My friend offered me the free opportunity to go to Farm-Aid the other day, and I went and had an excellent time. Matisyahu, Derek Trucks Band, Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds Neil Young, and the Allman Brothers were all highlights, but there were a couple serious issues.
1) The Sound. The sound was absolutely horrible. At first during Matisyahu, the bass was so loud that every time he would sing something, the bass would make his voice quiver through the speakers. Then during Guster, it seemed like they were having serious problems and sound kept on cutting out on one of the speakers and then back in. During the Allman Brothers and Derek Trucks (when there were many musicians on stage), the sound got horribly compressed and the only way they could control it was by turning the volume down a bunch, and thus the people in the back (i.e. me and thousands of others) couldn't hear much.
2) Neil Young. I love Neil Young, but I feel like if you're going to play a large festival as a headliner, an acoustic set is not the way to go. I dont care how important you are, you still have a right to please the audience. And the festival audience is looking for some fun. Instead they got boredom. So many people left during Neil's set. It was depressing. He played many excellent songs, but couldn't get the audience to care.
Its disappointing that at such a huge event here in NYC that the sound would be so bad (and there was only one big screen so that the majority of the audience could barely see what was going on). Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds gave an acoustic set as well, but it was more exciting and reminiscent of a sweet jam session between two guys in their dorm rather than Neil Young's funeral procession of a set. I would've stayed for Willie Nelson b/c I wanted to hear the Red-headed Stranger sing, but unfortunately for the first two songs, he didn't. We got out and went to bed.
Farm-aid was fun. but if they really want it to be a successful event, then there needs to be more attention paid to the planning and execution of the quality of the event. I couldn't tell if they were raising money for the concert or for local homegrown farmers. The message of the event was excellent, and I'm glad that Neil Young took some time between each of his songs to explain the event's purpose, but at the point where he got a lot of cheers for his 'homegrown' food rants, he then managed to ruin his emotional momentum and left the audience silent.
I understand that it is a fundraiser, but you need the attendees to leave like they've had an excellent experience in order to really ensure future growth.
My friend offered me the free opportunity to go to Farm-Aid the other day, and I went and had an excellent time. Matisyahu, Derek Trucks Band, Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds Neil Young, and the Allman Brothers were all highlights, but there were a couple serious issues.
1) The Sound. The sound was absolutely horrible. At first during Matisyahu, the bass was so loud that every time he would sing something, the bass would make his voice quiver through the speakers. Then during Guster, it seemed like they were having serious problems and sound kept on cutting out on one of the speakers and then back in. During the Allman Brothers and Derek Trucks (when there were many musicians on stage), the sound got horribly compressed and the only way they could control it was by turning the volume down a bunch, and thus the people in the back (i.e. me and thousands of others) couldn't hear much.
2) Neil Young. I love Neil Young, but I feel like if you're going to play a large festival as a headliner, an acoustic set is not the way to go. I dont care how important you are, you still have a right to please the audience. And the festival audience is looking for some fun. Instead they got boredom. So many people left during Neil's set. It was depressing. He played many excellent songs, but couldn't get the audience to care.
Its disappointing that at such a huge event here in NYC that the sound would be so bad (and there was only one big screen so that the majority of the audience could barely see what was going on). Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds gave an acoustic set as well, but it was more exciting and reminiscent of a sweet jam session between two guys in their dorm rather than Neil Young's funeral procession of a set. I would've stayed for Willie Nelson b/c I wanted to hear the Red-headed Stranger sing, but unfortunately for the first two songs, he didn't. We got out and went to bed.
Farm-aid was fun. but if they really want it to be a successful event, then there needs to be more attention paid to the planning and execution of the quality of the event. I couldn't tell if they were raising money for the concert or for local homegrown farmers. The message of the event was excellent, and I'm glad that Neil Young took some time between each of his songs to explain the event's purpose, but at the point where he got a lot of cheers for his 'homegrown' food rants, he then managed to ruin his emotional momentum and left the audience silent.
I understand that it is a fundraiser, but you need the attendees to leave like they've had an excellent experience in order to really ensure future growth.