Live or Memorex?

I'm intrigued by Rhino's recommendation of Luther Wright & the Wrongs' redo of The Wall. I love that Floyd album, perhaps because it served as the backdrop to many high school Friday nights at the Norfolk Naro Theatre's weekly late late show. I remember the frisking I got walking in (where security removed roughly half of the alcoholic contents of my pockets, sleeves and pant-legs, which were deemed "acceptable losses") representing way too much of my evening's grope quotient. But I digress.

I've always liked The Wall, but I'm not a purist who sees oddball coverings as anything inherently blasphemous. And doing the entire album is the rare, major-commitment kind of endeavor that seems more rooted in tribute than cheap knock-off, unlike many one-off covers. Camper's Tusk album and Phish's annual Halloween show where they do someone else's entire album as their second set are others that come to mind, both done pretty entertainingly. Other bluegrass/country covers of other genres I enjoy include The Gourds picking Snoop Dogg, Uncle Tupelo's twangy Stooges outtake, or the many nameless "A Bluegrass Tribute to . . .", plus the aforementioned Countrysides. All solid. I'll gladly check out Luther Wright. There's no chance this is the same Luther Wright who played center for Seton Hall in the early 90's, right?

Anyway, on to the discussion at hand. I'm with Ryan on this one. While spicing up songs here and there in their live form can make them memorable -- the extended daaaa-da-da/daaaa-da-da/daaaa-da-da "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" lead-in sung by the crowd while Bruce stood on the piano comes to mind -- I'm always impressed by the bands who can recreate their studio sound in concert. I saw a Petty/Heartbreakers show in the late 1990's that made me realize that his records have little to no studio trickery. They sounded fantastic. For a band that hangs its hat on studio oddities, Ween has sounded excellent when I've seen them. Conversely, I love the Beastie Boys' albums, but in concert they just sound like three yutzes with mic's and a dude with a turntable. Surprisingly pedestrian, but it may come with the genre. Jimmy Buffett used to change lyrics in his live shows all the time to insert geographic references of the venue or current pop culture jokes -- with about a 17% success rate. And for the rare few who've seen Random Idiots live, you know their lead singer usually couldn't remember where he was, much less the lyrics to the songs he co-wrote. It's a mess when it strays too far from what you know and expect.

That said, are any and all lengths to mimic the album sound while playing live acceptable? Obviously lip synching is a big NO, though few of the acts we're touting here would deign to do that devil's work. But Mad Fly Flynn and I had a recent discussion where he told me that The Edge manages to replicate his multiple guitar tracks on each song at live shows by playing the most prominent lead over his own pre-recorded tracks. Not sure how I feel about that. I saw Everclear stick to the trio that had been in the studio, and they sounded like an amateurish garage band covering their own tunes. Kurt Cobain couldn't do all his guitar work and sing, so they had Pat Smear and maybe even another guy sit in with them for the Unplugged show, which kept viewers wondering who the hell they were. I can't ever see U2's firmly pressed image of four performers ever being clouded with a stage full of session guys they take on the road to help The Edge out.

And then there are the lyrics. I remember seeing Michael Stipe do a show on TV where he read most or all of the words to his songs off lyric sheets on a music stand next to him. That was perhaps the first of what became a long, long line of personal disappointments from R.E.M. over the years. I realized full well he'd mumbled his way through a lot of the first few records -- and frankly, once we started understanding Stipe, many of us pined for the days of "Lhaokwonfrtusonz." But when you start reading your own lines off paper, you've officially tendered your resignation from rock and roller.

So anyway, I think I have a point here. I like for a band to crank out music that strongly resembles the music I've come to enjoy, while adding elements to alter the experience -- R.E.M.'s pre-suck-days solo acoustic version of "So. Central Rain," Bruce's similar tone-down of "Born to Run," and Neil Young's latter-day electrification of some songs in his repertoire fit the bill nicely. Sounding great while delivering an enthusiastic on-stage presence is what it's all about, and I guess I can forgive U2 for some slight cheating in the name of both of those elements. All I know is that Camper van Beethoven had laptops alongside some of the instruments last year, and it looked geeky and made you wonder how much of the sound they were actually creating manually -- but they were stellar. Meanwhile, I'll never go see Everclear again, and I'm guessing you won't be lining up for Crowes tickets any time soon. (I'd actually heard others echo your indictment of Chris Robinson exactly.)