make it to 7:28 then you missed the worst part.

This is tough to watch as I'm a DLR fan. He's got such amazing character and is super entertaining.
If you take care of your voice, you can still sing in your 70's (Pavarotti is good example).
But let's be honest, DLR is as rock star life as you can get, and likely didn't take amazing care of his voice.
Warm up, cool down - every gig? Plenty of sleep and hydration? Doubt it.
I'm going to also assume that he can't hear himself very good on that stage as it looked like he was a little lost until the entire band kicked in.

When I saw the VH reunion a few years back, he was pretty good and I really enjoyed the show. So I'll try and keep that in my memory instead of this vid.

Only question I have is - what is he doing with the Indiana Jones whip on his mic?
 
The cellphone or camcorder may be brutal, but it's generally a more honest representation of the live performance than an official release that's doctored up in post. Official live releases have always been kind of lame (imo) for that very reason. People give artists crap for having supporting backing tracks, but going back and correcting all your sour notes for a live release isn't much different.

I think us older folks need to simply get over the fact that people are on their devices 24/7. No amount of telling them they're missing out is going to change those habits.

I agree with this.

Seems like a lot of bands these days would do well to record every show with their own sound mix, then provide a download link and unique code for people that only lasts for a day or two so they could tell people “don’t worry, this is recorded and you can download it after the show, which means you don’t have to make a crappy recording of it by holding your damn phone in the air the whole time while not actually watching the show.” It would probably be good for audience participation too.

I mean it’s annoying that it might come to that... but in today’s world, your stuff is going to get recorded, period, so you can either be in control of how those recordings sound or not.
 
Not just at concerts. That goes for every moment of the day. At the college where I teach, all you see is students walking around like zombies, with their faces in their phones, in the halls, parking lots...I can't tell you how many students have walked into me or walked into my car in the parking lot, as I'm driving in. They sit outside their classroom, waiting to go into class, staring at their phones instead of interacting with their classmates and building human-to-human friendships...it's sad!

It is sad. This is why I hope that Steve Jobs rots in hell for this plague he unleashed upon the world. But it is as it is, people live virtual lives now mostly. Which makes me wonder two things, how on Earth can they do that with a cell phone. I HATE having to do anything more then whatsapp with a cellphone. My brain and fingers seem incompatible with these tiny screens. I need a laptop, minimum! And also, where do they experience all these amazing things they post online when all they do all day is stare at their cell phones?

The cellphone or camcorder may be brutal, but it's generally a more honest representation of the live performance than an official release that's doctored up in post. Official live releases have always been kind of lame (imo) for that very reason. People give artists crap for having supporting backing tracks, but going back and correcting all your sour notes for a live release isn't much different.

THAT!!! The only thing that official live releases have going for them is amazing good sound. But that comes at the price of splicing things together from different shows, adding additional tracks, fixing mistakes, all the usual studio trickery. You might as well listen to a studio recording with the live equivalent of a sitcom laughing track added to it. I used to be an avid U2 bootleg collector. At one time, 2006 I think, I had about 80% of every U2 live show performed in some form or another. Including audience recordings of shows that U2 officially released. And then you notice that things were cut or changed. I LOVE bootleg recordings. Even the bad sounding ones. Cause for some strange reason if a song was only rarely ever or only once played, its usually only available on a poor recording. Something with Murphy I guess. I LOVE a decent to good audience recording of a live show. There is something raw and visceral to it that official live releases lack. That's all shine and polish. It also feels like you were there. Chris said that a live show is for the people who were inside the room/hall/stadium, but I reckon if someone were to give him a bootleg recording of a show he attended in the past he wouldn't decline. Because that is the stuff of memories. And thanks to modern technology its both easier to record live and make a decent to good recording too. I was one of those knuckleheads who pulled out his phone to record parts of a Muse show. And to my surprise it sounded amazing. Even with me singing and screaming along. Made me wish I had recorded the entire show. Because memories fade, bootlegs last forever!

And on a sidenote, with concert ticket prices being absurdly high as they are today, and scalping making it next to impossible to get tickets at their retail price, nowadays I actually prefer listening to a bootleg of a show then going to that show. It's cheaper, saves me a lot of hassle, crappy ringside food, I can enjoy it from my own living room. Makes me wish bands would live stream all their shows entirely.

I think us older folks need to simply get over the fact that people are on their devices 24/7. No amount of telling them they're missing out is going to change those habits.

We can only hope that at some point the wheel will turn in the opposite way. Either through coercion from above or a grass roots movement from below. After all, for more then a century the vast majority of people were smoking. Nowadays its a slowly dwindling minority. For a long time it was socially acceptable to drink and drive, or not have any seatbelts. That no longer is. Human behavior and culture can change if we find that certain behavior is no longer acceptable.
 
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