I normally don’t go to rock concerts. I’m sensitive to loud noise and I find the way most of these bands do guitar strumming is hugely annoying. I feel that it’s important to protect my ears because there’s a lot of hearing loss in my family — and the research shows that people whose ears hurt in response to loud noises are more likely to get hearing loss from those noises.
But feeling like I can’t participate in rock, because my hearing is sensitive, has been a kind of thorn in my side. I feel left out.
I went to this concert, because I saw the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody” and started watching Queen & QAL videos on YouTube. I watched so many videos that I figured I owed these people money. I decided I'd just go and wear ear plugs. I've done that in concerts before. It's a drag, but I don't want to be in pain or damage my hearing.
I was crying during most of the concert. That was because i didn’t have to wear ear plugs. Here was a concert that was reputed to be loud, but didn’t hurt. It was so nice to actually be able to listen to the concert. That's why I was crying.
If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll note that I recently switched from being a Grobanite to being a Glambert. Part of my frustration with Josh was that I went to hear beautiful classical/pop crossover music and Josh’s subtle, emotional voice — and I had to wear ear plugs. I just really didn’t enjoy the last few concerts I went to, even though I enjoyed the albums and the youtube videos.
Some people have said “Couldn’t you be a Glambert and a Grobanite?” Of course, I can be fans of several musicians, and I do listen to others, but the point is who am I obsessed with now. And that’s Adam, not Josh.
It’s funny. They’re the same age. They have similar personal histories and mixed ethnicities. It’s interesting that I would go from one to the other.
I think the reason that this concert didn’t hurt was that the amplification was mostly in the bass register, and not in the treble register. That caused a lot of vibration in my body, but didn’t hurt my ears. Though I think I did have some more tinnitus afterwards.
The only time I plugged my ears was when the fans behind me engaged in high pitched screaming. That hurt.
One nice thing about it being so loud is that I could sing along with all the songs and I don’t think anyone could hear me.
This is not to say that the audio was wonderful all the time. I found the music quite staticky in places (is that a word?). Also, sometimes, I couldn’t hear Adam very well over the music. Since he was the biggest draw for me, that was a bit disappointing.
One of the fans in front of me was standing the whole time, so I had to stand too, in order to see. That was OK. It was probably better for my back.
There was a weird thing that happened in one song, and I should have written down which one, but I didn’t. There was some kind of constructive interference in those bass notes which sent a pressure wave out, which caused my ears to pop. That was uncomfortable, tho I’m not sure ear plugs would have helped. They wouldn’t unpop until I left the arena. I was a physics major, so I know something about wave interference. I know Brian is a physicist. Maybe he'll see this and understand. It was bizarre, to say the least.
I was seated off to stage left, in the last section that was sellable, the next section being behind the stage. This position was curious in that we could see most of the performance, but not the front of the screen. We could easily see what was going on behind the screen when the screen was down — the flashlight that was being used to keep people from tripping when walking around, for instance — but we missed whatever was being shown on the screen. That included some images of Freddie, tho we could hear him, and also the asteroid under Brian when he was doing his long solo. I know there was an asteroid, because I’ve seen it on the YouTube videos.
What we did see during Brian’s solo was him being hoisted up to where the rest of the audience could see, the orbs above him, and the cool light show on the ceiling. I also got to see him lowered back down and people taking off his seat belt at the bottom. I was really happy to see that they had him in a seat belt. They hoisted him up quite high, maybe 20 feet. It would have been really bad if he had fallen.
I also could see the engineers below us, running the audio & lights and whatnot. I know that Javi has sometimes hung around by the engineers during concerts. I’ve seen that from his videos and I saw one very cute video of him dancing behind the engineers, as he listened. I looked for him, but did not see him. Of course, I wasn’t looking at the audio engineers all the time, so he might well have come out and I might have missed him.
One nice thing was that both Adam and Brian made a point of coming by and waving to our section. I suppose they did that to the other sections as well, but they may have been conscious of the fact that they had their backs to us most of the time.
I could see a bit of the side of the screen when it was in the up position, but it was also partly blocked by the equipment up there, especially speakers. It’s interesting that speakers are near the ceiling in a lot of these venues. That might be why the balcony, where I usually sit, is often so loud. This time I splurged for the orchestra. Nevertheless, the last arena concert I saw before this, Josh Groban in Nassau Colosseum, was still too loud, even though I was in the orchestra.
Fortunately, during Bohemian rhapsody, that put the images on the rear screen, so I could see those, not that I haven’t seen them before, but it did seem like such an important part of the concert that I wanted to see it.
It’s funny how, sometimes, when I’ve seen the concert many times on YouTube, which I have, it’s really exciting to be there and see it in person. Kind of like seeing those little images and that lesser sound whets my appetite for the real thing. And this was probably the most expensive concert ticket I’ve ever bought, so my appetite was really whetted for sure.
One thing that I appreciated was that when they flashed lights outwards it was mostly towards the ceiling. Occasionally, I got a bit of light flashed in my eyes, but it was diffuse enough not to hurt. The last two concerts I went to before this — Josh Groban and Chris Isaak — they flashed really bright lights into our eyes and it was really painful. Also, at the Beacon, I saw Pentatonix and they flashed really bright lights that hurt my eyes.
Queen is obviously more sensitive to not causing their fans physical pain than most bands. I'm eternally grateful.
Brian, as a guitarist, is interesting to me. So often I can’t tolerate the guitar playing in pop and rock music. I can listen to him. I’m grateful for that. I’m not sure exactly what he’s doing up there, but I can listen to it and it doesn’t sound like the guitarists that I can’t stand.
I was really intrigued by his solo, which was so full of interesting sounds and the riff duet that he does with Adam. I love experimental music and weird sounds. That was part of why I originally liked Josh’s music, but I feel that he’s been getting away from that, so it’s nice to hear someone else doing it.
I usually have to go to the bathroom at least once an hour, but, somehow, I was enjoying this concert enough that I didn't go out, which was fairly remarkable to me. I know you can go out at MSG, but I didn't. That's a measure of how good the concert was.
Another thing that interested me was the sound of Adam’s speaking voice in person on the loud speaker. I felt that his speaking voice in person somehow sounded much more stereotypically gay than he sounds in the youtube videos.
A lingering frustration to me is that the way Adam sounds in concert with Queen — in terms of vocal quality — is quite different from the way he sounds in the recordings that I’ve found. Particularly, during the ballads like “Who Wants to Live Forever” and “The Show Must Go On.” I really want a studio recording of him sounding like that.
I got into a fight with a Queen fan on twitter who found it somehow blasphemous that I would want a studio recording of those songs with Adam. I had to block that guy.
But people’s voices change over time. Adam doesn’t sound the way he sounded in 2009 and he likely won’t sound the same way again in 10 years. I want a high quality recording of how he sounds with Queen now.
It seems like the album Adam is putting out now is a totally different kind of music — doubtless all very fine and enjoyable, but not this particular sound.
A curious thing for me, watching Adam standing next to Brian, is that no matter how high Adam's heels are he doesn't seem to be taller than Brian. Brian stands up straighter when Adam is higher up, and bends over when playing the guitar, so his height is constantly mysteriously changing -- and his hair sticks up, which makes him seem taller. According to the information on line, Brian is only an inch and a half taller than Adam, but watching this I have to wonder if that's true.
I ask myself if Adam likes the high heeled shoes, not because they enhance his flamboyant image, but because he wants to be taller than Brian.
