#wearing each others kits is more dramatic than making out on the podium

[eterniravioli]

so now that we’ve seen both charles and max hard launch on instagram, how far do you think they’ll go before following each other? make out on the podium?? wear each others kits???

[jacobguitarstuff]

Live Performance Comparison

Live performance analysis:

I’ll be comparing Frank Turners set from Reading festival 2016 (specifically “Four Simple Words” to Twenty one Pilots concert at the Manchester Arena (Specifically “Car Radio”)

Car radio:

The live performance set up is just Vocals, Piano and drum kit. There is a lot of Sustain and possibly some added effects like reverb coming out the P.A. But apart from that there are only the added sound effects and synths added during the instrumental breaks.

During his performance Tyler Joseph gets up from his piano and lets the audience sing the more complicated rap section of the verse. This is only one example of his crowd participation techniques. Others include, encouraging the audience to sing along the more memorable tune during the refrains (the oooo o o o owo parts), commanding the audience to jump up off their feet just before the drop and further encouraging them by jumping off the piano in an explosion of energy and continuing to dance and move around the stage during this period.  The last interesting technique he displays is his use of the arena as he moves off of the stage to a b style stage which is atop a podium in the middle of the arena. He finishes the song off here with a dramatic face reveal when he takes off the mask during the last line of song. He almost uses the mask throughout the song to create suspense and then uses the climax of the ending to his advantage and furthers its impact with the face reveal. I believe it’s supposed to be more of a metaphor than him genuinely trying to conceal his identity as but some would argue that the idea stems from his differing personality when on stage compared to in real life.

During the song he doesn’t seem to make any obvious interaction or communication with the other band member on stage. This could be put down to the fact they have a lot of confidence in each other and know that’s it would be unnecessary during the song to communicate as it might take away from the performance that they are trying to achieve.

The lead singer (Tyler Joseph) uses a variety of vocal techniques throughout the song.  He utilizes some impressive jumps between his legato and staccato notes during the rap verses as well as his melismatic ability in the hook sections. Even more he seems to have incredible breath control because not only does he appear to rap for very extended periods of time but he manages to move around the stage whilst doing it, which im sure makes breathing a lot harder especially when projecting so much.  The last interesting technique is his screams during the end chorus. He remains in his chest voice but you can hear the harshness of his vocals possibly due to strain but I imagine that he can perform like that quite comfortably as he performs it at every show he plays.

 Four simple words:

So frank turner doesn’t play guitar for this performance of Four Simple Words, instead he sticks to the microphone for this one and starts off strong with a very chest voice lead introduction of the contrastingly slower beginning of the song.

 The first main thing ill point out in this performance is his interaction with the crowd very early on. He comes down off the stage with microphone in hand and continues to sing the intro directly at the fans whilst touching people’s hands and riling them up leading into the b section of the song with an “ALRIGHT READING FESTIVAL, LETS FUCKING DO THIS!” He then remains in front of the crowd throughout the second verse and even climbs on to the barrier to sing over the crowds head until it gets to the instrumental section after the second chorus where he dives into the crowd whilst the energy is at its peak and people are going mad. This type of interaction with the audience makes people feel really involved and the diehards get a kick out of being one of the few who get to hold up the surfing band member. It’s a great way of reminding the crowd that they’re being involved and it’s also very entertaining to watch.  

As far as tone goes, He maintains a calm level of projection throughout the whole first verse and chorus and appears to move up a little bit on his register to accentuate the heaviness that accompanies the second verse and chorus as well as the bridge before returning to a more casual and calmed tone to sing the altered chorus. It’s during this time that the focus is then put upon the rest of the band as he makes his return to the stage during an instrumental break. The crowd gets a to see how frank turner interacts with his fellow band members by acknowledging his guitarists solo and jokingly detuning one of his strings. It’s during this time the crowd has a moment to receive some sort of relief as the energy drops whilst this slow section plays and they get to watch the band members interact. This appears to just be a rouse as the song quickly picks back up as the energy level s rise, frank turner continues to move and jump around the stage wildly and chant his lyrics to the vast audience.  For a split second during the interval of the last pre chorus to outro chorus, you can hear frank scream almost at the top of his voice, almost like a death scream/growl before continuing with the rest of the song. This is another example of his live performance techniques because he never records anything like that on his records so I’ll put it down to artistic creativity and his improvisational ability.

When the song normally ends in the record version, it appears during the live edition, frank decided to create a crowd chant out of the ending melody. Again, one more example of his crowd participation techniques as he encourages the audience to sing with them for the last time before the end their set.

Image:

Whilst on stage, frank turner and his Sleeping souls (Band Members) all wear smart suits and ties with a bit of variety between the different musicians. I believe this is to achieve some level of professionalism in their image and the way people see them and remember them, but it could also be argued that they like to take pride in their work and their appearance whilst on stage. Personally I think it looks very professional but there’s enough charm in each members variety of clothing to keep it casual and cool. For example, the guitarist s converse sticks out in my mind as contrasting of his suit jacket.

During the final build up to the end of the song you can see the lead guitarist head up to the drummer so that the drummer’s indication of when the song ends was clearly noted by the guitarist and surrounding musician. This way they can all sync up and end the song on the same beat with what I assume was a pre rehearsed ending.

So whilst looking at both of these performances, there are a lot of similarities and differences of which I’ve extracted.  For starters, Both main vocalists broke the confines of the stages they were performing on to really show the audience that they are not just watching a band on TV, but that they are actually at a show. Coming off the stage and into the audience really gets people’s attention as everyone is focused towards the stage, as soon as the point of focus is drawn elsewhere, people start to get excited and curious as to what’s happening and what’s going to happen.  However, Frank turner’s performance was also different in that respect as he actually approached the crowd and made multiple individual interactions with a multitude of fans and audience members, whereas Tyler Joseph left the stage in the middle of all the confusion with the haze of the smoke from the stage so he could move to a B stage where he did not directly interact with any one crowd member.

Another point I will mention is that the performances differ for obvious reasons and that is because frank turner is performing for a festival audience whereas Tyler Joseph is performing for an Arena audience of people who have paid just to see him, compared to frank turner who has to please a wide array of music overs including his own big fans. With this in mind, Frank turners set and performance was very much tailored to the festival goers experience with high energy, crowd surfing/participation and coordinated sing along’s. You could even say that the audience is part of the experience during frank turner’s performance. On the other hand, Tyler Josephs performance was more of a theatrical performance where the audience participations isn’t encouraged as much to dance and sing along so much as they are to be silenced and astounded by the music and visuals from the stage.  Even his little stunt at the end of the song is reminiscent of a magic trick where the performer disappears only to reappear a short distance away soon after. A very theatrical thing to do.  

In conclusion, both performances were extremely effective and well-tailored for the audience who were present respectively at each performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVYdDT3jVtg Car Radio   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C60alhYFX0 Four simple words 48:49