Negligence in sound deflates Pearl Jam’s concert at Mad Cool | Culture

You could call it this: the case of the sound that comes and goes. Or the sound that comes and goes. Also: the rock concert that wasn’t rock, because it lacked what generates the essence of the genre: vigor, energy. What happened last night on the stage? big Mad Cool? A nonsense. There was a lack of volume and the musical notes sounded like leaves blowing in the wind: now here and now a few seconds later, 200 meters away. On some occasions the group seemed to play under water, with a few decibels trying to get out of there, but a strong plug prevented them from doing so.

It was the star concert of the festival, Pearl Jam’s, which took place on the second of the four days of Mad Cool, which is being held at the Iberdrola Music venue in the Villaverde district, south of Madrid. Pearl Jam is an anomaly in today’s music: a rock band that attracts thousands of people and that is still artistically alive and does not base its live shows only on songs composed decades ago. To maintain this artistic tension, they vary the repertoire every night and introduce a handful of songs from their attractive latest album, Dark Matter, of this same year. Attracted by this genuine rock spirit and by 35 years of powerful career, 57,000 spectators attended (just a few hundred short of the full capacity of 58,000). But they must not have been very satisfied.

The band members came out onto the stage from the side, with measured steps and in the shadows. Eddie Vedder carried a bottle of wine in one hand and a few sheets of paper in the other. He left them at their feet and started to sing Lukin, a furious punk song from his album No Code, a one-minute song that should have worked like a knockout for the audience, but it barely touched the ground. The sound was low, dull. When the second piece came, Corduroy, What was happening was that Vedder’s voice was going for a walk. Then, with Why Go, The third variant of the mess: the volume went up and down, like a spring. It seemed as if someone was controlling the controls and, when it was too loud, the intensity was lowered a bit. That’s what happens when commercials come on TV, the volume suddenly increases a few degrees and we quickly grab the control to lower it.

We can speculate anything, because last night this newspaper asked for an official explanation and the response from the organisation was to shrug its shoulders. One theory, put forward by a fan at the foot of the stage: it may be due to a limit imposed so as not to disturb the neighbours. Maybe… And what about the sonic swing? Maybe because of the wind, although it wasn’t hurricane force, more like a breeze.

Pearl Jam put in a lot of effort (of course) and its members were not responsible for ruining their concert. They played for two hours and moved energetically around the stage, as if they felt it, even if their vibrations reached the audience in a weak way. Songs like Even Flow They should have drilled holes in the heads of the audience, but they missed them. The devoted audience that crowded around the security fence at the foot of the stage may not have noticed the acoustic problems, but we were at a concert for more than 50,000 people, not 10,000. The musicians were lucky not to notice the blunder. It was a shame to see Mike McCready digging into the strings of his guitar in those dizzying solos of his and suddenly everything became weak, feeble. But good old McCready was still there, keep going. If there is one thing that the music of those from Seattle has, it is intensity, a characteristic that is barely felt in the 21 songs they performed.

Apart from this irreparable damage, Eddie Vedder made a mistake in his effort to read repeatedly in Spanish from some pages. What was a nice detail (speaking in Spanish) became a bit tiresome and slowed down the show. He dedicated a song to his “friend Javier Bardem”, and made a curious dedication to Miguel Ríos “and his daughter Lúa” (?). “You can’t find a better man”, he said of our veteran rocker. A curious friendship: it will have to be investigated, beyond the version what did Miguel Rios do? Comes Then Goes. The less noisy songs, like Wreckage either Daughter, worked better, because the sound remained somewhat more uniform. Also Black, surely the best performance of the night.

Much of the audience, affected by the decompression, attended the recital without great emotions. Only in the final phase, with Alive or the Neil Young theme Rockin’ in the Free World The crowd really got into the concert. The atrocious acoustic conditions didn’t change, but these two songs lift your spirits even when played in Gregorian chant. Eddie Vedder said goodbye with a “I’m happy, we’re friends.” A clear sign that he was oblivious to it all.

More musicians played on this second day of Mad Cool, and they sounded good. Michael Kiwanuka sang during his recital almost always with his eyes closed. And so you had to listen to him at around eight in the evening to isolate yourself from a scattered and entertaining environment with this and that. This musician is too good to be used to fill a pre-opening slot on a festival bill. What a beautiful voice, what heartfelt soul. His nuances and his magic are infinitely better enjoyed in a room with an average audience, but both he and his (fantastic) group offered heavenly music that only lacked the sound of a few bells.

The English Keane have never been in a better place in a concert, at least in Spain, with an audience of about 40,000 people for them. They were aware of their privileged position (just before Pearl Jam) and the singer, Tom Chaplin, could not express more happiness with words of thanks. OK, and their concert? Well, correct, taking into account that in each of their songs they sound like something, but at a low intensity. The Smiths, U2, Coldplay… They end up being there. closer to some Gene, for example. But without guitar, because the English group continues to do without the king instrument in pop-rock and put the piano in front. They sounded good, because they are good musicians and the singer handles himself with elegance. When one of their classics ended, Everybody’s Changing, Many headed towards the Pearl Jam stage. They didn’t know what awaited them…