Show REVIEW:Santa Barbara @ Soho Sept 28 "Captivating but...

[tsmash]

Ok, this is a preliminary review of tonight's Santa Barbara show at SoHo. I just drove an hour and a half back home and it's 1:44 am in the morning, so a more detailed musical review will have to wait. Right now, this is more of an open letter to Hope and the band. I'm also going to the Hollywood Forever show on Tuesday, so I'd appreciate it you guys would take this input in the spirit in which it is given and make the next show better. (Yes, there's always room for improvement.).

First, I had never seen Hope or Mazzy live before, so it was very interesting to have her standing there right before me. Musically, a lot of the new stuff seemed more Mazzy-esque than the first album. Not as soft, less not-in-you-face acoustic. We even had a little slide guitar going. The band had a really good sound and when the trance gets working, it's captivating. I especially got into the 10 minute trip-out song at the end of the regular set. Some of that great, dark groove we all love. (And no, I don't know the song's name. I'm not there to take notes.) You could tell the crowd liked the recognizable songs from the first album like Charlotte. But I'll cover the music itself in a future post.

Now for some technical notes to the band: Can you dial down the ridiculous amount of reverb on Hope's voice? How 'bout bringing it down 30-40%. She has a great voice, we like her voice, and we want to be able to make out the actual words she's singing. Yes, I know that's been her thing, the Mazzy stuff was infamous for reverb (or echo -- or whatever you want to call it). But in the past the vocals were still understandable, the words intelligible. Tonight we had reverb reverbing over the reverb. Too much! And look -- I like guitar distortion -- I'm Mr. Distortion -- but the lead guitar seemed to be pegging, overmodulating at time. The mix seemed off.

Maybe spend more time getting the sound right (hell, the show started so late, you had nothing but time).
I've never been to this club before so I can't exactly tell you how it measures up acoustically. (It didn't seem horrible.) But the sound for tonight's show was not great. It didn't quite reach the level of sucking, but it was getting close. (I noticed it did seem like you tweaked some things as you went along, so it was better towards the end. Hey, but isn't that what sound checks are supposed to be for? Fix it before the show.)

Some things were a little inexplicable. Hope had 2 vocal mics facing the audience, one appeared to be for her harmonica, but then she ended up blowing it into both mics. And the harmonica was buried at too low a volume. And really, would it have killed you to position the xylophone so Hope could face the audience when she's banging away? Half the time, I was looking at her back. I appreciated the retro-ness of the 16mm film projector shooting images at the backdrop/bedsheet behind the band. But that pinprick of intense bright light was obviously blinding to Hope and she used her hand to shield her eyes for a good part of the show. There's got to be a better way. (Mmmmm....or maybe she wants it that way so she can't see the audience at all?)

It was so dark on stage Hope struggled to read her set list. Some subtle diffuse soft light as a base would be good around her would be nice. You could make it still seem dark, but it wouldn't really be pitch dark.

The show time was listed at 8:00 pm. I don't remember there being any mention of an opening band on tonight's bill. Turns out there was sort of an opening band -- it was The Warm Inventions without Hope Sandoval. Hope finally took the stage at 10:40 pm. Yes, 10:40 pm. Remember, this is a weekday show -- a lot of people have go to work/school in the morning and its in freakin' Santa Barbara, so I'm guessing a good portion of the crowd make the trip up from L.A. They will face a looooong drive back, so the earlier it begins = the earlier it ends = the earlier they get home. So unless there was a really good excuse, the whole "Let's have Hope appear almost 3 hours AFTER the scheduled show time" is somewhat contemptuous of your fans. And I'm not a big fan of that.

BTW, the place was not full. Maybe 200 people. The audience were obviously all long time fans and had heard about "The Rules." No talking, no flash photography, etc and they pretty much obeyed.

The show was a little too short. It was an hour plus a 2-3 song encore.

It may sound like I'm ragging on the show, but I'm not. I enjoyed it. It was a unique experience. The musicality was great -- in a way, better than I expected; a more varied sound and tempo than you would think based on just the first album. But please: Pay more attention to what the audience is seeing and hearing. Get the audio right next time. And it's ok to be fashionably rock 'n rock late but please don't be so late it seems like you're spitting in the face of your very devoted, tolerant fans.

[nil_by_mouth]

And maybe she can offer every member of the audeince a foot massage too....

[StudioA]

Thank you for the honest review.

[StudioA]

I think the main issue here is expectation. Our expectation based on other shows we've seen by other artists.

If you were lucky enough to have been able to read some of these show reviews prior to buying your tickets, you would know almost exactly what to expect. In that case, someone could feel that the show met their expectations (even if they didn't like or agree with certain aspects of the show).

If you hadn't seen her perform before and you were buying tickets to one of the first shows for this new album, and felt that the show did not meet your expectations, than I do feel bad for you. That is unfortunate. It is an investment in your Time and Money. In this case, the only thing you can do is... not buy any more songs, albums or not support her or her bands any longer. That is really all you can do at this point, to make your point. After all, any artist "Reaps what they Sow" good or bad.

I will still be buying my tickets to an upcoming show, even after knowing all these facts about the prior shows. Yes, I am doing this at risk, I know. But, I would like to at least say later, "I did see her perform live."

Here's what we know about her shows, so far (Take this into consideration before buying your tickets):

1. She may not enter the stage or start singing for up to 2 hours 40 minutes from the start of the show.
2. She may not acknowledge the audience (in any way).
3. You may not see her in any light during the show.
4. There may be sound problems during the show.
5. The show's set consists mainly of some backlighting, a projector shooting images/video onto a bed sheet.
6. There is NO flash photography allowed at the show.
7. She may walk off the stage early, if there are any problems she can't deal with.

[DaveP]

I think you put it just right - Studio A:

If you think you are going to see a flawless performance for your $20 ticket - you are way off. I think that people should know what to expect from past performances of years past, but if not then from all these good reviews of how people feel.

[Scarecrow]

After reading your review I'll admit noticed one or two of these things in the 2 shows I went to as well, but no offense to you for the most part I really feel like you're nitpicking. These detracted from the performance by like .01%. Hope has stopped shows in the past because of bad sound, and is pretty much a perfectionist about her live performances. Of course you're entitled to your opinion, but if she is cool with the way things sound/look then how bad could it have possibly been? The show was excellent in both Milwaukee and Chicago and in my opinion the positives outweighed the negatives.

As far as the timing, I personally am not surprised because it was a California show. The 10:40 start would have likely been because Santa Barbara is about an hour and a half from LA, so she probably has friends/family/etc that she hasn't seen in a while (Hope is obviously a very private and reserved person, so I'm sure this was probably one of the few opportunities that people who know her distantly have to meet her).

StudioA, here's my response to your checklist (lol):


1. She may not enter the stage or start singing for up to 2 hours 40 minutes from the start of the show. - started about an hour and a half in Milwaukee, an hour and 45 in Chicago
2. She may not acknowledge the audience (in any way). - she acknolwedged the audience in Milwaukee, and in Chicago she thanked the crowd at the end of the show and said "good night"
3. You may not see her in any light during the show. - no light in Miilwaukee, perfect faint lighting in Chicago where I could actually see her face
4. There may be sound problems during the show. - no sound problems at either show
5. The show's set consists mainly of some backlighting, a projector shooting images/video onto a bed sheet. - well yeah, i dont know why this would be a problem though. it's part of the effect and i personally loved it.
6. There is NO flash photography allowed at the show. - makes sense.
7. She may walk off the stage early, if there are any problems she can't deal with. - given how hypnotic the experience was for me personally, and how i almost fell into a trance of sorts, i can see how the effect would be ruined not just for her but for the crowd if any major problems arose. once people snap out of the daze you lose the effect.

DaveP, I didn't go in expecting "flawless" shows, but I can safely say I got not just one but two flawless shows. Maybe thats the die hard fan in me speaking but take it for what it is.