Let Them Play the Music

I've taken yet another small break from even the thought of playing music as of late.  It's not exactly intentional; I simply have had no time.  First, I needed to deal with the stereo dilemma, of which I think is finally behind me.  I decided to keep the Outlaw Audio receiver, so therefore I returned the Denon DRA800H and I also just returned the Klipsch RP8000's.  It simply finally hit me that the damn things are way too huge for my studio room, and after extensive tests and flipping back and forth between the two sets of speakers, it slowly became obvious to me.  It's not official as of yet but I do believe that I'm going to keep the Polk R600's for I seem to really like them, and I'd say that they're a small step upward over my old JBL's.  Strangely, Billy Squier's "It Keeps You Rockin'" really sounds the most amazing on the R600's, of all things.  Now, why that's become my standard for good sound...well, I couldn't really tell you.

I will say that flipping between speaker sets is an interesting venture.  It's funny because it takes at least 20 seconds for your ears to adjust, meaning that no matter what speakers you "flip" to they always sound odd and worse than the predecessor initially.  I also learned by process of playing around with it that the critical sound that I wasn't liking was actually coming from the Denon Receiver, not as much from the speakers.  I did lose a little bit of that by going with the Outlaw Audio Receiver, which is a bit of a detriment for mixing and such, but my actual music listening experience will be a bit closer to what it was previously...which is good.  I was actually finding that I didn't want to listen to music as much with the Denon because everything sounded horrible to me.  Now, why exactly so called "audiophiles" want things to sound horrible...well, that's beyond me.

Apart from the stereo decisions, and I will say that it was quite a feat getting the huge Klipsch speakers back down the stairs and packaged up in their boxes (they weigh about 70 lbs. a piece), I actually finally ventured out again to see and hear live music.  First up, I FINALLY made it to the Hollywood Bowl, a venue I've been meaning to go to for literally 30 years but have never made it before.  The show?  Grace Jones...wow.  It was actually a double bill of sorts with Ms. Jones and Chvrches, the latter of which I will say I was fairly impressed with even though it's not exactly my usual sound (lots of strong 2/4 going on in an electronic vein).  Seeing Grace was amazing, though, and the most frequently heard comment was "...can you believe she's 74 years old...?"  No, actually I cannot whatsoever.  I mean, the woman shows almost no signs at all physically of aging, not in her looks, movements, etc.  Simply remarkable.

The Bowl is definitely a venue to visit, I will say.  It's not only historical and quite stunning to be at but the sound was also wonderful.  They built that venue in a truly amazing fashion, putting great care into the sightlines of each tier, etc.  The slope on the back of the venue as the seating rises up the hill is beyond words since the last row of seats is so incredibly high into the air (on the hillside) that it's hard to comprehend what you're looking at from down below.  And then, strangely, you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere...and yet you're smack just north of super busy and crowded Hollywood.  If you've never been there and you have an interest in such things, I'd definitely put it on your list.  I was also amazed by how easy it was to do a Park and Ride shuttle to get in and out of there, and so on.  Getting out was a bit more convoluted but getting in was super simple...and cheap!

Two days later, I went to my favorite local venue, the Belly Up Tavern, to see Cate Le Bon.  It was another great performance, completely different from the Grace Jones show 2 days earlier, of course.  Cate has a great stage presence and setup on stage with her band, and I must say that the show was even better than I had expected.  Cate's latest album "Pompeii" comes highly recommended from me.

I'm hoping to get back into the musical swing of things fairly soon.  I've had lots of ideas rolling around in my head so I've just been waiting for the time to actually act upon them.  More soon, hopefully.