RUSh at Barclays Center Last Night - Problems

[So Low Bass]

The Who's Pete Townshend walks off stage during encore
Nov. 3, 2012, 12:08 PM EST
WENN

Rocker Pete Townshend's hearing problems wrecked the opening night of The Who's first North American tour in four years in Florida on Thursday -- the guitar great marched offstage during the encore.

Search: What does Townshend blame his hearing woes on?

Townshend appeared to be far from happy with the sound and simply walked off without notice in the middle of a rendition of "You Better You Bet."

Fans heard him yelling "too loud" while pointing at monitors onstage before walking off, and he didn't return to wrap up the gig with "Baba O'Riley," which bandmate Roger Daltrey and the rest of the group, including Townshend's brother Simon, performed without the guitarist.

Simon Townshend took to Twitter.com after the show and wrote, "Pete walked off tonight because it was too loud. Was a good show but had some technical problems."

 

[mmbongo]

Search: What does Townshend blame his hearing woes on?

"

Keith Moon blowing up his drum kit with too many explosives?

 

[lijazz]

10:55 - 11:15 of this video..That is what I could NOT hear at all the whole night.

Now, I can only hope that the upcoming live CD is mixed well and also hope for 2014...Happy 40th Rush! (hopefully, and NOt at any indoor arena).

 

[jpTron]

The first part of the Snakes and Arrows tour when they played all outdoor shows (which was the first time I saw them) were great sounding I thought. At least compared to the last few times I saw them which were all indoor arena shows.

 

[two fingers]

fwiw the last few big shows I went too were soo boom heavy they were hardly enjoyable. Mraz at Jones Beach and Mayer at the Garden are two biggies that come to mind . . . I know sound in a big place must be a nightmare, but I've been to shows in big places that sounded good . . .

Agreed. I saw The Police reunion tour at the Garden and the sound was amazing. Even Fiction Plane (opening band fronted by Sting's son) sounded great. Acoustics is no excuse with technology being what it is today. And, again, if one group can sound amazing in a huge gym, then any other group behind them can. The problem for Rush is bound to be PEOPLE, not gear.

 

[ggunn]

I wasn't there, but I suspect that the culprit is the same as it was at an absolutely dismal Springsteen show I went to a couple of years ago. It's just too damn LOUD. I forgot my musicians's earplugs at home, so I was reduced to tearing off pieces of my program, chewing them up, and shoving them into my ears.

Conversely, I went to a Leonard Cohen show a month or so ago, where the sound was stellar. When the show first started I was concerned that it wouldn't be loud enough to suit me, but after a bit I didn't feel that way at all. I could hear every instrument, every texture, every nuance in the music. It was wonderful.

Just because we have the technology to pack a huge dB load into a venue doesn't mean it's the right way to put on a show.

 

[ErictheBastard]

A huge problem in many of the mainstream large venues around the country right now is the JBL Vertec line arrays and the poor tuning of the DSP systems that manage them. The Vertec arrays by themselves are quite capable, but the factory tuning specs are poorly conceived. I think many of the contractors (which is JBL themselves in some of the higher profile installations) are afraid to mess with the factory specs.

The NOKIA theater in Los Angeles is one of the worst sounding installations I've ever heard. The subs are bonky, not correctly time aligned, etc.. I talk to a lot of the FOH engineers and they're always about to lose their fooking marbles. The venue usually locks them out of the loudspeaker management systems and many have to make a choice between mixing to best benefit the lead vocal or the rhythm section, depending on the type of act.

Yet ATK, the sound company that handles the Superbowl and any number of high profile ginormous events is a JBL vertec house (they own the rig and have control over the tuning) and every show by them sounds impeccable.

I've been fortunate enough to see Rush at the Hollywood Bowl from the 2nd row and the sound coming off the stage is complete amazeballs - Geddy's Maytag rig is fantastic. At the Gibson Amphitheater for the Time Machine tour, the low end was ghastly inarticulate and bonky - again, another Vertec house. They used to have old Rat Traps in that venue and they were PERFECT sounding in that room.