Can someone explain the appeal of live entertainment to me?

I mean, I can understand wanting to hang with your friends or if it's a comedian or something and they change their bit every time. But why is a concert/bar band considered to be better than a CD? I mean, every time I've gone to a live music festival, the sound was turned so far up as to be unintelligible. And why do people not want to see plays get replaced by film? I could understand if it's just a preference for genres and film doesn't meet their genre preferences, but I simply can't understand why a play is considered to be better than a film when films have so many more options they can use to apply tropes.

I'm just flabbergasted by this mentality.

edited 24th Jul '11 11:07:10 PM by Deboss

Fight smart, not fair.

Well for me, a concert for a band that I like is cool because I actually get to see someone I'm a fan of in real life, like meeting a movie star or something. I also like hearing the music live, because it is different than the processed version, and sometimes it even sounds better to me.

With the theater performances I think it is just a matter of preference. I like both movies and theater. It just feels like more "real" or something when there is an actual flesh and blood person there instead of just a screen.

Aesthetic differences basically.

First off there is something I find magical about being able to go to a live show whether it be a choir concert or a play. There's something special about looking up there and seeing the actual people in the actual act of whatever it is they are doing.

Next...each show is different. Let's say some group is doing a production of A Raisin in the Sun. Now obviously this is going to be different from a different production of the exact same play. Things like the set, the costumes, the actors...That's all different.

But there's differences between showings of the same production done by the same group. Let's say you see this group's Raisin one night and then you see it again the next. There's going to be little differences. The audience around you is different and their reaction to certain scenes will be different. The first night the audience applauds Mama's smacking of her daughter for speaking ill of God. The next there is loud booing. The acting will be slightly different too. Maybe someone was having an off night and the next they do better. Or maybe someone inflects something different. Or maybe someone trips.

Then after the show you might be able to go up and talk to the performers. That's always a fun experience.

There's also a respect I feel for it as I myself have been in quite a few live productions for band and I have spent time in theatre and dance class. It's a tough thing to do and I respect it. I like to see it.

Also...I love the ever living fuck out of stage and set design and costuming as done by those involved in theatre. I like the costumes, I like the lighting, I like the neat little techniques they have to use to get things to work. It's one of the last bastions of such things. That and haunted houses and weird little films...

edited 24th Jul '11 11:17:51 PM by Aondeug

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

In a good live performance there's an energy flow back and forth between the performers and the audience members. It's a feedback loop, but a positive one — the audience gets energy from the performers and from the other audience members, the performers tap into that flow and use it and amplify it and send it back out to the audience again. And it cycles around, building up each time. If the performers aren't interested or the audience can't, won't, or doesn't engage (for instance, if the sound quality is bad) that flow can't be maintained and everyone goes home unhappy; the performers say they had a bad audience and the audience says that the performers were lackluster, or "phoning it in" or just "bad".

When someone calls a live performance "electrifying" they're closer to a literal truth than they realize, most of the time.

edited 24th Jul '11 11:22:33 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Also that. Maddy explains things well regarding the MAGIC of such things.

THANK YOU MADDY. YOU MAKE SENSE TYPE THINGS.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Yes, most of that. And also, a play is just really immersive, somehow, in a way that you don't get in any other medium.

(From the production side of things, the representational norms mean a play can be rapturously engaging on a smaller budget than you'll get with any movie. Unless your name is Julie Taymor or Andrew Lloyd Webber, anyway.)

Never been big on concerts, but if I ever got the chance to meet Alexander James Adams in person, that'd change.

edited 24th Jul '11 11:26:14 PM by DomaDoma

Hail Martin Septim!

Also, acoustics are a better use of the live format (and plenty loud in a decently designed venue,) so the quality problem really only exists with genres like rock that abuse amplifiers out the wazoo and require earplugs to attend.

Eric,

Truthfully, very few venues are designed now with optimum acoustics for more than one type of performance, and bars are notorious for having lousy acoustics in general. Add that far too many bar bands think that cranking the volume will force the people sitting around drinking with their buddies to pay attention to the band. It doesn't work but the band and the sound guy rarely figure that out — they're more likely to assume they simply weren't loud enough last time.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I've been holding it in for a while, but that comma at the end of all your posts really bugs me.

edited 24th Jul '11 11:35:59 PM by DomaDoma

Hail Martin Septim!

Interplay between audience and performers. Music on a CD is music in its intended form. Music in a live setting, is music as performance. It's rawest purest form, ideally. With a concert you get room for improvisation, encores, dialogue between audience and performers. It's discussion, a back and forth conversation about the music they bring to the people.

Oh that too. Shows where the audience is part of the play. Those are things. Very neat things. Whether it's a show that is focused around the interaction between the cast and the audience or if it's something like the Aladdin stage musical where Prince Ali Aliababwa's parade rides through the audience it's an interesting experience.

Though such things are present in certain films to a lesser extent. Or were. Like older horror films where the theatre would do things like running ghost puppets above the audience or things like that Honey I Shrunk the Audience show they used to have at Disneyland where they would do things like run air through the floor to simulate mice running through the audience.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Most concerts have enough visuals and special effects to make things interesting. Daft Punk is the best example I can think of off hand, since the two of them construct a huge pyramid of techno-magic that lights up and stuff while they DJ at the very top. Deadmau5 also has his mouse head, which makes him very interesting to watch. There's also the party-like vibe at concerts, which is exciting.

Theater plays are a whole different medium. They relish on the fact that what they do is live. In movies, huge props and CGI effects are clearly fake or staged. In theater plays, all the big props are built, or creatively done to make the viewer imagine the play, instead of spelling it out to them in specific detail. A theater play also has the advantage of being "one big take," which is fascinating. Movies are made up of thousands of different scenes, cuts, redos, spliced imagery, etc. A theater play is all one shot, basically, one perfect, no-damage run. If done properly. This is why many theater-based movies tend to fall.

I'm pretty sure the concept of Law having limits was a translation error. -Wanderlustwarrior

Okay then.

Fight smart, not fair.

Theater based movies are in general not shot to make money but because the actors are real real good professionals doing it for the art to give the experience of their interpretation to a wider audience. Also, if you're seeing a live theater production/musical you see the whole stage. That doesn't seem important but you have to remember that the focus in a movie is directed by the camera. Seeing a play gets you a relative static view point from which you can focus on what you find interesting. Idealy you should be able to watch plays two times and get a whole new experience by changing your focus. Also, I agree about the interaction between audience and band. A great live recording shows you how the singer makes interesting introductions for songs, makes the audience sing their songs, lets them clap their hands/stomp/whatever and they have improptu solos. Taking to the extreme, you get Jazz bands where the differences between each concert are staggering.

Generally, the reason I love going to see live theatrical performances, is theres an energy and enthusiasm you don't get from a movie that you get from a musical or play. When the actors are right there onstage, putting their heart into a Villain song or a i want song, it can be goddamn electrifying how much a powerfully acted and sung song and some audience cheering afterwards can make the play that much better.

When I saw the local college's performance of Urinetown, the guy playing Caldwell B Cladwell was having the time of his life playing an egomaniac with tons of money, and it showed in just the ridiculous hammy zeal he took to the villain songs.

edited 25th Jul '11 4:01:53 AM by Midgetsnowman

Catharsis. Shared emotion, is a very powerful thing. I'd go as far as to say that for most people it's a primal need. Live entertainment is one of the things that we do to fulfill that need.

Democracy is the process in which we determine the government that we deserve

But is Catharsis really live action only? I'm sure film adaptions are as much theater plays as theaters themself.

Its much harder to do with a movie. Movies arent nearly as interactable with. I find it much easier to suspend disbelief for some obviously low budget props in a play with quality acting than a movie.

^^ They aren't for many people. There's no feedback from the movie. There may not even be any feedback from the rest of the audience, since a movie can be watched alone. It's very easy to split your attention between a movie you're watching or a CD you're listening to, and something else. But the theatre or symphony hall setting focuses your attention on the performance and intensifies the experience

And a film adaptation isn't the same as seeing the play, because as soon as you introduce the camera, you've put the choice of what you pay attention to into the hands of someone else. It's now the director who decides which character you're looking at as a line is delivered, or whether you notice that gun on the mantelpiece or not. If he doesn't want you to see it, he can frame his shots so that you simply don't see it, even though it's been there all along. If he wants to be certain that you know it's there, he can do that too.

edited 25th Jul '11 11:32:10 AM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I never got what the point of going to concert was... I kinda feel bad when I hear other ppl saying how fun or awesome this or that concert was but when I think about being able to stay home, or with my friends somewhere, and not having to pay for anything, I feel better. Besides I am too lazy for that... concerts are physically demanding events...

I do go to free concerts sometimes and I like watching music being played live... but certainly not in a stadium but like, being close to what is being played.

And I do like plays, they are like films but they are usually more graceful because all the action takes place in a room that changes few times so more effort needs to be put in the dialogues and in characterization. I also love how much thought the writer of a good play puts in the characters entrances and exits from stage.

Watching my school's play of little shop of horrors was aesthetically one of the best experience Ive ever had... mainly because I knew all the actors personally :P

edited 25th Jul '11 5:18:13 PM by Baff

I will always cherish the chance of a new beggining.

OP: No, they cant.

A lot of them are treated as social events, the sound in a good concert venue is better than you could get on regular speakers, audience involvement. There's a lot of reasons people just find live performances more enjoyable. The phrase "apply tropes" in that context gives me a headache though.

Having been to a few live performances *

, I can say that Madrugada is completely correct. Recorded media is intellectual; you appreciate in a passive, analytical fashion. There's something to be said for it *

^{indeed, I consume recorded media much more often than live and I'd say that's true for most of us}

...but it doesn't even come close to the energy of a good live show.

To offer a sexual analogy...recorded media is porn *

, whereas live music is sex. One is made to be perfect, the other just happens, for better or for worse. Like sex, live music can be bad or indifferent, and often is; little details on both ends of the metaphor can ruin the experience. But when everything clicks, one gets an experience that can be tough to forget.

One is distant and perfect, the other is flawed, visceral and in your face.

There's also the uniqueness to consider; when one listens to music on recording or watches a movie, it's the same every time. At a live performance, you're one of a few seeing something that will never occur again. For better or worse, it's a singular moment that will not and cannot be replicated.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Dunno about Deboss, but I think the responses so far have done an excellent job. They provide a more or less perfect explanation of why I don't like live entertainment.

[quote]They provide a more or less perfect explanation of why I don't like live entertainment. [/quote] I don't get it... I thought most answers came down in favour or at least equal standing of live entertainment. Also, about concerts: There are also bands that combine their music with... a bit of theatrical performance. There's Rammstein, of course, or another I saw had a band member that provided a butlering service by bringing drinks, fixing clothes or interacting with the band between and in songs in a rather comical and amusing manner. Needless to say, that isn't showing up on any CD.