Saw them last night at Brixton Academy in London. Was... a little disappointing. Nothing really to do with the band - they seemed to be on great form - but the sound was pretty bad. Very loud and muddy. Vocals were drowned out and even Beck wasn't really cutting through. The energy in their live performance is there though, which hasn't always been the case.
Yeah kinda agree. Wasn't sure if it was me being sober/not that in the mood or that something seemed a bit off. Brixton is always horrible for sound in my experience. I liked how they just raced through so many songs and barely took a breath though.
They were on very early, I think. They had to fly over to the UK for a festival headlining slot later that day so I think that performance must have been very early on.
Glassjaw will forever be underappreciated. Amazing comeback album, still absolutely captivating live, but the generation below me doesn't give a flying fuck. Their long absence didn't help, but the reasons why were warranting.
They’re also just weird with the things they do sometimes. Take the coloring book ep for example. You can’t buy any physical copies of it from them, they don’t have it on streaming. They even filmed a coloring book DVD that is on YouTube but like I have no idea where the person that uploaded it got it lol.
They are so fucking on it, good god. Even if Daryl didn't sound good anymore (which, I don't get how people can hear him these days and say that), they would *still* be one of the best live bands around on the basis of Beck/Chad Hasty/whoever's playing bass at the time being as tight instrumentally as a band can possibly get
Beck is a genius. Daryl would be my favourite member if he was in most other bands but Beck is unbelievable.
This line up is so tight. My only gripe about their recent sets is the lack of Coloring Book songs, but it must be too tricky to include them in their setlist and to make transitions as smooth as they currently are, if they have to swap instruments multiple times. The rhode/piano thing Beck used to play this EP with looked so huge, and that has to be a pain in the ass to travel with on a regular touring basis.
Although I’m disappointed Daryl isn’t really moving a whole lot. I’ve always heard how energetic he is.
Mr Vesanic, the guy that uploaded it, had the chance to see the real show at the time, and then the screening of it if I recall correctly. During the latter, the band offered a DVD to everyone, with the weird surprise being that it didn't include the non-Coloring Book part of the show, probably because of Warner.
I like it, but the Coloring Book EP, in my own opinion, doesn’t hold a flame to the new album. I saw them make their huge comeback years ago. They played an insane set at the PlayStation theater in NYC, and then the encore was the entire Coloring Book EP which at that point no one knew even existed. It was available some time shortly thereafter and I bought it immediately. The songs aren’t as pulling as they were live, but it’s very different and experimental for GJ and Beck is all about originality. I found that hearing songs like Shira live for the first time were near chilling and felt more like a natural progression for the band’s sound, rather than trying hard to play in left field.
I couldn't have said it better. CB was a really cool experiment, but it's easily the release I visit least often (other than EYEW). "Trying hard to play in left field" is the perfect summary. MC is such a natural progression from W&T and OCG, so I don't understand why it's gotten so much pushback and longtime fans act like it's the record that threw a big curveball.
I think that's the first time I've seen Material Control referred to as big curveball, to be honest. I'd say the biggest complaints I've read about it is that the songs don't feel as fresh as previous material and it all starts to blend together. I still really enjoy it, but I prefer where they were headed on Coloring Book. Ironically, I think the some of the best songs on it seem to be progressions from where they were going on Coloring Book ("Strange Hours", "Golgotha").