Our Top Story: Fozzy singer and current wrestling blowhard Chris Jericho added his name to the list of musicians recently who have made statements I can't quantify as anything other than asinine. Thankfully, his are not related to those we covered last week, where we had to deal with musicians appearing to be willing to sacrifice their fans health to get back to their normal lifestyles. Jericho is being stupid, but in a less dangerous way. Let's see what he said:
"To me, listen, I'm a musician. I get it. I don't care. I'm a fan. But if you're going to a rock and roll show and you're sitting in a crowd live and going, 'Wow, this band sounds like shit,' then maybe you're missing the point of why you're here in the first place. It's easy to watch a YouTube video back and go, 'That didn't sound great.' That's not the point. It's when you're there and you're in the moment and you're enjoying the show and the energy, that's the most important thing."
Yes, there is a degree to which a live concert is about the energy and spirit, but that only extends so far. Jericho's comments, as I'm reading them, say it doesn't matter if a band sucks. Well, yes Chris, it certainly does matter if the band the fans paid good money to see aren't up to the task of playing live. Even if the experience is more than just the music, the music is still the main draw and the reason people go to shows. People don't flock to Def Leppard shows and avoid Fozzy just because one band has more attractive fans to be in a venue with, it's because they want to hear one band's music and not the other.
But Jericho is revealing something more sinister about the relationship between fans and music; fans don't hold bands accountable. If a band plays a show and sounds like shit, they're still going to sell just as many tickets the next time around. If a band plays a show that is loaded with pre-recorded tracks, they're still going to sell just as many tickets the next time around. We learned this lesson from the hologram tours that were popping up before the industry shutdown, where there was nothing at all live about performances by dead musicians. Going to one of those shows is truly no different than watching a concert DVD, other than the increased cost, increased hassle, and throngs of foul people too close to you.
What that, along with Jericho's comments, tell us is that both fans and bands are admitting a lot of people at shows aren't listening to the music. They go to get drunk, yell, and try to forget they aren't teenagers anymore. If you were serious about the music, you would care when bands are fooling you, you would care when bands aren't good enough justify their ticket price.
This goes along with another comment Jericho made in that same conversation:
"I really don't care at this point. If they're out there playing and doing the best they can, and there's tricks they can use to make it better, if need be."
He is talking as a fan, but it's hard to hear that without acknowledging his careers. As a fan, maybe he doesn't care that Paul Stanley (who he was talking about) can barely sing KISS songs anymore. I find that attitude to be puzzling, as I would rather remember my favorite artists at their best, and not when they were shells of themselves performing an hour of embarrassment on stage every night. But that's his right. I felt humilated on Meat Loaf's behalf when he couldn't even muster his voice in the studio on his last record, but that's just my take.
What's harder to accept is the implication in Jericho's commentary that his attitude could extend to himself. If he doesn't care as a fan if a singer sounds awful, does that mean he won't care when he himself gets to that stage? Is Jericho saying he'll still be out there taking people's money when he can't actually deliver a good performance? In wrestling, he's been able to stick around past his athletic prime by changing the way he does things. He does more comedy and 'garbage wrestling' than he used to, and it works. But as a singer, he can't hide his voice behind a gimmicked table and some bad face paint. If you can't sing, you either sound terrible, or you commit fraud by playing tapes. Either way, an artist should have more respect for their audience than to perform when they cant'.
Ozzy never should have toured when he had a second singer behind the curtain doubling his lines to make sure they sounded ok. Paul Stanley shouldn't have been touring when all available evidence indicated they were playing tapes of his vocals. The same will be true of Jericho when he can't sing his own songs anymore.
For a musician to say he doesn't care if a live show sucks, it's a damning statement.
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