Siouxsie / Creatures review, Saturday Oct 16th, Royal Festival Hall

[tamaranth]

because I'm having a horrible afternoon and I'll cry post if I want to
I found the Dream Show on Saturday much more enjoyable than the show I caught on the Seven-Year Itch tour a few years back. (If I'd only ever seen her then, unenthusiastic and out of tune and generally bad-tempered, I probably wouldn't have bothered this time round, but I also saw the Banshees on the Rapture tour in 1995, and I shall always have the memory of that gig as yardstick.

Having said that, the infamous 45-minute strop (seemed to me more of an extended interval, but rather too long when the first half of the set had been under an hour) didn't improve the experience. By the end of the encores I was feeling really sick, for no obvious reason, and can't help wondering whether this had anything to do with the bass, which was mixed so loud that the mirrors were vibrating on the walls of the Level 5 toilets. (Did I mention we had a box? It was Fab! And I could actually see everything that was going on: usually, with RFH gigs, this only happens if I'm right in the front row or standing on my seat.) Anyway, I've never suffered with Excess of Bass before -- and had been enjoying lolling my hands over the brass rail of Our Box and soaking up the vibrations with my cupped palms -- but it was mixed so very loud. (Poor backing vocals, with their voices that blended so nicely with Ms Sioux's: could anyone hear them by the encore? Or indeed much else save the Voice, the Bass and the Drums?)

Or perhaps I am getting old.

I loved, lovedlovedloved, the drumming; and the orchestra (who were really getting into the whole thing, jiving around manically when they weren't playing); and Siouxsie's voice still just sends me, even though some of her comments about the venue were exceptionally rude, and thoroughly out of order.

Could've done with more of my absolute favourites, especially as they played a lot of stuff from the recent albums -- though not 'Exterminating Angel', or 'Love Out Me'. Pleased to hear '2nd Floor' and 'The Rapture', and 'Peekaboo'. Wonderful to be in a box and see how everyone, everyone who was moving at all, couldn't help but move in time to the beat of 'Happy House'. Caught myself listening for the place where my second-hand copy used to skip ... ah, those were the days.

zoo_music_girl reviews splendidly, and less whooshily, here.

Yay to ladymoonray for organising our attendance, and our BOX -- same price as normal seats (albeit not the £5.50 ones we have for classical stuff). Wheeee!

Comments

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

The bass was downright painful in row D, not just my ears, but the vibrations right through my body.

BOX!!!!!

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you had a good time in your BOX.

Did the performers bow to you, as is your due?

[tanais.livejournal.com]

They probably Equalised (tone controls) the PA so as to excite a particular "Room Mode" (Google it if you really want to know) what you get is a bass boom folding back into the room. It is usually a monotonic note rather than a nice crisp discernible bass note you can hear rather then feel as a Woob or air rattling in the chest. And yes PAs can go down to nauseous levels of low Hz-age. As I say to people again and again, bass is supposed to be in the air not in the furniture! (A lot of people think Bass should be in the floor and making picture frames shake and so on). Loudspeakers are literally at war with their own frequencies, so the trick is to get it under control (many ways to do this) where it doesn't make you feel sick. Seems like they actually looked for a room mode to excite.

Boom wrecks hearing also BTW. Especially if they sustain it. Best get some in-ear attenuation if you find it happens too often.

(oh for acoustic only gigs!)

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

didya like the box then? ;-)