Live shows are different. Unless the performer is someone like Katy Perry who shamelessly lip syncs her performances and uses canned music, the sound is going to be a little more raw, the lyrics might vary, and it will be live and it will be real, and different.
Which if the performer in question is worth the price of admission, is probably a good thing. You have heard the album version and yes it is amazing, but when you have a performer who is in also an artist and musician that cares passionately about their craft and their fans, then those fans will likely be witness to something truly special. That is always the hope and the reason to go to a live show.
When you have a band like Blur on the bill… the expectations are pretty high. Unfortunately, for Blur fans at Coachella this, so too apparently was frontman Damon Albarn.
Blur’s highly anticipated performances at Coachella over the last two weeks were marked by controversy as Daman Albarn first seemed to bash the festival and its fans, saying Blur would never play Coachella again, only to come back the next week and “clarify” those comments by suggesting that he nothing against Coachella, that “He loves Coachella” but that Blur itself was done. ???
At least that’s what we think he said, accent aside, Damon was slurring so badly he was hardly intelligible. I had the benefit of watching the broadcast at home this year, so the lack of clarity can’t be blamed on the crowd or audio equipment issues, he was just mumbling and slurring in what seems to be a stream of conscious continuation of his comments from the previous weekend.
As for some of Albarn’s other comments from the week before and how he’d been pissed at people on their cellphones, I get that. I’m not a fan of cell phones in general let alone at a concert, and I understand Albarn’s point of view understand his completely. …but Coachella is not “An evening with”, but a massive a multi-venue music and arts festival. With so many drunk and drugged people, so many stages, and general admission to just about all of it, a cell phone is kind of a necessity.
And… if you not only fail to entertain the people who have paid so much to see you, but outright suck because you are too drunk or stoned to speak straight or sing on key, you can’t really blame people for not wanting to pay attention.
So is Blur calling it quits? That’s kind of what it sounded like. And truth be told, given what Blur sounded like, sad as it is, that might not be the wrong decision. How many bands and artists, keep going well past their prime and end on bad note (sorry) as opposed to going out in style.
My kids were in the room and my wife and I had talked Blur up to them, asserting that Blur was one of the great alternative bands, and that Damon was also the lead singer and driving force behind the Gorillas who they both like.
Then Blur came onstage and were all but unrecognizable from the band I remember, and for a moment I thought for some reason a drunk and stoned Jeff Lynne of ELO was making a guest appearance before I realized that that was Damon.
After the first song my wife and I turned to our kids, and said, “Ok, yeah that one was a little rough, but it usually take a two or three songs for people to warm up and they have at least a few I think you’ll like. These guys are really good.” By the third song, both kids were like, “Dad… they may have been good once, but this sucks. That guy sounds terrible”.
Hugely disappointed, a little sad, and even feeling a little old, I had to agree. Blur was great once, but that time seems to have passed, and based on Albarn’s stammered comments, even they seem to know it.
