Kind of random. But I'm sure lots of us here are pretty hooked on watching live performance vids/bootlegs. Its usually pretty easy to tell whether "good" scott or "eh" scott showed up. But what things do you notice immediately if he was off his game?
(Before I start, I loved every show I've seen, and almost every one I've watched online. Still, some undoubtedly are better than others)
For me:
1. The attempt at jumping an octave to sing "YOU WANNA KNOW ABOUT ATROCITY" in Sex Type Thing. In most his younger shows he nails it with no issue. Other shows you can tell he hits it flat and it sticks out. Some shows he skips it altogether and stays with the low octave (typically sounds like he's out of breath when he does).
2. Big Bang Baby: The entire song really, but especially "Where the birds can't sing along" and "Sell your soul and sign an autograph". In the first 1/3 to 2/3 of his career, he typically nailed this. Later it seemed like more voice cracks snuck in. Unfortunately this song sounds a lot weirder (IMO) on the lower octave so he couldn't call that "audible" like in STT as often.
3. Silvergun Superman: "I can hear when the pig whispers sweetly". This isn't an insanely difficult pitch for scott, but rather its more about whether he hits the first note flat or not. Since the notes change in that line quite a bit, if he starts off flat, it tended to stay flat until the line ends. Plus, the words before this (Tell me how to frame your name) are much lower, so he really has to "stick the landing" so to speak when starting that next line. Are there any things that you guys tend to look for or subconsciously notice when listening to Scott's shows?