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drwexFor the non-local, The Paradise is something of a legendary Boston venue. It's been around forever and in my opinion has never been above "mediocre" in its quality as a place to see a show. But it's run by one of the big names in Boston music booking so lots of acts play there. There also aren't a lot of other venues in its size. It's comfortable with 250 people but it can pack in close to 500 (by my eyeball estimate - London Grammar sold out).
Unfortunately, the club sucks as a venue to see music. You can be on the floor, with several major pillars obstructing lines of sight, and be pressed into a crush (*) or you can be up on the balcony, with the ceiling just a couple feet above your head crushing all the acoustics. The floor is arranged side-to-side so the number of spaces in front of the band is about 1/3 of the total. They also tend to mix the sound WAY TOO FUCKING LOUD for a venue of that size.
The opening act (Haert - yes, it's written that way) were so loud as to be painful. When London Grammar went on Hannah Reid was clearly having problems with the audio in her earpieces. At first I thought she had a cold - her voice was oddly flattened in certain ranges - then I realized they had just completely fucked up the mix of the high-mid ranges. She sang around it to some extent but I lost count of the number of grimaces she made while fidgeting with her earpieces.
London Grammar were as good as they could be given that it's late on the tour - they've been on the road since SXSW - and they're clearly tired. They also have not developed a lot of their own material and didn't do several of the covers they've done at other events. There was also a sort of awkward bit of on-stage where they haven't developed the kind of easy banter you see some acts engage in. I was very amused when Reid dropped into her native accent to call one of her bandmates a "right git" but the three of them just don't have the on-stage personas you see from more polished acts.
All of which is to say, yes, these guys remain awesome and I was really happy to see them despite all the drawbacks. Knowing about London Grammar now feels like knowing a secret everyone else has yet to discover. I keep expecting them to break really big any day now, because of course everyone will appreciate this fantastic thing.
I bought a signed CD because it was there and some day I hope to be one of those annoying hipsters who can say "Oh, yes, but I saw them back in 2014 in a small club..."
(*) I was amused by the guy next to me who was either copping a feel or seeing if he could lift my wallet apologizing for "bumping into" me. Dude, keeping your hand down at that level is not "bumping into".
Unfortunately, the club sucks as a venue to see music. You can be on the floor, with several major pillars obstructing lines of sight, and be pressed into a crush (*) or you can be up on the balcony, with the ceiling just a couple feet above your head crushing all the acoustics. The floor is arranged side-to-side so the number of spaces in front of the band is about 1/3 of the total. They also tend to mix the sound WAY TOO FUCKING LOUD for a venue of that size.
The opening act (Haert - yes, it's written that way) were so loud as to be painful. When London Grammar went on Hannah Reid was clearly having problems with the audio in her earpieces. At first I thought she had a cold - her voice was oddly flattened in certain ranges - then I realized they had just completely fucked up the mix of the high-mid ranges. She sang around it to some extent but I lost count of the number of grimaces she made while fidgeting with her earpieces.
London Grammar were as good as they could be given that it's late on the tour - they've been on the road since SXSW - and they're clearly tired. They also have not developed a lot of their own material and didn't do several of the covers they've done at other events. There was also a sort of awkward bit of on-stage where they haven't developed the kind of easy banter you see some acts engage in. I was very amused when Reid dropped into her native accent to call one of her bandmates a "right git" but the three of them just don't have the on-stage personas you see from more polished acts.
All of which is to say, yes, these guys remain awesome and I was really happy to see them despite all the drawbacks. Knowing about London Grammar now feels like knowing a secret everyone else has yet to discover. I keep expecting them to break really big any day now, because of course everyone will appreciate this fantastic thing.
I bought a signed CD because it was there and some day I hope to be one of those annoying hipsters who can say "Oh, yes, but I saw them back in 2014 in a small club..."
(*) I was amused by the guy next to me who was either copping a feel or seeing if he could lift my wallet apologizing for "bumping into" me. Dude, keeping your hand down at that level is not "bumping into".
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You didn't tell me
Date: 2014-04-14 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-15 12:02 pm (UTC)... but they do get some GREAT shows in there, and sometimes those shows come with a sound person who knows how to deal with the dead spaces and doesn't just turn up the volume.