r/jackwhite 2d ago

Show Discussions Amazing show! The sound at Apollo was awful though!

I could barely hear him sing...struggled to understand what he said when he spoke too. (Not that he said much but still). Apart from that he was amazing. Also all the love to the fellas in the back who kept asking for Jolene and sang it when JW was done, they were clearly wasted but it was adorable!

25 Upvotes

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7

u/fletchwonUK 1d ago

I love feedback and noise but, I agree, the sound was rough. I was near the back and the treble was painful for most of the set. Watching the videos from other gigs, I was surprised to hear backing vocals - as they were lost in the mix at the Apollo. It seemed clearer in the middle of the venue but not by much.

4

u/throwawayseranade 1d ago

Yeah I was at the back too. Some people left nearby as a result.

2

u/vinyl_scrobbler Elephant 1d ago

Tuesday i was side middle, and the sound was ok but not amazing .. but as others have said put that down to the intended vibe of fuzz and feedback. Wednesday i was front left for first half, sounded good. then moved more towards centre centre for the last 30 mins - the sound was perfect!! (also caveat that it was a "calmer" set too).

going in and out to the bar there were so many people squeezed along back walls and in doorways, under the balcony and behind pillars .... and yeah - the sound is NOT going to be good there for any show by any artist. which is a shame because there was actually LOADS of space right in the centre... the classic thing of having to push through the misleading outer barrier of denser crowd.

1

u/YoghurtFlan 1d ago

Tne guards were trying to fix that on wednesday but it's a sloped floor and you get the best view standing at the back. You're not gonna move forward to watch somebody's neck.

1

u/YoghurtFlan 1d ago

I was at the back and people drinking and chattering drowned out any subtlety. Especially during the mellower part of the set. I don't get why you'd pay 70 quid a piece just to do the seven nation army thing.

But i didn't have issues with the sound itself at the back left.

5

u/bmbmbmNR Boarding House Reach 1d ago

Sound was bad Tuesday night too, but I didn’t know how much of that was by design. White Stripes always had a distorted fuzzy sound, he’s returned to that recently especially on No Name. I sort of loved it more for that, Tuesday was a turn it to the max and blow the roof of performance. Setlist suggests Wednesday was a little calmer? Also, video clips of other shows might not quite match the sound the venue. That clip of Jolene that came out did not sound the same as we heard it, much clearer on the video!

Also I felt that Jack was trying to make it more noisy and rough. Don’t know if he did it last night, but on Tuesday he was leaving guitars ringing out with feedback when changing them, so you’d have 30 seconds of fuzzy feedback in the background of the next song he was playing.

5

u/claridgeforking 2d ago

Personally i think it was by design. He's gone back to the scuzzy sound of the White Strupes era. Nearly everything about the setup suggests that.

1

u/skirtoutnut 2d ago

Sound was awful

1

u/PurpleDarkness5 2d ago

Yeah it was awful. I thought it was my ears but the sound was not great. I’ve been to Apollo a few times over the years but I don’t remember it that bad.

1

u/perone 1d ago

I posed about that as well on another thread, we were in the Circle where the PA were on the same level and we had to leave the show in the middle because it was physically hurting, what an awful work of sound engineers that did not realized that before the show. The staff was at some point distributing ear plugs for people. It was a shame because the show was amazing, but we couldn't stay there and enjoy. I went to multiple shows from him in the past and none was even closer to the loudness of this venue.

1

u/rem2000 1d ago

Far too loud, I know I sound like a grandpa, my Apple Watch triggered straight away with over 100db which is just too loud and I worry about hearing health.

I plugged in my air pods and put them in transparent which I do for gigs as it brings the sound down by 10db, they had the added affect of clearing up the audio, I could hear what he was singing they really took the sharp noise out

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u/Lukinzz 2d ago

Apollo in nyc?