Sting and Annie Lennox

[pegkerr]

I bought the tickets months ago, and I'd really been looking forward to it. And the concert was great, as best as I could tell.

You see, I've never bought tickets for a concert held at the Target Center before and didn't really know what to expect. I certainly paid enough for them, but the fact is, from where we were sitting, high up above the speaker level, the sound absolutely sucked. Unless I knew the songs they were singing, I couldn't make out one word, singing or spoken. There were video screens over the stage on Sting's set, but the lighting grid blocked our view of them. And they were so far away: I would have liked to have seen the singers closer up, but we forgot to bring the binoculars.

Annie Lennox was in terrific voice and awfully fun to watch--what I could make out. (Man, I want a leather jacket like that.) It was actually a little easier to hear Sting, as he had more quiet, contemplative songs that didn't turn the arena's acoustics into mush. We certainly enjoyed it--the duet they did of Sting's song "We'll Be Together" was electrifying--but I have to admit, our enjoyment was tempered by a certain amount of frustration. Not their fault at all. Just the sound system and our seat placement. No way I could have known, really.

Comments

Venues

[nwl.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear the venue had poor acoustics for where you were seated. It seems to be the case in even the best of places. Considering the prices one pays for tickets, you'd think the venue would want all the seats to be good.

We went to hear Gordon Lightfoot years ago in Kennedy Center and were appalled at how poor the acoustics were where we were seated. We complained and were put in empty seats near the back. We haven't been back. I haven't found the Kennedy Center to be that good a place for concerts, having been disappointed just about every time we go, which isn't often.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

It's my experience (limited with regards to concerts, but based on growing up in the theatre with people who knew how to do sound for an appropriately sized venue) that virtually all concert sound setups are incredibly bad. They tend to value loud over comprehensible or balanced. If the venue is small, the music is so loud it's just noise trying to crowd you out; if the venue is large, the music is just noise trying to reach you. Either I, like you, have had a run of very bad concert experiences, or (and this seems far more likely to me) this is standard, and most people don't notice it because they know all the words to the songs already and they don't know what *good* sound is.

Having said all that, I'm still jealous. Sting and Annie Lennox. Lucky Peg! :)

[legomymalfoy.livejournal.com]

I have seen Sting before, and it was grand :) That show is coming through Phoenix soon (september I think) but it's at an outdoor venue. Now I really want to go *evny*.

[stinaleigh.livejournal.com]

I was there too, but I didn't know I was going until yesterday noon. I wish I had known you were there I would have tried to come and say hi. I have never been to a concert that wasn't too loud and unbalanced but I did like this one for the most part.

[sraun]

I have heard that the Target Center has among the worst acoustics available for a stadium (or stadium-like) concert venue.

I've been to ... one? maybe two - concerts there. Mannheim Steamroller. I enjoyed them - I think Mannheim may know how to get the best out of a bad situation - but I'm very unhappy with the ticket office. Turns out the seats I bought were unavailable because of the concert setup (they'd put speakers or a sound-board or something right there), and I got bounced from the best possible cheap seats (straight on to the stage - you want that for a Mannheim Steamroller concert!) to the worst possible - almost edge on to the stage.