Why did Chris Shinn really leave?, Scrolling old topics, looking for clues... Options

[Drew]

Chris Shinn in Retrospect

vivapokey
post Nov 17 2016, 10:06 am

Yes, the songs sounded different with his voice - how could they not? But that was ok, different is ok, so long as its good - and I thought it was great. He brought an energy and spirit back to the band I had been craving for so long.
[...]
I feel like he was handicapped - he got to write this great album and then the fuckers barely played any of it in concert over the tour. Yeah, he messed up some words here and there and he had one particularly bad gig, but, so what? Everyone has off nights and to me the mess ups just never bothered me too much. In the end, I feel like he was brought in and I think they wanted him to also have some of Ed's leadership qualities because as great as CCP are - they need a leader, they need someone to drive them, a workhorse. Ed has that to him. Chris didn't seem to be like that and I guess they hoped it would develop but .. I don't know. How could it? He surely couldn't ever really feel like it was "his" band to direct. It was an impossible situation in a lot of ways.

I believe it was this interview,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f5YE-BjuNc
or at least in one of the other parts, where Chad Taylor talks about how being with Chris meant not having to fight with Ed all the time about the music. In fact, Siren's Call is based off of an old 90's riff that was chucked aside. The actual hard rock guitar in that song was awesome. LIVE was able to get back to their ROCK ROOTS with Chris in the band. In fact, it's obvious he helped encourage that. "Don't Run To Wait" has amazing verses. Why wasn't LIVE putting out that kind of hard rock back around the mid 2000's? Ed had taken over by that point with his overly spiritual stuff that was frankly boring the shit out of me.

Voodoo Lady post Nov 18 2016, 11:06 am

Those who love The Turn, I'm happy for you. I don't know about Chris' solo stuff or Unified Theory, maybe it is indeed good. But as said above, he lacked stage presence for Live and messing up I Alone lyrics ("chained to pain" hurt my soul facepalm.gif ) is inexcusable. That just turns me off from wanting to check out his other stuff. I'm sure he's a good guy, as many of you here have said. And I'll reiterate that I appreciate the effort he gave to LIVE and for what he did for CCP.

Next.

vivapokey post Nov 18 2016, 12:55 pm

I also think Chris intentionally changed some lyrics in some songs, possibly to make them more "his". Which is fair enough, if your role is to sing songs that weren't yours then why not try put your own spin on them. For example, I'm almost certain in TDC its him changing "she will lead us" to "sheep will lead us". But really, I can't imagine going to a gig and being like "hmm that word wasn't the same word that I am used to hearing in this part of the song, get the manager I want to complain!" It was really only as big a deal as you made of it. Even Ed messing up his own lyrics, who cares.

Bremang post Nov 18 2016, 3:11 pm

Yeah, you might be right. Chris may have intentionally changed the lyrics. I'm sure also alot of casuals don't care. I didn't dig it tho, made me cringe a little. Lyrics are a thing that I like about Live, what can I say. Ed had a way with words. Chained to Pain, sheep will lead us, sounds corny to me. Changes the song. Obviously a personal preference for everyone.
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Half the time I felt like Chad wanted to redact Chris's statements. On stage there were miscues. Just look at the video where Chris is trying to get a sip of water between songs, can't even pull it off. says it all. For those who think it's okay to not sing into the microphone, or wave it around, I would totally disagree. That was super weak, and not helping the song. Suddenly the vocals go silent and i'm like there goes the best part of the song. I'm sure Chris could improve, but I don't think he was that committed. He just wanted to front Live for a bit. He's already well off.

vivapokey post Nov 18 2016, 3:39 pm

all those things like waving the mic, breaks in singing .. I quite like that. It made things unique and not rehearsed to hell and it was like the other end of the spectrum where with Ed the show was choreographed to the point nothing felt natural. Chris to me felt like grass roots and I love that. The well oiled machine, the super sleek production ... it all just feels a bit fake and over produced to me. Its why I much prefer smaller intimate shows to big arena shows etc. Chris brought that to the band to me. He made it much more grass roots, warts and all. I don't want to see them all get together at the same point in the same song and take the same stupid bow. I don't want to see them make the same banter and stage talk on shows that is meant to come off as genuine when a clip on youtube shows them saying the exact same thing at the show the night before in another city. All things they did under Ed and Ed did solo.

LiveForNow post Jul 2 2019, 1:07 pm

I think Chris' vocals were really nice on certain Live songs and didn't fit as well on others. His vocals were especially good on I Alone. Here are two of my favorite versions with Chris:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Of79EAevBU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG3HfFhmMNE

Now for the bad. I went to three shows with Chris. Summerland 2013, The album release in fall 2014, and another concert in 2015. The last show was bad. Maybe 100 fans in a venue of 1,700. Chris forgot the lyrics to more than one song. He apologized to the crowd. It seemed clear that this era wasn't working commercially. Say what you want you will about money, but seeing a show with 100 fans in a venue for 1,700 is depressing and doesn't make for a good experience. I wouldn't have wanted to go to more shows like that and it seemed there wasn't enough demand for this lineup that they could do solo shows regularly.

Poor turnout. Forgetting song lyrics over a year in when he should have already honed a set or two and just listened and played those songs EVERY DAY until he got them. Was Shinn nervous? Did his work ethic suck?