Al Stewart at Boomtown

[kevin_standlee]

Lisa and I went to Reno for shopping today, then out to Boomtown (the casino ten miles west of Reno at Exit 4) for the Al Stewart concert (with Dave Nachmanoff). I've seen Stewart twice before, but Lisa's never been to one of his concerts. In effect, she wasn't at this one either. Unfortunately, as soon as Nachmanoff started his warm-up set, Lisa realized that there was no way that the amplified sound and her tinnitus-hyperacusis tortured hearing were compatible, and, as we thought was likely, she left travelswithkuma with me and fled the ballroom. She tried listening to some of the concert from the lobby and back hallway, where at least the sound wasn't painfully loud, but there just wasn't much she could actually hear and appreciate. To her, most of the sound inside the room sounded like mud. It's not like she can't hear music — she'd listened to lots of recorded music — it's just that most amplified sound like you hear at a concert (and it's not as though to my ears as though Stewart was particularly loud) is viciously over-amplified to her and overwhelms her hearing. I suspect that if she heard Stewart and Nachmanoff up close with no amplification, she'd have no problem with it. Also, while she had to keep her ears covered most of the time during The Game Show Show, most of it was audible and intelligible to her, while this music was impossible.

Although I was worried about Lisa, she had told me that if she left, to stay and enjoy the concert, which I did. Stewart performed some songs I'd never heard him do before, mixed with some of his classics including my personal favorite, "Night Train to Munich," before finishing with the song most people know him for, "Year of the Cat." There was no encore, because they had to clear the room for the second showing, which was separately ticketed.

Although tonight was the monthly Lightning Loot drawing in Sparks, by the time we were passing the Nugget, it was 8:50, and as we recalled, you have to have "tagged in" with your club card no later than 8:45 in order to be in the 9 PM drawing, so we skipped this months drawing and simply headed home to Fernley.

Comments

[eleyan.livejournal.com]

I think most music amplification these days is extreme. I don't go to concerts or movies, and I even find most buskers in the underground too much, especially in those enclosed, tiled tunnels.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

I had wondered about Lisa's hearing at a concert. They're way too uncomfortable for me and there's nothing wrong with my hearing. I often wear earplugs to attenuate the problem but it sounds as if even that wouldn't help Lisa.

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

It might. It's worth trying out. Sparks had Menier's disease (now pretty much in remission) and used to wear earplugs at concerts. Given he was a professional sound tech, it shows that one can even work with them in, if the condition is helped enough. I remember him telling me about being in the front row at a modest sized gig for a friend of his and putting his earplugs in visibly as the band came on-stage. One of the other band members gave him grief about it afterwards. The band member survived but knew a lot more about hearing and sound amplification after the forceful and lengthy reply.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I sympathize, even though I don't have hearing problems. Quite a few years ago now I was inveigled into attending a concert at the San Jose Arena. The performer was a female country-rock singer, quite well known, though I forget her name. I rather enjoyed her music, when I heard it in recordings. I couldn't take this. After five minutes I had to leave. The volume and the horrible arena quality of the music were unbearable. And I think I may have had my earplugs with me.

Classical music, 99% of the time, is unamplified, and the exceptions cause a great deal of furor.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Lisa has listened to "Big Band" music that was mostly un-amplified (except the vocalist) and had no problem with it. She says they put way too much bass in most amplified music.

[howeird]

So sorry about that - I thought she might have a problem at a casino concert. I test audio input against audio output as part of my job, and amplified output usually adds several harmonics to the output. That is, someone sings an A (440Hz) into a mike and out comes 110, 220, 440, 880, 1760, etc. Those aren't the actual numbers but they give the right idea. Harmonics add volume and the feel of a concert hall vs. a solo in a cornfield.

My tinitis is very very mild, and lately the only time it has kicked in was at Conflikt concerts. I don't go to major concerts for the same reason eleyan says.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. I just read that to Lisa, and she says she thinks she must be hearing all of those harmonics, and they're clashing in her head.

If I had the Big Bucks, I'd pay for Al and Dave to do a house concert at Fernley House. We'd have room for about ten people and they wouldn't even need amplification for the vocals.

[delosharriman]

Most people can tolerate a remarkably high level of even-harmonic distortion, & many actually prefer a touch of it, but odd-harmonic distortion is universally unhappy-making. (One of the characteristics of old vacuum-tube audio amplifiers is a certain level of even-harmonic distortion, generally 1%—5%, & listeners often enjoy the sound more than that from amplifiers tuned to a lower THD.)

[retro-rider55.livejournal.com]

I'd wondered what'd happened to him...

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he lives in Marin County and tours regularly (as you'll see from the web site). I get the impression he's bigger in Europe than in the USA. He filled the ballroom at Boomtown (twice -- two shows), but he's obviously a niche performer. Before introducing one of his songs from his second album, he said, "I was just a folksinger until Alan Parsons discovered me and turned me into a pop star — for a little while." He later said, "I read too many history books." I like him; his songs are smart and repay close attention.

Lisa and I have a fantasy of having the money to throw away to produce a music video of "Night Train to Munich." We would need to find a European railway museum with the right steam and vintage passenger equipment, not to mention money to hire the helicopter for the lovely overhead shots of the train rolling through the German countryside. We've got it story-boarded in our heads. And I bet that if presented with a couple of crazy people wanting to throw money at him (cash in advance) for it, he'd agree; he seemed very easy-going about such things when I spoke to him after his show at Ross a few years ago.

[retro-rider55.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I'd need more than $$ to film the music video I've story-boarded in my head; specifically, the technology to bring Nat Cole back from the dead...

[delosharriman]

I'm fond of Stewart's 'historical' works, myself — "Old Admirals" perhaps especially, although it's not one of his more musically or thematically complex pieces. But everytime I have to go to DFW Airport, I find myself pastiching "Terminal Eyes" ("Terminal A").

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

He did comment on one of the songs he did that "There are way too many words in this song," but that's fairly typical. He didn't go completely over the top and perform "Roads to Moscow," which is a huge long song; I think he said it takes something close to ten minutes to do it completely. He put it into the show at Ross a few years ago, where he could take requests because he wasn't under time constraints. When someone asked for it, he sort of rolled his eyes and said he'd see if he could remember all of the lyrics.

[delosharriman]

"On the Border" is another one like that.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I actually remember him most for Time Passages, although his Josephine Baker rewards those with a knowledge of historical pop culture. Now I feel I should listen to Night Train to Munich again.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Ask Lisa sometime to describe her music video for "Night Train to Munich." I was amused to read an interview with Stewart where he said the song had nothing to do with the movie of the same name.