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I don¡¯t mind playback really. Some bands and artists use playback because the playback part is hard to play live, or they do it on purpose so it makes the song sounds cool. Of course, the latter reason doesn¡¯t apply to Muse.

 

(Premise: not referred to Muse only)

If a part is too difficult for you to perform live, don't play the song featuring it at all, then, or try another way to pull it out. Otherwise, it turns out as sad and embarassing; what kind of live musician or singer are you if you want to play hard parts but you even can't shape them in a way you're more at ease to perform them?

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I've seen bands that use a second playback drum track and stuff, and sure, most people wouldn't notice it, but when you do it really harms the feel of the performance, imo. I much prefer bands that rework songs they can't achieve live (or skip the ones they honestly can't play.)

The vocal playback tracks that Matt has been using live more recently were incredibly obvious. Like, Survival Live at Rome obvious.

 

But, I was referring to the Halloween song specifically, NKOK, which having seen in person even though I knew it was coming, I can still stand by my "jaw droppingly stupid" statement. Seeing it in context it managed to be much worse than I expected, and I expected it to be one of the dumbest things I've seen at a gig. It was so embarrassing it was hard to look at, and the fact that so many people clearly thought Matt was actually on stage dressed up (I wasn't that close to the stage) made it even more of a cheap trick.

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In defense of occasional playback use, I think Queen did it well with Bohemian Rhapsody. To my knowledge they never sang the middle operatic section live, obviously that would be rough to pull off every night. So they'd use playback for it and disappear off stage, then explosively reemerge for the next bit.

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(Premise: not referred to Muse only)

If a part is too difficult for you to perform live, don't play the song featuring it at all, then, or try another way to pull it out. Otherwise, it turns out as sad and embarassing; what kind of live musician or singer are you if you want to play hard parts but you even can't shape them in a way you're more at ease to perform them?

 

Wait, so you hate any use of playback? Bit extreme imo.

 

I don't see owt wrong with it when it's used to back up a band or cover parts they don't have the people/instruments to play live. It only gets naff, for me, when it's either replacing parts that can easily be performed (NKOK) or when it takes over the majority of a song and the performer/s add very little (Isolated System).

 

Doesn't Matt live in America nowadays?

 

Matt and Dom do but they're still a predominantly British band. Would be a bit weird for them to release a song for a very American holiday.

 

I've said before that I think peeps are getting a bit ahead of themselves though tbh. Judging by the noises coming out of the band this year and the timeframe of Dig Down's eventual release, I wouldn't expect another song until December/January personally.

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Wait, so you hate any use of playback? Bit extreme imo.

 

I don't see owt wrong with it when it's used to back up a band or cover parts they don't have the people/instruments to play live. It only gets naff, for me, when it's either replacing parts that can easily be performed (NKOK) or when it takes over the majority of a song and the performer/s add very little (Isolated System).

 

I was talking about the basic, main parts you're supposed to play live as a three-piece (or bigger) rock band (the main vocal part, the main guitar part, the drums main part, etc.), not certainly the plenty of synth or orchestral layers that are part of a song. :|

I mean, if you have to use playback in order not to screw up that only part you have to play, as a musician you're not as skillful as you show in studio.

Edited by MartianSpaghettiRider
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Also don't mind play back used judiciously. I even don't mind IS, with Dom playing different percussion parts and looping it, I thought it was kinda neat on this tour.

 

Once or twice a gig tho. I think it was two or three times a gig this time. They took a cue from their tour mates, 30STM was nearly all play back and Leto wouldn't shut up the whole time. It was irritating as fuck to me. It made me appreciate Matt's famous lack of interaction and just getting down to business and ripping through the set.

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the fact that so many people clearly thought Matt was actually on stage dressed up (I wasn't that close to the stage) made it even more of a cheap trick.

Wait, really?

 

I like New Kind of Kick but the playback vocal and slowed down performance does make it a waste of a slot. Even if they wanted to do playback or something where Matt could leave the stage for a bit, there's other stuff that would work better.

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I was far enough back at Red Rocks that people near me were actually looking around for Matt during NKOK, assuming he was in the crowd, or part of the stage that was hard to see.

More people just sat down and waited for it to be over, but there were definitely people who fell for it the whole time. It made me feel even worse about the whole bs thing.

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Yep, loads of people just assumed he was singing backstage or something.

I've had that before tbf - when I saw The Killers on Halloween a few years back, they had a special Halloween-themed video as an intro which I didn't know had been a video that had come out a few years before then and thought was actually being shot live back-stage until they all walked out in ordinary clothes (save for skeleton-onesie wearing drummer).

 

Saying that, its probably less weird for such a thing to be a concert intro than occur midway through a gig.

I was far enough back at Red Rocks that people near me were actually looking around for Matt during NKOK, assuming he was in the crowd, or part of the stage that was hard to see.

More people just sat down and waited for it to be over, but there were definitely people who fell for it the whole time. It made me feel even worse about the whole bs thing.

Interesting.

 

Guess the video must've not got that many views given its the same poses and lightning in the NKOK vid.

Stockholm Syndrome being played at Red Rocks make up for it, imo

While I like Stockholm, I could abide by the NKOK playback if I got something more obscure. Although appropriately enough, Red Rocks got Butterflies & Hurricanes and I've never seen that one live.

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  • 1 month later...

Well, it does seem like they've abandoned the "singles" thing, at least their current plans for it. Then again, it's not like they've ever really stuck to their plans, and it wouldn't be the first time Dom and Matt gave different info during interviews, so who knows?

 

Hearing Dom say they were recording "demos" and looking for help from a producer though does seem to indicate they've abandoned their original plans, and the other songs they'd recorded.

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So are we thinking nothing new till next year at this point?

 

Are you asking if we’re gonna get something within the next 2/3 weeks? :chuckle:

 

My prediction’s have a pretty patchy record tbh but I’d say we won’t hear anything new until at least spring/early summer, with the record coming maybe September/October time.

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I think Dom saying they're still looking for some inspiration on direction means new stuff is going to be a long way off.

I'm actually surprised they put stuff on their IG about recording in that case, but it's what I believe anyways.

 

That process doesn’t usually seem to take too long with Muse tbf. Once they start focusing on writing for a record, they seem to hit a thread they like and run with it pretty quickly. I’d be 100% down with them taking longer for once though, like a few other peeps have said. Solid as Drones was, I think it’s clear they need to recharge their creativity a bit.

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