Live recordings hold a weird place in the music industry. They are rarely given the attention, marketing, and care that studio albums receive, but when they are done right, they can be every bit as compelling. What makes a great live recording has very little to do with audio fidelity or perfection, it’s about capturing the energy that exists in the room. The most important factors, by far, are the performance and the audience.
Lots has been written about how to make a great studio album or how to give a great live performance, and all of these skills can translate into a live recording, but live recordings are unique and benefit from a unique kind of performance. As I record live shows, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about what sets a great live recording apart. Here’s a couple points I keep coming back to.
You don’t owe the audience the truth
Live recordings are not documentary, they are theater. Some people might disagree with me on this, but I don’t think the job of a live recording is to recreate the conditions of what happened on stage. I believe that the best live recordings create something new. It is okay to mis-represent the truth or lie entirely for dramatic effect. It can be farcical, fictional, dramatic, and absurdist. It can also be simple and earnest and straightforward.
Let me give you an example. I once had the opportunity to record Coma Cinema at Johnny Brenda’s. When the band took the stage, before they started their set, the singer Mat Cothran took the mic and gave a little speech.
Hello. I wanted to ask a favor of all of you. I know I’ve already asked a lot of you spending your time here with me, and I appreciate that. This show is being recorded, and I’ve had this dream all my life that came from listening to Suicide play CBGB and some other influences. I’ve wanted to record a live record, and I’ve wanted the audience to boo every song. So, after every song, if you boo, I’ll think that you like me. This is just between us right now, nobody is going to know, but I would appreciate if you boo the songs tonight for the record. We’re going to start now. Now we’re all acting. So, action.
With this speech, the show becomes a play within a play. Coma Cinema is performing for the audience, and the audience is performing for the recording. Throughout the night, the crowd heckles and shouted at the band, creating an outrageous, funny, and sometimes unsettling recording.
This is a dramatic example. Not all performances call for this level of theatrics, but you also don’t need to cling to reality. Think about how you want the listener to feel when they listen to your live record, and then create the circumstances to make them feel that way.
Break the 4th wall
When you perform you probably address the audience in the room in some way. Even if you don’t directly speak to the audience, you interact with them, you make eye contact with them, you thank them for being in the room with you. The audience in the room is impossible to ignore because they’re right in your face, but the audience listening to the live recording are more easily forgotten.
As much as possible, try to remember the audience who will listen to this later. When you acknowledge the virtual audience, you help bring them into the room. The best live recordings create an experience distinct but equally compelling to being in the room, and a little attention from the artist on stage goes a long way.
This is something comedians are really good at. When you watch a comedy special the comedian often acknowledges the camera. They might say something like “this one is for the Netflix crowd” and tell a joke that acknowledges that the audience is not in the room with them. These little nods to the listener who isn’t in the room elevate the live recording and bring the listener into the experience.
Narrate everything
Something Ira Glass says a lot on This American Life is that “radio is a visual medium.” What he means is that when you listen to radio, you recreate the image in your head. A good live recording makes you feel like you are in the room with the artist, and to make that happen it’s important to give visual cues. It is up to you to build a mental image for the listener. If you see something funny in the crowd, describe what you saw! If your guitar string breaks, say that. If it smells bad, say that. You want a listener, who can’t see you, to feel like they are in the room with you. If the crowd in the room all see something and react to it, but the listener doesn’t know what happened, it is going to create a mental gap between the listener and the performance. Part of your job is to guide the listener through the experience and bring them into the room.
Be careful of backing tracks
There’s nothing wrong with using a backing track in a live performance, but it can sometimes be tricky to get it to translate in a live recording. A good live recording feels loose and spontaneous, and if you’re using a backing track, you should be careful to maintain that energy. Something like a drum machine that plays throughout an entire song can sound great in a live recording, but you should avoid backing tracks that contain full arrangements or overly dictate the structure of the song. When you listen to the recording, it should be obvious which elements are played live and which are pre-recorded.
This is, of course, genre specific. Lot’s of electronic music blends the line between live and recorded sound, and that is absolutely okay. There are no rules here but think about how loose and alive you want the performance to feel, and interrogate if your backing tracks are moving you towards that or away from it.
The audience is part of the performance
To me, this is the most important distinction between a live album and a studio album. Studio recordings just can’t capture the communal nature of a live performance. When you can hear an artist’s friends and family in the crowd, it changes the recording in a way that is impossible to put into words.
If you play a lot of shows around town, this is the one that you should ask your people to show up for. Fill the room with people who want to support you. Tell them to be extra noisy. When you’re performing find excuses to bring them into the show. Ask questions, invite them on stage, make the show immersive.
Acknowledging the recording can also make the live performance feel more exciting. By inviting the audience to perform for the recording, you are making your performance immersive. The audience becomes part of the show, and they will be more engaged.
If it’s not in the mic, it doesn’t exist
When you’re performing, be sure everything you want in the recording goes through the microphone. Especially in smaller shows, it might seem like you don’t need the mic for things like banter between songs. These little moments do so much to ground a live recording though, and you don’t want to lose them. Don’t forget to always speak into the microphone!