Last evening I enjoyed my first gig for over a year. Well not really; The Covid-friendly equivalent of a gig. This was the livestream performance by Emily Barker of her latest album from the Brunel goods yard at Stroud station.
There was of course no audience. Not present anyway. A few hundred did sign up for the event. But they watched on their devices and remotely. In my case on a deskbound laptop with wireless cans.
Emily was brilliant, the album is brilliant and her band was brilliant. But thinking since, I have become far more impressed by the commitment and professionalism required to achieve so much.
Consider. The band was not on a stage but arranged in a circle at some three metre separations. Six band and Emily so a circle of about 4-5 metres diameter. So it took some neat sound engineering to take those streams, reassemble them in traditional form and deal with environmental sound effects – Emily centre, artists to left and right – to produce an aurally correct stereophonic performance. Respect, man, respect.
Consider. There were no cheering eager people in the auditorium to spark the adrenalin on entry. The band chose to stroll on in the traditional way but it was to a silent room. Whatever prep Emily and her team went through to psyche themselves up for public performance would have to have been doubly effective this time. Respect eh?
And consider again. There was no feedback. Every artist lives off the adrenalin rush of response. Those magic moments in particular when an audience jumps decibels beyond enthusiastic and roars its approval. That is the confirming moment that powers the artists onward. Its absence last evening was palpable and tragic.
Yet Emily never once slipped from her accustomed and enchanting self – cool, keen, bang on pitch, never over-breathed, and delivering the same soul-searing commitment to every bar, every verse, every chorus. And the band was equally brilliant. It was momentarily possible to see flickers of uncertainty on their faces as the camera roved. After all whoever sat in a circle to deliver? In their ears the sound must have been different.
Could it be better? There is no way a band can see a remote audience – too complex to deliver, even if, Zoom-like it could be spread across screens it would mean little. But could they pick up the audio of our responses and feed them, aggregated into the hall? It would need encouraging the audience to clap, shout or whistle as if at a concert. And to ensure it sounded right and timely to the band. And would screen fatigue mean a dreadful silence was an inevitable risk? Maybe, but it would be worth the trial perhaps.
But then a vaccine is at least in view. Gigs will start again. But for now livestream is the thing. Brilliant work Emily.
www.emilybarkerhalo
www.darkmurmurationofwords
