A discussion a long time coming Options

[patrick W BURG]

Hello,

I've been browsing this board for a few years now, just to keep up with the latest on my favorite band, Live. Today, I finally decided to register, so I can actually contribute.

I read in the tour section a few differing opinions about something that may or may not even be that big of deal, but I have an opinion, so I figured I'd share, for sharing's sake.

I personally can't stand when Ed takes his shirt off at shows. I understand he is the artist, and his expression should ideally be unfettered, but still... I think he loses the connection with the audience. I know he's been doing this for years, but maybe we've just grown numb as to how lame he actually looks.

I've been an AVID Live fan since 94, and I still love the band, and I still love the shows. For me, this is something that I have just learned to tolerate. I recently took one of my buddies to a show, and when he started stripping, I couldn't help but cringe inside. Same thing when I took my girlfriend to a show. It just gets awkward. And both my friend and my girlfriend agreed that the stripping made the show much more cheezy and "gay" and much less cool.

You want to get into the songs wholeheartedly, but something just prevents you from doing so.

So, what do you guys think?

[Godiva]

Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people are now laughing at what they've become. The same people who once loved a band that had all the potential in the world. People who felt LIVE'S music in a real sense and people who related to it on a deeply personal level. People who feel that these guys have so much more to say, so much more to offer musically.

I can see that the underlying message is still there in the music. But it's become lazy and uninspiring as has the music being put to it. I'm not a fan of any musician criticizing the shit music out there today and then making music that fits right into the criteria he is belittling,

All you diehards can argue all you want about BOP and SFBM being good. Fact is that for every one of you who says it is, there are 20 THOUSAND people who think it's a pile of garbage. You are in a severe minority. They have sold barely 500,00 records in NINE years, a span of 3 cd's. That is sad. Not only can the band not continue to put out music like this, they need to take a long hard look at why a vast majority of people think it sucks ass. They need to take a good hard listen to their first four records and compare them to the next three.

Then they need to ask themselves if they wanna go out like that. Because they are on their way out........

Hmm... points to ponder I suppose. But something tells me that they don't care what the masses think. Perhaps they only want fans who have evolved with them or relate to the simpler, more comtemplative SFBM LIVE. I wish we knew what they really thought of that album.

As for their popularity? I'm not delusional. I know everyone I know thinks I'm nuts for loving LIVE. SFBM is really the only album they've put out that I can't listen to over and over again. I do worry with you that their popularity will dwindle to the point that they won't tour anymore. I agree that I think they have a lot left in them and I hope that whatever muse has kept them together this long doesn't become silent and uninspiring, leading way to a slow painful death. But on the other hand, maybe they don't want the rockstar lifestyle anymore and are taking it down a notch for family and real life. But if they want to keep making money in the US, I agree that something has to change because they don't seem ready for that.

Doesn't Ed still think he's the world's key to enlightenment? As long as he does, they'll be making music, regardless of record sales. Also, you have to remember that LIVE isn't popular at all in the US compared to overseas. Hasn't Ed said that the center of the LIVE universe is in Holland? How were SFBM sales there and elsewhere? Is that 500K number worldwide? If not, I wouldn't get my hopes up about too much of a change from the status quo.
If so... well, er... I don't want to think about it. Apparently it's still enough to support them for now...