Search - Soul Coughing :: New York, NY

Such a Great Band Deserves Better Sound

Billy Duke | Los Angeles, CA | 01/12/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Soul Coughing is one of my all-time favorite bands. I saw them live multiple times, and at every show, their performance was never less than amazing. I'd rank them among the best live acts I've ever seen. All that considered, the CD version of their final show EVER (which, unfortunately, I didn't get to see) should sound a hell of a lot better than it does.



The show itself is as fantastic as I'd come to expect. Songs familiar from their studio albums are more often reconstructed than plainly reproduced, occasionally taking unexpected detours into fresh territory. Masterful frontman Mike Doughty talks, sings, chants and scats, improvising as needed, keeping the energy high and the crowd involved.



But you really can't begin to enjoy it until the end of the first disc, when the sonic murk that has inexplicably enveloped the earlier songs just as inexplicably begins to dissipate. I can only assume that the audio inconsistencies are due to the recording equipment used and the circumstances and/or microphone placement involved in capturing the show, because the band never sounded at all indistinct when I saw them, let alone murky.



I wish that the people responsible for this release had incorporated recordings directly from the soundboard, then it might have had a chance of reproducing with clarity the uniqueness of Soul Coughing's precise cacophony. If what's on these discs IS from the soundboard, then the technician responsible for mis-twiddling these knobs deserves a public flogging.



The result doesn't sound like any attempts at remastering would do it much good in terms of rendering the entire show consistently listenable. So you're left with one great live show and approximately 1/2 of a great live recording. It's just a shame that this is what stands as the historical artifact of their last performance..."

Poor sound quality

C. Andrews | New York | 07/06/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"If you're looking to recreate the experience you had at a Soul Coughing show, I'd suggest you look elsewhere. This recording is a weak (at best) audience recording that is muffled, muddled, and boomy. I was almost entirely disappointed."

Great Performance, Poor Audience Recording

L. OBrien | Marshfield MA United States | 08/09/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's a great performance from Soul Coughing, and the quality of the audience recording (this is obviously not a soundboard) is just good enough to make it worth it. This could have been so much better with a better quality recording. I find it hard to believe that the band doesn't have some better archival material, but I'll take this anyway."