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The Modern Scourge of Backing Tracks at Live Shows


Requiem

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This is something that has been bothering me for a few years now. While bands have used backing tracks when playing live for years, it really feels like they are becoming more and more prevalent - oftentimes to the detriment of the show. 

When I say backing tracks I'm of course talking about pre-recorded keyboards, guitars, backing vocals, orchestras and what have you that are played over the PA concurrently with the live band. While they can be used well in adding ambience to a show, or reproducing an important element that simply can't be transported around the world with a touring band, too often these days they are becoming too much. 

Allow me to provide a couple of examples.

Last night I went and saw the French post-black band Alcest. The backing tracks were overwhelming, and although they had four musicians up on stage, nearly all the melodies whether on guitar or keyboards were coming through the backing tracks. So we had the preposterous situation of two guitarists up there strumming bar chords while a backing track guitar that was lifted straight off the album played the melody, at full volume. 

The vocals were similarly affected. Often Neige would sing in a clear voice that was swamped by a chorus of backing track vocals. It was difficult to make out which voice was his. 

Katatonia and Paradise Lost are two other culprits in this, and they are two of my all time favourite bands so I don't throw shade at them lightly. Because both bands' albums use heaps of keyboards and piano, yet they don't have keyboard players in their live shows, there are huge backing tracks of keyboards swamping the sound. The extent of Katatonia's use of backing keys a few months ago felt like the CD was playing and they just played along with it. 

Look at Paradise Lost's 'Symphony of the Lost' CD/DVD. They play 'Erased' with backing track keyboards and female vocalist! Female vocalist! They just played a set with a choir and orchestra, and they still used a backing track for the female vocals rather than getting one of the women to sing that part! Do you know how cool it is to watch a band with a backing track singing the female vocal lines? Zero cool. 

A final example is another favourite band of mine, Septicflesh. Of course it's impossible for them to re-produce orchestra sounds live, but last time I saw them they also had the clean vocals on backing tracks! So it was four guys up there quietly playing the guitar/bass/drums while huge orchestras and vocals filled the room from the backing tracks. Again, a metal band playing along with a CD, basically. 

I just wish bands had a little more courage to get out and play more of the songs 'live' when they're playing live. I don't mind if they don't have every piano plonk or that extra guitar sound from the album. I don't mind if the clean vocals aren't quite on key. It's a live show - I expect imperfections. I want to see the band and get a tangible sense that they are there in front of me, recreating their songs!

Fleshgod Apocalypse are a great example of how it can be done tastefully. They use a real keyboard player yet use some backing tracks discretely. Huge sound but generally played - and felt - live. 

Anyone else notice this annoying phenomenon?

 

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The first time I noticed it in a really detrimental way was when I saw Lacuna Coil. I saw them once before and once just after Comalies came out. The first time was a no-frills set that seemed pretty solid; the second time, they had tons of backing tracks (not to mention more elaborate outfits and a totally different stage demeanor), and there were plenty of similarly awkward moments where Andrea and Cristina were both "rocking out" in a sort of forced way, without singing, while vocal tracks were blaring out over the speakers. Not a huge fan of Lacuna Coil to begin with, but that experience (and Comalies itself) definitely turned me off. I have to say that Katatonia has usually done a pretty good job integrating their tracks IMO. But all in all, I prefer to see a live band doing a live version of their set, with the music rearranged if need be.

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8 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

The first time I noticed it in a really detrimental way was when I saw Lacuna Coil. I saw them once before and once just after Comalies came out. The first time was a no-frills set that seemed pretty solid; the second time, they had tons of backing tracks (not to mention more elaborate outfits and a totally different stage demeanor), and there were plenty of similarly awkward moments where Andrea and Cristina were both "rocking out" in a sort of forced way, without singing, while vocal tracks were blaring out over the speakers. Not a huge fan of Lacuna Coil to begin with, but that experience (and Comalies itself) definitely turned me off. I have to say that Katatonia has usually done a pretty good job integrating their tracks IMO. But all in all, I prefer to see a live band doing a live version of their set, with the music rearranged if need be.

I can just imagine re Lacuna Coil. They became too cool for school just after 'Comalies' in my opinion. I love their 'In a Reverie' album and I really like 'Comalies', but after that you could tell they felt they needed to adapt a bit to become the 'next big thing' whether in the studio or on stage. Never seen them live though. 

I've seen Katatonia four times between 2008 and 2017, and I can definitely confirm that this latest time they were swamped by keyboard backing tracks that I'd barely noticed in the other shows. It was really distracting during their current tour. As they travel with their own sound person I can't imagine that it was the venue's fault. 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Insomnium last night. Perfect use of backing tracks. Just some ambience and the odd touch here and there, but they played their instruments with aplomb and it was a proper rock n roll show. 

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  • 2 months later...

Watching the Moonspell show on youtube 'Viva Latina' from Mexico City this year, and goddamn the backing tracks.

They have female vocals on backing tracks (with nary a woman in sight), huge sweeps of programmed keyboards, even though they have Pedro Paixao basically on permanent keyboards these days, and all the sound effects and ambience of the albums pumping through.

It just sucks. I love this band and I love these songs. I listen to them all the time. But I don't want to hear every studio tweak come out in the live setting. Basically, I don't want to hear the CD being played with the drummer, bass player and guitar player jamming along with it. That ain't a live show. That's karaoke. 

So Moonspell, Katatonia and Paradise Lost - you might be three of my favourite bands, but I can't call you live favourites you bunch of phoneys. Turn the CDs off and get up there and play some goddamn live music. 

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I mustn't have seen this earlier. Guess I'll throw in my two cents.

I think a big part of the reason that we're seeing more bands playing with backing tracks in later years is that people are starting to obtain impossibly high standards from increasingly synthetic or post-altered music that they've seen on TV or on  live DVDs. Add this with the increasingly synthetic music of other genres and increased tenancies towards progressive or technical music (in metal) and without backing tracks; metal bands would look sloppy and amateurish by comparison.

I also believe that the added pressure of the relatively new tendencies of crowds filming live performances with their phones and posting it everywhere could partially explain this phenomenon. You don't want to fuck-up really badly and then have a thousand people plaster it all over YouTube.

Personally, I would prefer to hear the fuck-ups. Hell, I would prefer a solo or minor melody not be played rather than the preposterous situation of it being blasted through a loudspeaker from a mastered audio track, but that's just my opinion.

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2 hours ago, Will said:

I mustn't have seen this earlier. Guess I'll throw in my two cents.

I think a big part of the reason that we're seeing more bands playing with backing tracks in later years is that people are starting to obtain impossibly high standards from increasingly synthetic or post-altered music that they've seen on TV or on  live DVDs. Add this with the increasingly synthetic music of other genres and increased tenancies towards progressive or technical music (in metal) and without backing tracks; metal bands would look sloppy and amateurish by comparison.

I also believe that the added pressure of the relatively new tendencies of crowds filming live performances with their phones and posting it everywhere could partially explain this phenomenon. You don't want to fuck-up really badly and then have a thousand people plaster it all over YouTube.

Personally, I would prefer to hear the fuck-ups. Hell, I would prefer a solo or minor melody not be played rather than the preposterous situation of it being blasted through a loudspeaker from a mastered audio track, but that's just my opinion.

You should have been at the Alcest show the other month, man. It was ab-surd! 

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...
On 5/26/2017 at 5:14 AM, Requiem said:

Insomnium last night. Perfect use of backing tracks. Just some ambience and the odd touch here and there, but they played their instruments with aplomb and it was a proper rock n roll show. 

Very well put. I don't mind a band having a backing track like a keyboard, synth or something. But I want to hear the band play live because it's important to me that the music is being created RIGHT NOW. That's why we see live music. The music, the energy, the band, the crowd, it all feeds together into something bigger than the notes and the amps and the screams. It's important that it's live, and the worst that I've seen is when the entire band is live, but the singer is dubbed. I've seen this with some otherwise good bands (Within Temptation), and I just don't understand. Make the music on the stage, I didn't pay to see a band pantomime.

At the same time, I recently played a show with a band that had all of their guitar gear in a big rack (2 AFXs, in-ear monitors, and a Surface tablet). The band was a traditional 5 piece, except there were 4 guys. So they were missing a bass player. One of their guitarists laid down the bass on their album, and the band played along to a recording of the bass all night, with a click going to the drummer's earpiece. This is probably borderline for my tastes, I'd do it in a pinch, but ultimately I'm going to want a bassist up there live with me when I'm playing.

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On 08/12/2017 at 5:25 PM, NEUROMANCER said:

Very well put. I don't mind a band having a backing track like a keyboard, synth or something. But I want to hear the band play live because it's important to me that the music is being created RIGHT NOW. That's why we see live music. The music, the energy, the band, the crowd, it all feeds together into something bigger than the notes and the amps and the screams. It's important that it's live, and the worst that I've seen is when the entire band is live, but the singer is dubbed. I've seen this with some otherwise good bands (Within Temptation), and I just don't understand. Make the music on the stage, I didn't pay to see a band pantomime.

At the same time, I recently played a show with a band that had all of their guitar gear in a big rack (2 AFXs, in-ear monitors, and a Surface tablet). The band was a traditional 5 piece, except there were 4 guys. So they were missing a bass player. One of their guitarists laid down the bass on their album, and the band played along to a recording of the bass all night, with a click going to the drummer's earpiece. This is probably borderline for my tastes, I'd do it in a pinch, but ultimately I'm going to want a bassist up there live with me when I'm playing.

I've seen the bass thing done before as well. In fact, a friend of mine has a band that traditionally had two guitarists and when one left he didn't get a replacement, he just recorded all of that guy's guitar parts and they played along to the track live! So there was one guitarist on stage with two guitar sounds. That's a bridge too far in my book. 

Tonight I'll be bludgeoned with backing tracks of keyboards for Paradise Lost. Oh well, at least I know what to expect. I hope they don't play anything with female vocals because if I hear a backing track chick who isn't there I'm going to lose it. 

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