Random things you look for when judging quality of one of Scott's performances?

[Sources]

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?

[NickLorenza]

This is such a fantastic question and you sir have made some great observations.


For me it all starts with energy.  Is he commanding the stage?  Is he moving all over the place?  Does he have that killer look in his eyes?  You can clearly tell when he's feeling the moment and when he's just going through the motions. It's night and day.  Also, pace...... It's definitely not the rule, but I tend to feel when the songs are played at a really dragging pace he tends to be at his worst.  Again, it's not always true, because for example, Meatplow at HOB L.A. 2000 sounds fantastic at that slow pace.


Variations in melody for portions of the songs. He did this a bit and sometimes it may have been out of convenience, but others I think it was purely out of the energy of the moment.  Good positive examples of this are Interstate Love Song at Rolling Rock and Plush at Voodoo Fest.  The more skillful the variation the better night he was having.


Also..... This doesn't specifically pertain to whether Scott was on or not, but have you ever noticed how the band shortened some songs for playing live?  I never knew whether or not it was intentional or accident. Let's face it, Scott flubbed words and mixed up verses in live performances regularly. So it could have been the band just covering up, but for example..... Piece Of Pie at HOB L.A. 2000, there's a whole part of the song missing toward the end. How about the Letterman performance of Wicked Garden?  Ever notice the second time around they play the post-chorus part 4 times instead of 8?

[Tyrant]

How about the Letterman performance of Wicked Garden?  Ever notice the second time around they play the post-chorus part 4 times instead of 8?

From their 2010 interview with ArtistDirect:

On most of the record, you tell stories in less than three minutes such as "Hazy Days!" That's a lost art...
We like to refer to it as "Letterman Ready"—under three minutes [Laughs]. It's an ongoing joke. When we were on David Letterman for the second time doing "Wicked Garden" years ago, the song was at about 3:28 or something. We were moments away from being on national television, and the producer came into our dressing room and said, "We need to knock 15 seconds off the song, and you're on in ten minutes." We looked at each other like, "Oh boy, let's knock this out. We'll shorten this, we'll move this section over her and we'll knock this in half!" We pulled it off, knocking 15 seconds off the song with minutes before we played it. We refer to things now as "Letterman Ready" [Laughs].

[NickLorenza]

Nice find Tyrant!  You know what? Speaking of Letterman.... Big Bang Baby was another tune that sounded phenomenal slowed down a bit. That version from Letter,an just RIPS for a power pop tune! Especially that last verse, man Scott is just tearing it up!!!