Taking Back Sunday - 152 (October 27, 2023) Album • Page 68

Imagine saying “mics are for singing” with sincerity in the year 2024? Can you at least come up with an insult that isn’t just parroting an abuser from 20+ years ago?

 

I didn’t see the original comment but found this response interesting :)

 

Original comment was from somebody with a bn username that said something abouy Adam bombing at Coachella and John deserving better and then “mics are for singing”

I do agree with John’s “stop paying attention to us” comment. Regardless of how people think they sounded at Coachella, I find it fascinating how many people so loudly talk about them sounding bad over and over again on livestreams and at shows? Seeing them once and being disappointed by it is one thing, but to be like “every time I’ve seen them they’re so bad…” okay? Nobody is forcing you to go see a band you don’t enjoy live.

 

To be fair to TBS, majority of bands from that scene would not sound great if you had a direct live feed from the board. As others have pointed out, the whole point of the live show is the energy of the crowd and band.

 

I don't actually think they're bad at all. They're not the best-sounding band in the world, but they're super fun to see live. My brain does love to hyper-criticize things, and I'm still struggling to turn that part of my brain off to have fun. When I see them, however, I just end up singing and dancing the entire time. I have a blast!
What I gain from seeing them is a good time. Also, yes. I am an Adam Lazzara Stan (I don't like using the word "stan" but that's the most fitting word here). I love with him all of my heart, but I also criticize him. It's just what I do. It's funny because at first I found it hard to like a guy who can't really sing, but I've actually grown to like his weird singing, and I can look past it (but still acknowledge it) now. The criticism for the singing also comes from me being a singer (not professionally, but I sing and do vocal covers as a hobby) and therefore being hyper-critical of singing voices. A singing voice an actually make or break my opinion of a band.
As for me "coming here," I actually kinda like it here. The TBS Discord server hardly ever criticizes the band for anything (only ever says positive things, which is fine but I'd like a little differing opinions now and then) and their subreddit does it too much. This place, I've found, is the best place for TBS discourse.

 

You heard he quit smoking the past couple of years? I wish that was true. I saw a picture of him and a fan outside of the Holiday Inn in December for the Holiday Spectacular and he very much still had a cigarette in hand.
I have an uncle who's addicted to cigarettes. He got COVID last year and after that, despite having some very bad side-effects, still smoked. It's a very concerning addiction, even more so for singers.
I wonder what Adam would like now if he quit smoking earlier on? Interesting thought.

 

No I said I heard he quit drinking in the last couple of years per a podcast interview I heard with him, which is really cool. Good on him for doing that. But yeah the smoking, I wish he had quit 20 years ago & taken proper vocal lessons. He’s got a great voice and distinct style that would’ve held up better over time if he had done those two things, but alas. That said, when I saw them during the 2010 reunion and in Fall 2013 right before Happiness Is came out, he sounded incredible.

 

See, that makes sense. He alludes to quitting drinking in the song "All Ready To Go" (he mentions "The Devil's Water.") Now all he drinks is Waterloo lol. I do too. Thanks Adam. (Sorry for misreading your message btw. For some reason I completely melded a few sentences together.)
Wish I cared about the band to see them in 2010 or 2013, but I was a child firmly into Now That's What I Call Music and then anime music. Alas.

 

Also, can it really get any worse than this in terms of embarrassing yourself on an international stream?

 

Is there something notably bad in here I'm missing? Looks like a pretty standard if not solid performance at a quick click-through, but I didn't watch it all. The crowd is absolutely terrible though.

 

Vocals are…..really bad

 

It wasn't good

 

This conversation has been pretty boring to me, but! It got me to revisit 152 after slowing down with it recently, and it still rules.

 

It has become my go-to bike ride album, the pacing and production are so great.

 

The people running sound for this event totally screwed the non-headlining acts. Mic and instrument volume levels were all over the place throughout most of it.
But yeah I watched this performance live at home and was like “oh…oh no.”

 

Tire squeals.
I was actually really scared for 152 because it was produced by a pop producer in *current year.* I was afraid it was gonna be like modern Maroon 5 or Imagine Dragons or something. Luckily, no trap snares and everything was alright.

 

No Swedish songwriters or trap beats.

 

100% PURE. UNCUT. ROCK!

 

OHMIGOD you just reminded me of that lmao.

 

Going with somebody who was completely new to them and also hadn’t produced for a rock band before was an incredible decision. Every time I listen to this record, I feel like I hear something new happening in the background, and everything about it feels so intentional.

 

Honestly, same. Going back to "Lightbringer" I somehow forgot that there was a sick guitar part at the end there!
Thinking about it, though, I am so glad that it came out as it did. A rock band going to a pop producer who has never produced that kind of music before sounds like it could be a recipe for disaster (I'm sure there are other examples like it out there, thinking maybe Simple Plan's self-titled?) but it ended up sounding great. My only complaint honestly is that I wish that the guitars were a bit louder on some of the tracks.
Speaking of this, I remember reading in one of the articles up to the album release that John (I believe) said something along the lines of "Too many punk bands are scared of synths"? It annoyed me because I started to dislike electronics and poppier sounds in music because when I listened to rock stations on the radio, all I heard were bands that had that exact kind of sound. Plus, I feel like he's kind of ignoring the impact that bands like Bring Me The Horizon, Fall Out Boy, Sleep Token, and Bad Omens have had on the scene? Am I just missing something here? Because while TBS embracing this pop sound and going to a producer outside of their genre for this album, it's not exactly anything new or groundbreaking relatively speaking.

 

One of my favorite left field producer gets is that time Butch Walker produced a Sevendust album.

 

152 is so good I got VIP tickets mostly to thank them for it

Also John Nolan should make an account and yell at people in here

That is all

 

That's what this forum needs, band members heckling the threads like a MST3K episode.

 

I was just reading Butch Walker's producer discography on Wikipedia lol, what a coincidence.
Also apologies if you were referring to me, Slimfenix. I'm not angry at him, I'm just confused by what John meant in that article. Maybe I'm dumb, maybe he's right by what he said. He tours with a bunch of bands, I only listen to the music I want to consume. He definitely knows more about what he's talking about than I do.