I’ve been thinking about this post ever since I saw this video. Basically, a recording engineer was hired to record the performance for the venue and was never paid and then he posted the isolated guitar and vocal tracks of Courtney Love’s performance that night in 2010. Now, to take the easy low road, you can make fun of the guitar playing. It’s bad. I get it. Here is the video:
But the interesting thing… I started to reflect about my own guitar playing. I don’t want to defend or justify the quality of play. I mean – she’s in Hole. They’re *pro*. It should be awesome, right?
What it did remind me of – those times when you’re on stage. You think you killed it. Performance was high energy. You felt like you were in the pocket, but after listening to a live recording of the performance, you start hearing the clams all over the place. Maybe I was *too* loose. I guess I wasn’t that awesome after all, you begin to think… wow.. I actually sucked.
I think playing live is about walking the tightrope of high energy performance while maintaining massive control of your instrument. Experience, and practicing (like you were playing a live show) is the key.
Regardless of her performance, the rest of the band pulled it through. The fans were into it. And when we talk about a band, it’s a group effort to get through the night and leaving the crowd stoked.
Let me know what you think about slop/energy when playing live. What do you do to tighten the screws while being energetic and loose? Let me know what you think!