You are no longer in the arena

The un-popularity of metal in the post-grunge nineties scuttled several bands that had been huge... broke them up and sent them packing within a year of the height of their popularity. That metal is no longer stigmatized has brought about countless reunion tours, but a lot of these bands aren't playing to the thousands of people they once were.

I just saw one... it was uncomfortable. The music was actually pretty good, but the singer... oh, the singer. The singer was horribly offended that there wasn't screaming and noise filling every bit of silence the band left open... not just between songs, but in dramatic breaks and rests as well. Seeing as they were playing a mid-sized club in south Seattle on a Wednesday... to fifty or so people... well, they just never reached arena volume. He wasn't happy.

And he kept hanging the microphone out into the crowd for the crowd to sing the choruses of their songs-- not just the "classic" stuff from fifteen years ago, but also from the new album, which, sorry, but it's pure arrogance to assume the crowd at your reunion tour knows the words to the new album. The man sang half the choruses to most of the songs; the crowd didn't sing the other half, the other half of the choruses just remained silent, for the most part. Again, the singer wasn't happy.

Then again... for a "theatrical" band, (though the band was looking fairly rock), the singer (who had been known for costuming-up, in the band's hey day) was out there in jeans and a worn and faded t-shirt, hanging un-ceremoniously over his now-ample belly. So, well, he looked like he was there to play a club, not an arena. But the arena ego just wouldn't die-- we left half way through.

I assume it has to be hard to come back from the land of the screaming thousands and play a small club show for fifty-or-so people... but the Rock God attitude, sneering down at the handful of people who actually did pay $20 to see a band well past their prime, that's just uncool. If they don't know the words, just sing the choruses yourself, man; you're the singer. I'm sure this band started out playing smaller clubs... almost all bands do... so there had to be a time when they just put on a good show for whoever was there.

Again, I'm just assuming here-- I never played an arena-- but, seriously, stow the ego just put on a good show.

Amature hobbyist

I've always been interested in recording. The first time I tried it, believe it or not, was into a cassette deck with a Sholz rockman. I fed my bass into the Instrument In and taped a riff as steady as I could. I the took that taped riff, put it into a walkman, and fed that riff into the Auxiliary In of the Rockman...

Feed the Rockman (which now has my bass on Instrument In and a recording of my riff on the Aux In) into the cassette deck, on a new tape, and roll... recording that gives you two tracks. Harmony, usually, or counterpoint.

Take the two-track recording out, put in in the walkman, and repeat... playing along to the two tracks, recording a melody line, come out with a three track recording. And so on.

Never actually sounded good, and I didn't have a drum machine at the time, so there was no percussion of any kind, but it was one of those formative experiments. When I bought my first Tascam Portastudio (several years later), my world brightened